MOTHER NATURE : PROGRESS MOTHER NATURE PROGRESS TWO BELGIAN PLAYS BY GUSTAVE VANZYPE TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BARRETT H. CLARK BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1917 Copyright, 1917, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. All rights reserved Published October, 1917 TYPOGRAPHY BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS, NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. PRINTED BY S. j. PAKKHLLL & CO., BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A. PREFACE GUSTAVE VANZYPE AND THE MODERN BELGIAN DRAMA IT is only natural that the dramatic products of a nation should be known abroad by its most strik- ing examples. It was fitting that the modern French drama should first be introduced to English readers through translations of Cyrano de Bergerac. In the realm of modern Belgian drama, Maeterlinck has stood until recent times as the sole representative. But no one would maintain that Rostand and Maeterlinck are typical dramatists of then- respective nations; they are rather outstanding exceptions. Cyrano and L'Aiglon and Chantecler are products of the Romantic school; Pelleas et Melisande, L'Intruse, and L'Oiseau bleu, are dramatic and poetic embodiments of Maeter- linck's mystical philosophy. Interesting and beautiful as such plays are, they afford us no adequate idea of the day-to-day theater of the countries from which they come. If we wish to know the true French theater, we must turn to the plays of Lavedan, Capus, Lemaitre, Donnay; if we would know of the contemporary drama in Belgium, we must turn to Paul Spaak, Fernand Crom- melynck, and above all, to Gustave Vanzype. The plays of Maeterlinck are already well known, and the dramatic poems of Verhaeren have begun to 2082461 vi PREFACE be talked about if not appreciated, but the relation of these works to the Belgian stage, as distinct from Belgian literature and Belgian thought, has scarcely been touched upon. The reason, as I have already intimated, is not difficult to find: we have, naturally enough, sought only the important and the significant in what Belgium had to offer. But there is another sort of significance which must be taken into account: the significance of the great mass, the average. Our critical treatment of literature and art tends to adopt scientific methods; the process has its advantages, for in the last analysis the art of no country can be judged solely by its most striking products. The plays of Maeterlinck are, on the whole, not successful as drama; the dramatic poems of Verhaeren have little claim upon our consideration as acting plays: these are the striking products of Belgian drama if by this we mean every similar work cast in the "dramatic" mold. Have the Belgians then no plays? The two plays here translated will, it is hoped, prove that they have. Both were produced in Belgium by Belgian actors, accepted by the limited public interested in indigenous work, and praised by Belgian critics. Gustave Vanzype has not inaptly been called the Curel of the Belgian stage. Such sobriquets are com- mon among Belgian authors, but their application hardly ever results in anything but confusion. Van- zype's mind is somewhat akin to that of the author of Les Fossiles; both dramatists are interested rather in the curious and the unusual in human psychology than the normal; both have a touch of the morbid, but beyond this the comparison should not be allowed to PREFACE vii extend. Curel has no message, he is not a writer of thesis plays; he is at bottom an aristocrat; Vanzype believes that dramatists ought to use the stage as a pulpit. Curel takes an individual case and makes of it an interesting story, sometimes a deep study in human character; Vanzype attempts to generalize, to draw conclusions which may affect the morals and the intellect of mankind. In his article on CurePs La nouvelle Idole, he says: "I believe that the stage is a pulpit, and that the dramatist, whether he wills it or not exercises an influence over his audience; he has no right to neglect or leave to chance the source of that influence, and allow it to spread at random. He has the right to expose everything, but he ought to give his opinion, indicate his approbation or disap- probation of whatever happens. And if, in order to flatter, please, or amuse, the dramatist refuses to ac- cept the role of preacher and commentator, if he makes evil attractive, or ridicules virtue and beauty, he transforms a great and powerful art into a despicable and dangerous trade. . . . He must keep within the domain of the everlastingly great ideas and concep- tions." It is, I think, worth while to quote a few further extracts from Vanzype's own critical utter- ances, because they form a sort of declaration of faith and express not only this particular dramatist's ideals, but the aspirations of a group of playwrights and critics whose aim was to create a national Belgian drama, distinct from the ordinary importations from Paris. In his criticism of Le Renouveau du theatre, which appeared in 1897, Vanzype writes (in the Revue de Belgique) : viii PREFACE "You must first make yourself understood, assemble your audience, and speak the language it understands. This is far more worth while than speaking a more elevated language