for these theatricals solely to please your goddaughter you may very well keep me company. Besides, my brother is coming back and he has something to say to you.

Guéret [resignedly] Very well, my dear.

Madame Guéret. I can't get over it.

Guéret. Over what?

Madame Guéret. What we're doing. What are we doing?

Guéret. We're giving a performance of Barberine for the amusement of our friends. There's nothing very extraordinary in that.

Madame Guéret. Don't make fun of me, please. What we are doing is simply madness. Madness, do you hear? And it was the day before yesterday—only the day before yesterday—we heard the news.

Guéret. We—

Madame Guéret [Who has seen Lucienne come in] Hush!

Lucienne comes in, a girl of twenty, dressed as Barberine from Musset's play; then Maud, Nadia, and Antoinette [eighteen to twenty-two], dressed as followers of the queen. Lucienne goes to the piano, takes a piece of music, and comes to Madame Guéret.

Lucienne. You'll help me along, won't you, dear Madame Guéret? You'll give me my note when it comes to "Voyez vous pas que la nuit est profonde"?

Madame Guéret. Now don't be nervous.

Maud [coming in] We're ready.

Antoinette. If the third act only goes as well as the first two—

Maud. We'll listen until we have to go on.

Antoinette. Won't you come with us, Madame?

Madame Guéret. No, I can't. I've had to undertake the noises behind the scenes. That job might have been given to someone else, I think.

Lucienne. Oh, Madame, please don't be angry with us. Madame Chain let us know too late. And you're helping us so much.

Madame Guéret. Well, I've invited the people, and I suppose I must entertain them. As I gave in to Thérèse about getting up this play, I don't want to do anything to spoil the evening.

Lucienne. How pretty she is as Kalekairi.

Madame Guéret. You don't think people are shocked by her frock?

Lucienne. Oh, Madame!

Madame Guéret. Well!

Lucienne. I shall have to go in a moment. Thérèse has come out; I can hear her sequins rattling.

Madame Guéret. Yes; so can I. But René will let us know. Never mind.

She goes to the piano. René appears at the door at the back.

René. Are you ready, Lucienne?

Lucienne. Yes.

René. You've only two lines to say.

Lucienne. Only one. [She speaks low to René] No end of a success, wasn't it, for your Thérèse?

René [low] Wasn't it? I am so happy, Lucienne. I love her so.

Lucienne. Listen. That's for me, I think.

René. Yes, that's for you. Wait. [He goes to the door at the back, listens, and returns] Come. Turn this way so as to make it sound as if you were at a distance. Now then.

Madame Guéret accompanies Lucienne on the piano.

Lucienne [sings]