in the middle of the desert. . . . "The public has a right to come to the theater for amusement, to throw off all the cares imposed upon it by the preoccupations and cares of life. The whole art of the dramatist consists in introducing an idea or ideas into the events he sets forth. . . . "But the true power, the true genius, of the drama- tist is in not formulating general ideas. Genius in this high form of art is altogether a matter of sugges- tion, mental suggestion, so to speak. The human event set forth must be presented with such grandeur and largeness of effect that the succession of events which go to make it up, and the characters which determine these events, form a gradual ascent, a logical sequence, which will set forth the idea without having it definitely spoken by the actor: the conclusion must stand forth self-evident. During the play, the auditor must be dominated by the play, become a part of it, and he must be made to think and feel with the author at the drop of the final curtain. He must not think and analyze for himself until afterward, because while the play is being acted before his eyes, he has no time to consider. A play is not a book which you may keep and open at will, and think over. In a play the pages are not turned by the reader: they pass, and he cannot stop them. This is why the dramatist must not set forth any complicated idea; he must be simple and clear, for it is imperative that the audience understand immediately. PREFACE ix "If the dramatist refuses to submit to this condition, without which a play fails to accomplish its purpose, if he thus refuses to write for the audience which is the sole excuse for the existence of the dramatic form, why does he write plays? Why not simply write books? . . . "I firmly believe that the theater needs new blood, and I regret . . . that we have to go to Paris for what we do get. . . . "What we are interested in is the true play, written by the artist. Our drama needs renovation, doubtless, but not as to form unless we attempt to make clearer and more concise; we need new and fresh ideas. Let us avoid everything but the rapid exposition of action and keep only what movement and action are absolutely required to force the spectator to reflect. . . . "The only works of art that survive are those in which the artist has been able to magnify the common things in life, the ideas, sensations, and facts which are common to all ages. If he has been able to do this in all simplicity, and call forth all the power and beauty in them, without additional comment, he has succeeded. This genuine artist has made the spectator his own critic and commentator. . . . "We must therefore return to tradition, the sane and healthy tradition of the theater. We are forced to it inevitably, because we need no new forms. It is the function of a good play to do this: present characters in action which is proper and fitting to their interests and intelligence, and thereby interest and arouse emotion in the audience. But these characters must be so set forth and then- acts so combined and unified and conducted, that their story shall stand PREFACE forth as a sort of lesson, not as a result of definitely stated ideas and precepts, but unconsciously, as it were, and spontaneously. This sort of play will differ from the play of the past only in subject-matter, which must be such as to interest the audience of the present time." In Vanzype's appreciative criticism of Curel's La nouvelle Idole, above quoted, he proclaims the right of the dramatist to preach. The excerpts from the other article prove that Vanzype's ideas are not quite so narrow as they may at first have seemed. He believes that a play may or rather must contain an idea, but on the condition that that idea is not palpably dem- onstrated. At the very end of his Curel article he says: "Before the audience will consent to listen to ideas in the theater, it insists on seeing human beings like itself, struggling against the problems of life. . . . It is not enough in the theater to express an idea, it must rather be made to develop out of an event or a situation; the audience will not accept an abstract idea until it has been proven by experience." True to his faith, Vanzype has expressed great ideas and conceptions in his best plays, but as the dramatist must, he has expressed them in specific terms. At times he generalizes, and becomes a sort of preacher, but at his best, as in Les fitapes and La Souveraine, he allows his audience to draw its own conclusions. At first sight La Souveraine (here translated as Mother Nature) belongs to the already too numerous class of plays with an idea; it is, however, one of those plays in which the idea takes shape afterward. As with Brieux's La Robe Rouge, the audience becomes so PREFACE xi interested in the story and the characters that the central idea is not driven home until after the close of the play. A comparison of La Souveraine with a play like Damaged Goods will at once reveal the difference between a frank thesis play and a play with an idea. Brieux wrote his tract to state certain facts, to educate a certain portion of his public, and to call to the at- tention of the government the necessity for legal re- form. In order to do this, he was forced to interpolate long discourses in his first act, and to sacrifice almost the whole of the last. As a play, Damaged Goods is a failure; its effect on public education and legal reform is another matter. In La Souveraine, Vanzype has no definite lesson to set forth: he is content to allow his characters to work out their destiny in an interest- ing story. He may justly be criticized, however, for some exaggeration in the character of Olivier. As with Paul Leglay in Les titapes (Progress) we cannot help feeling that the dramatist has forced a note in making Olivier too rigid, in order to secure a more striking contrast with Renee. The dramatist was, of course, interested in Renee 's story, and Olivier is after all only a subsidiary figure, a foil; but wherever any artist exaggerates in one part of his work, the rest must in some degree suffer. Similarly, in Les fitapes, Paul is made a little too rigid, and Madeleine a trifle too stubborn. Vanzype's indebtedness to Frangois de Curel is ap- parent in most of his work, though Les Liens is not a little reminiscent of Ghosts. His ideas are thoroughly modern, he sees struggles in the daily Life of the middle classes which are eminently fitted for dramatic presen- xii PREFACE tation, but behind the petty struggles of doctors and scientists and artists, we are made to feel the presence of the eternal struggles. The obvious shortcomings of the two plays in this volume detract very little from their dramatic effect. There is a grandeur of conception, a sweep, an under- current of passion and throbbing life which are truly representative of the rather somber but vital character of the Belgians. CONTENTS PAGE GUSTAVE VANZYPE AND THE MODERN BELGIAN DRAMA v MOTHER NATURE (La Souveraine) 1 PROGRESS (Les Etapes) 83 MOTHER NATURE (La Souveraine) A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS La Souveraine was first produced at the Theatre Moliere, Brussels, in 1899 A WORD I believe that a good play needs no preface, that it is sufficient in itself to express thoughts completely. It is not my intention to comment on La Souveraine in this place; either the idea stands out clearly and comment is rendered superfluous, or else it is not clear, in which case the play is not worth a preface. But I wish to explain myself on one point, because I would clear up a misunderstanding created perhaps by those who did not like the play. There are some who insisted that Olivier was a satire on the artist, the true artist. This is quite absurd. He who writes in Belgium, especially for the theater, where he can hope for nothing except the satisfaction of having created, and of having at great cost deserved the esteem of the very small public interested in good things, and especially when he is so fortunate as to find so dis- interested a manager as M. Munie and such devoted artists as those of the company of the Theatre Moliere such a one, I say, is inspired by the ambition to be an artist himself, and he would never think of poking fun at his brother-workers who are inspired by the very same ambition. But if he feels the profoundest respect for the real artist, on the other hand he suffers and is irritated at the noisy racket of certain false esthetes, who think that a season box at fashionable concerts, the possession 2 A WORD 3 of a few objects of art, and chatter about some obscure poet or forgotten painter entitle them to the position and dignity of an artist. He is well aware of the evil and danger of these sterile cynics, who smile disdainfully at all that bears fruit, and at sincere work of any sort. He knows that the public which listens to them, having nothing better to do with its time, often allows itself to be intimidated and influenced, to the detriment of every conscientious and dignified effort of true artists. When the follies and absurdities and f utility of such charlatans are exposed in public, there is no harm done to the real artists; these are rather defended against their worst enemies. This was what I wished incidentally to do in this play; incidentally, only because I have tried to do more than merely satirize. But this was the only point I wished to explain; I have nothing to add to the whole play, which must, good or bad, stand on its own merits. GUSTAVE VANZTPB March 29, 1899. Persons in the play: OLIVIER MERYAC HEURTOUX, Renee's father DARCHI, Olivier's father RENEE BLANCHE, Olivier's sister KLARY MADAME HEURTOUX A MAID The scene is the drawing-room in Olivier's home, pre- sumably in a large city of Belgium. The time is the present. MOTHER NATURE ACT I The scene is a drawing-room used as a study. At the back is a large French window, with heavy curtains drawn halfway across. There are entrances right and left. To the left is a piano. Various small pieces of furniture of stained wood, English style. Pictures around the walls, plaster casts of Gothic sculpture, and engravings. The general effect is a strange one, for the decorator has evidently sought after novelty. Renee and Mme. Heurtoux are present as the curtain rises. RENEE It's a sad confession, mother. I don't know whether I have courage to tell you. MME. HEURTOUX But I asked you. And to whom else would you confess if not to your mother? How long has this been going on? RENEE Always. MME. HEURTOUX Always? But the first days, Renee? RENEE They were no different from now. 5 MOTHER NATURE MME. HEUKTOUX What! RENEE I didn't understand then. In spite of all my con- fusion I felt instinctively that there was something else. I didn't know. MME. HEURTOUX But just after your marriage ? The first few days ? RENEE Even during the first few days, during the moments which other women remember, moments of tender- ness, passion, intoxication, he was cold and calm, insultingly calm! MME. HEURTOUX Has he always been that way? RENEE Always. MME. HEURTOUX Did you never talk to him, try to bring him closer to you? RENEE Oh, yes, after I came to see that that was the only possible way he could love me. MME. HEURTOUX What did he say ? RENEE He advanced theories and gave me long lectures on reason which he never forgets, even when he kisses me! MME. HEURTOUX Does he try to justify himself? MOTHER NATURE RENEE He talked of all sorts of principles. He thinks I'm ridiculous. He gets impatient with me, and sometimes even angry. (She hides her face in her hands) If he'd only left me ! Oh, mother, how can I tell you ? MME. HEURTOUX (going to Renee and taking her hands, then, ill at ease, says hesitatingly) Come, dearie, now you see is Olivier still your husband? RENEE When he is I feel so degraded and ashamed. I'm ashamed because every time I hope my love will change him. But no . Oh, mother, I'm so humiliated, so disgusted! MME. HEURTOUX Poor child! But you mustn't give up hope RENEE What hope? That he will change? That all at once he will become another man, and love his wife in a simple way, without thought and reason and all that? Impossible! MME. HEURTOUX Perhaps you'll have the consolation of some one else to love, some one who will fill your life RENEE (burying her face again in her hands) Dearest mamma, that's just what he doesn't want! I'm desperate. Oh, if I had a child, if I could even hope to have one, I'd be resigned to having my early dreams go as they have gone. The child could give me all the happiness and tenderness that I MOTHER NATURE miss now. But I can't even look forward to that. That is why I can't forget now. He's wounded me I can't get over it; he himself couldn't make everything all right again. I can't even be the wife I want to be, that I would have been if he hadn't crushed all the good instincts out of me with his scepticism, his talk, and his everlasting analysis. You understand how revolting it all is, don't you, mother? MME. HEURTQTTX Of course I understand, dear, but you see, I 'm always afraid of misunderstanding things nowadays. It's all so different from what it was in my day: when I was a young woman, people did less discussing and reasoning. Of course, we were afraid of having too many children RENEE Yes, but you had them first! And you didn't force young girls into marriage. I 'm so miserable, mother! If I had only a child ! Perhaps I should have understood, afterward. A tender and pure little life would have brightened my own. MME. HEURTOUX But Olivier still loves you ? RENEE He does not love me. He does nothing but talk and talk and try to prove that love is the result of a pathological predisposition. He talks about atavism and neurosis! He doesn't love me. He analyses love too much to know how to love. MME. HEURTOUX He is at least intelligent? MOTHER NATURE 9 RENEE He has a brain, but that's not the same thing, mother. It 's a matter of pride with him to have only a brain, and to stifle everything else that makes a man: love, passion, the sweet and holy follies, sublimely un- reasonable the things that make you happy. He's just a brain. There are many others like him nowadays. MME. HEURTOUX You frighten me, Renee. Don't you love your husband any more? RENEE It makes no difference to him whether I do nor not. If he found out I didn't care for him, he would deliver a long-winded lecture on the psychology of my case. MME. HEURTOUX What things you say! Surely you're exaggerating! RENEE Not at all. You don't know him. MME. HEURTOUX You seem almost to hate him. RENEE I don't hate him. But everything about him dis- gusts me: everything he does and says strikes at what is best in me. His detestable intellect crushes everything good and beautiful in life, everything you have taught me to respect, everything that I feel is true even life itself. MME. HEURTOUX (after a pause) Renee, look at me. You aren't in love with any one else? 10 MOTHER NATURE RENEE (looking her mother straight in the eyes) No, mother. MME. HEUBTOUX (surprised) Indeed? You don't even protest? RENEE I don't love any one at least, any one I can name, any one I know. But I do love, as I did when I was a young girl and dreamed of the future, of a husband who would not consider me with his brain alone, but one who would reason and love with his heart and his passions a man, a real man ! But I give you my word, I am not in love with any one. In spite of all my unhappiness, I am a faithful wife. MME. HEURTOUX You must continue to be that, Renee; you must be brave and do your duty to the end. Who knows, everything passes away and is forgotten? If your husband RENEE (bitterly) Poor mother! Sh, here he comes. If he heard you talking about courage and duty, he would make fun of you and ask you for definitions. \_Enter Olivier, followed by Darchi and Heurtoux. OLIVIER In your day! Your day! Of course, my dear father-in-law, in your day people didn't think as they do now. Ideas have gone HEURTOUX Forward or backward? DARCHI Why, forward! Humanity never goes back. Prog- ress MOTHER NATURE 11 OLIVIER (interrupting) To adhere to the ideas of your youth is, I repeat, a deplorable thing. HEURTOUX Well, I'm old OLIVIER So is my father. He is as old as you. DARCHI Nonsense, I'm fifty years younger! OLIVIER (to Heurtoux) True. He has been able to discard the sentimentality that clung round him. He has disciplined his mind and adopted the strict methods of modern analysis, which submits everything to the acid test of reason. It is our aim to act with discernment, to escape the ready-made notions which are not under the control of our intellects, and the absurd consequences of giving in to the passions. We bring each thought and act to the tribunal of dispassionate judgment, and base our deductions on the foundation of modern science and philosophy. We deny the intangible. Nietszche DARCHI There's a master mind for you! MME. HEURTOUX Have you read him, Monsieur Darchi? Explain his theory. I'm deeply interested. DARCHI (embarrassed) I know his theories very well oh, yes. Olivier often talks about him. But the whole thing is rather MOTHER NATURE complicated. You ought to have some preliminary preparation if I am going to explain him to you. Isn't that so, Olivier? OLIVIER Of course. HEURTOUX (to Renee) Do you know why Olivier tells me all these interesting things? Because I refuse to grant that a husband has the right to deceive his wife! (Smiling) Now you're warned ! RENEE I know what he thinks about that. HEURTOUX (still smiling) Aren't you worried? OLIVIER (seated at his desk, turning the pages of a book) Renee knows I am master of my passions. It is my aim to be a strong man. Now, the strong man can be strong only after freeing himself from the bondage of his senses, his passions. But just because I am freeing myself, I can see that others are still slaves. Those who have succeeded ought to be free to dis- pose of their persons as they see fit. DARCHI Certainly. You must look at it from the point of view of the artist. Heavens and earth, my poor Heurtoux, how out-of-date you are! HEURTOUX Perhaps I am. But you see, I can't make up my mind, and never will, to abolish everything that has brought me peace and happiness. I don't know whether it's because I'm prejudiced or, as you say, out-of-date, but I always held what were called in my MOTHER NATURE 13 day liberal ideas, and I never had much respect for the conventions. But there are some conventions that are absolutely necessary, that are based on the necessities of human society and the consideration of one man for another. Conjugal fidelity or if you prefer, the fidelity of one lover to the other, is one of them. A man and a woman who love each other are naturally jealous, and even when they don't love each other or if one of them ceases to love the other, it seems to me a beautiful thing for them to remain faithful; it spares pain and wounded pride. Of course, you call that rank sentiment OLIVIER Yes, because among intelligent people, people who use their reason, there is no such thing as jealousy and that sort of pride. Those things are mere words. DARCHI They've gone out of fashion long ago! RENEE They are as old as the world, because they express sentiments and passions whose very existence you complain of. But the things themselves have not changed since man was first created, since the first human being said "I love you!" to the other, and his mate naturally asked, "For always?" I prefer that. It makes the function of love a noble and beautiful act, and not a base instinct. DARCHI (laughing} "For always!" Ha! ha, For always! Poor little Renee! 14 MOTHER NATURE OLIVIEB The same delusion, the same mistake! You try to impose an unnecessary yoke on the man. Why? HEURTOUX To spare others' pain. OLIVIER That is not his affair. Let them defend themselves, together with their absurd sentimentality. HEURTOUX My dear Olivier, if I didn't know you, I would think you quite ferocious. OLIVIER (disdainfully) Not at all; I am simply a reasonable human being, and I have great respect for logic. You don't understand me, you cannot understand me, because you are not ready to look at these things dispassion- ately, and analyze them on the basis of the great scientific and philosophical facts of which you are quite ignorant. HEURTOUX (good-naturedly) That's true. DARCHI You see, old man, you must know! HEURTOUX I don't know, but I believe that there are certain human relationships in which science and philosophy count for nothing. I've been married for thirty years, I've made my wife happy, brought up children OLIVIER (interrupting) Who are needlessly suffering because you have devel- oped their emotions your daughter, for instance. MOTHER NATURE 15 HETJRTOUX (seriously) Suffering? Renee, have you anything to complain of? Were you ever unhappy through any fault of mine? RENEE I am happy, and I am glad to be what you made me, father. If I suffer sometimes, it is not your fault. I am proud that I can suffer that way. HEURTOUX (anxiously) But you do suffer? Why? Aren't you happy ? OLIVIER (indifferently) I really didn't know RENEE It makes no difference, father. I meant I suffer once in a while, the way every one does. You mustn't worry about it. MME. HEURTOUX (taking Renee's hand) Brave girl! OLIVIER I don't think Renee knows what she's talking about. Very often she is upset and worried, and HEURTOUX (conciliatory) She is very sensitive, Olivier. You must take that into account. I don't think you'd be capable of wounding her intentionally, but RENEE Please, father! DARCHI Now, now, let's not have a family quarrel! Tears and all that! Octave Feuillet nonsense! I'm going! HEURTOUX Be serious, Darchi. 16 MOTHER NATURE DARCHI Never! It's too stupid. HEUBTOUX Isn't it only natural that I should consider my daughter's happiness? Of course, I have confidence in your son DARCHI My dear fellow, do you imagine a boy like Olivier, a keen observer and psychologist, doesn't know how to handle women? My son! MME. HEURTOUX We are not discussing "women"; this concerns Renee. RENEE Father! Mother! This is all very painful to me. Please don't worry about what I just said. I was speaking generalities. OLIVIER It was wrong of you, my dear, especially before your highly emotional and excitable parents. [Blanche opens the door. BLANCHE May I come in ? RENEE Surely. [Enter Blanche, followed by Andre and Heryac, who wears hunting clothes. BLANCHE Here we are! How are you? We've brought your cousin Meryac. We just happened to meet him, but he didn't want to come. MOTHER NATURE 17 ANDRE He didn't think he looked beautiful enough. MERYAC (to Renee) I beg your pardon, Madame, these clothes I've been hunting. RENEE But this is the country, Monsieur Meryac, and we are neighbors. OLIVIER What a singular passion ! BLANCHE What? OLIVIER Hunting. MERYAC It is not a passion with me. But I love movement and outdoors. Hunting serves as a good pretext for riding up hill and down dale. I delude myself into thinking I have a definite end in view. OLIVIER Can't you ' satisfy your desire without actually hunting? MERYAC I hardly hunt at all, only, as I told you, I like to have an object in view. I need it. When I have a little leisure time from business and go even for a walk, I must have some destination. OLIVIER Action mania! MERYAC (smiling) The desire for action, yes ! 18 MOTHER NATURE BLANCHE (to Olivier) You all look so serious. What were you discussing, Monsieur Brother? OLIVIER A very involved matter. You wouldn't understand. HEURTOUX I think she would understand very easily. ANDRE (to Olivier) Would I? OLIVIER No. BLANCHE Unfortunately, because every one should understand in the family. HEURTOUX (to Meryac, who now stands by Renee) You were speaking of your factory. I 'm very much interested. Shall we go into the garden? I want to ask you something. \_They go out, Renee following them with her eyes. DARCHI (to Blanche) You talk like a middle-class housewife. When you're dealing with a great intellect like your brother's, a man engaged in such deep thinking, isn't it only natural that the points discussed should reach a level to which no woman's mind can attain? BLANCHE Oh? You're very gallant. Andre always explains when I don't understand, and I always see. And Andre is no fool. We "raise each other," as it were, to that "level" you were speaking of. And when we get there, we don't talk, we are glad enough merely to feel, like good middle-class people which MOTHER NATURE 19 we are. But with the two children, I haven't much time for the "heights." I bring up my children which is more important. ANDRE (who has meantime seated himself, rises and goes to another chair) And just as "elevated." RENEE How are they? ANDRE Bab had an attack of tonsilitis. We were very much upset. MME. HEURTOUX Poor little dear! RENEE Is he better now? BLANCHE He's well. Otherwise, you may be sure we shouldn't be here. OLIVIER (nervously) Of course, of course. DARCHI Never have a moment's peace with those messy youngsters! BLANCHE Papa, don't you philosophize! You know you adore them. DARCHI There they are! I don't dislike them, but I could easily dispense with them. ANDRE (who shifts to another chair) You yourself didn't dispense with children! (Point- ing to his wife) There's the proof. Thank you. 20 MOTHER NATURE DARCHI I wasn't thinking of you at the time. No, I didn't dispense with children, because when I married there were still prejudices. But if I had my life to live over again BLANCHE You would follow Olivier's example, and not be in any hurry. He isn't in a hurry about anything at all. We're waiting for his book. What is it called ? OLIVIER (piqued) What? DARCHI (respectfully) Cogitations. BLANCHE Illustrated? OLIVIER A complete book needs no illustrations. ANDRE That's not the same title you gave us a short while ago? OLIVIER It's not the same book. ANDRE What about the other? OLIVIER I'm not going to write it. I wasn't satisfied. BLANCHE Well, try to finish this one. OLIVIER It makes no difference if I don't. I write in order to think. MOTHER NATURE 21 BLANCHE How funny! I thought people wrote after they had thought. MME. HEURTOUX How unkind of you, Blanche! OLIVIER (disdainfully) I am used to my sister. She doesn't bother me. (To Andre, who has just left his chair again) What on earth are you doing? ANDRE I 'm tired, and I 'm trying to rest. OLIVIER Then sit still! ANDRE I 'd like to, only I can't find a chair OLIVIER You have plenty to choose from. ANDRE I see that, but not one of them seems made to sit in. They're pretty, and interesting, but every one of them's damned uncomfortable. What I want is a vulgar, simple, old-fashioned armchair, with nothing artistic about it, where I can rest my arms and legs and neck. Have you anything of that sort in your house ? MME. HEURTOUX Come with me, Andre. I '11 find you one hi the gar- den. [Olivier shrugs his shoulders. ANDRE (to Mme. Heurtoux) You're my salvation! MOTHER NATURE MME. HEURTOUX (to the others) Are you coming? [She goes out with Andre. OLIVIER I want a breath of air. I've been overworking this morning. DARCHI What have you been doing? OLIVIER Thinking about the second chapter of my book. DARCHI I '11 come with you. BLANCHE Good! Renee and I can have a little chat together. DARCHI (as he leaves) Don't tire yourself. [The men go out. BLANCHE (going to Renee and taking her hands') My dear Renee! How sad you look! What's the matter? RENEE I'm not oh, nothing only a little nervous. BLANCHE Why don't you tell me? I know you're suffering. I love you dearly, and I feel I'm much more your sister than his. RENEE Whose ? BLANCHE Your husband's. It's funny, perhaps it's terrible, but I've felt that ever since you were engaged. I MOTHER NATURE 23 feel more a member of your family than his. I'm so little like him. RENEE That's true. You're so good, Blanche dear. And you know I love you, too. I always like to have you here. You seem to bring some of my past life with you, and my childhood a breath of healthy sunny air into this house. You are a sort of living happi- ness; your life is what I dreamed of when I was just awakening to life. You carry around with you all sorts of love, and joy, the pride of motherhood, of duty gladly done, and a realization of happy responsi- bilities. I imagine your hah* is full of warm caresses and your cheeks bright with children's kisses. BLANCHE Renee, you are suffering! RENEE No, no, I'm not. But I can't help feeling this way when I see you so happy, and simple, and pure, and good. I'm romantic, I suppose, but I can't help being thrilled when I see in you the realization of all the dreams I dreamed when I was a girl of fifteen. Like all girls, I closed my eyes and dreamed of marriage; I closed them partly from embarrassment and partly in order to see more clearly my husband and myself, as I imagined we would be. In that dream we were what you and Andre really are: two happy children, very much in love, but our love was tempered with a sort of dignity; and we looked at life and resolved to be supremely happy, and love each other always, and smiled at the thought of having a 24 MOTHER NATURE family of two, three, four I didn't stop to count, but I could see little curly heads ! Oh, you are my dream, the dream I used to blush for then, but now BLANCHE You regret! Poor Renee! Olivier is a poor substi- tute for the husband of your dreams, isn't he? RENEE (trying to control herself) I don't say that; I'm not complaining of Olivier. BLANCHE I am so sorry for you, Renee. I see how much you are suffering. And I know Olivier too well not to realize that your dream which is the ideal of every decent, normal girl was doomed from the beginning. I know him: he is not bad, nor is he good. He's dried up in his formulas; he has regu- lated his instincts by rules physiological and psychological rules. He always thinks of people as cases and problems, and that has killed all the humanity in him. He has only one object in life; to prove that everything accomplished by mankind before he was born is absurd. He believes he has reached a very high stage of development, but he merely lives an extremely false sort of life, made up of absurd desires and ridiculous ambitions. He is one of those who only complicate existence and de- spise its simplicity because they can't understand it. RENEE Blanche, you are a severe judge! BLANCHE I tell you this because I know you see him as I do. It's not altogether his fault: papa was too enthusi- MOTHER NATURE 25 astic about Olivier's great progress as a young man, and he very soon became a follower instead of a guide. Poor papa, he's developed a temperament, and he merely echoes and exaggerates whatever Olivier says, and conceals as he would something vile what- ever there is in him of tenderness and feeling or else makes a joke of it. Fortunately, I know he is hiding his real feelings, and I love them. Poor Renee! You're so full of the joy of life, and so sensitive ! You must be very unhappy. RENEE I am. BLANCHE Won't you confide in me a little? Dearest. I want to be able to console you. RENEE How can you console me ? I 'm not the sort of person who can be consoled. I have simply made a mistake : I married unwisely, and I must accept the conse- quences. I thought that a man like Olivier an artist, at least an instinctive artist would be more sensitive, better than other men; it must have been his ideas and his way of talking that attracted me. But that soon wore off. Now I must try to resign myself. It's too bad, though, because resig- nation is not in my make-up. I have a keen sense of duty, but I'm constantly afraid that the nervous- ness that keeps me up to the mark, and which is only the result of my pride, will some day lead me to break away and do something I might regret. (She stops a moment, then, mastering herself) But 26 MOTHER NATURE I mil control myself, don't worry, Blanche dear. You are so good to me, and I'm very grateful for your frankness and your love, even though you can't do anything to help me. I 've tried everything with Olivier, and as for myself, there's nothing left. Kiss me! (They kiss. Andre's voice is heard in the garden: "Blanchette, where are you, Blanchette?" There, go to your husband in the garden. He's bored when you aren't with him. How you love each other! Go on! I'll not come with you. I must calm down a little. BLANCHE All right. See you soon. (She goes out, saying) Here I am! Here I am! [Renee goes and looks at herself in the mirror, then drops, as if in a dream, into a chair. After a short interval, enter Meryac. Renee does not notice him. He makes a few steps toward her before she is aware of his presence. He looks at her. MERYAC Madame! RENEE You, Monsieur? MERYAC Have you forgiven me? RENEE There is nothing to forgive. It isn't your fault that you love me. But I do think you might have spared me by saying nothing about it. I hope you realize you had nothing to gain? MOTHER NATURE 27 MERYAC I love you so deeply, so passionately, that I couldn't help telling you. RENEE (dreamily) You love me MERYAC Ever since I came here and saw you for the first time. You were there at the piano, playing Grieg's Solveig's Lied. You remember . The picture is as vivid as it was then. RENEE You ought never to have spoken. MERYAC That was out of the question. When you are in love, you can't control yourself. The person who can reason at such a time can't really be in love. At least, I can't imagine such self-control. I feel; I am excited; I listen to my heart-beats and not the voice of reason. I confess I'm impulsive: I'm the blind agent of forces that may be a bit confused, but I feel that they are at base absolutely right. They drive me to love or to hate. It may be pure instinct, but there's something right in it all the same. I have more confidence in it than in the hypothetical deductions of logic. Try to reason and you find you can reach diametrically opposite con- clusions on the same point, depending on where you start. The blind forces / give in to drive me in one direction, toward one thing and one alone. That is why I love you, that is what has told me you are unhappy 28 MOTHER NATURE RENEE What do you know about it? MERYAC I don't know, but I feel. That was what drove me to tell you I loved you. I wouldn't have said a word if I had felt you were happy. My instinct would have told me to hold my tongue. I am ready to do anything for you, carry you off in my arms, without stopping to consider right or wrong. I love you, I adore you, because because well, because I love you ! (Renee has meanwhile risen. She looks fixedly at Meryac, and is deeply stirred. There is a pause) How you look at me! RENEE I never heard any one talk that way ! MERYAC You see? Your husband doesn't love you, and you aren't happy. I felt sure. If I hadn't, I swear I would never have spoken a word. I would have had courage. I would have left you to him RENEE You will, my poor friend. I tell you once for all, I hold nothing against you, and I even con- fess you have made me happy, because you have given me a new and a fresh emotion. Even though I might have allowed you to continue, even though I am unhappy because my husband doesn't love me as I once hoped I would be loved in spite of all that, I refuse to do anything I might after- ward regret. MOTHER NATURE 29 MERYAC But you have the right ! RENEE (interrupting him) That same confused power you spoke of a moment ago tells me I should be very wrong to give in; it tells me to try to find happiness with my husband and to struggle till the last shred of hope is gone. MERYAC And then? RENEE Then if I know I have failed then I don't know. But I must hope. Now leave me, please. They might think it strange we should be alone together for so long. Leave me. (She offers him her hand) Good-bye. MERYAC (holding her hand in his) You don't object to my coming here again? RENEE No. That would mean I was afraid of myself. MERYAC Good-bye. [He walks slowly away, and out. Renee then goes quickly to the window. Meryac is seen on the terrace outside the windows at the back. Renee watches him for some moments, then goes to the piano and, under an evident strain, begins to play. Enter Olivier. OLIVIER Is that Grieg? RENEE Yes: Solveig's Lied. MOTHER NATURE OLIVIER Have you been here all the time? They were looking for you in the garden. [He sits at his desk, takes up a magazine and begins reading. RENEE (after a pause) Olivier! OLIVIER (without looking up) What is it? RENEE Have they gone? OLIVIER They went for a walk. [He continues reading. RENEE (going to the desk and sitting down near her husband) Olivier! OLIVIER What is it, my dear? RENEE Don't read now. OLIVIER When can I read? I was constantly interrupted this morning; first your father and mother RENEE Mother? OLIVIER Yes, your mother, who was complaining to me about you. MOTHER NATURE 31 RENEE (suddenly) Don't you think it more worth while to talk about me than to read? OLIVIER I know very well I shall never be able to convince you that your happiness which is, after all, a purely fictitious thing depends entirely on your- self. You see, you must learn to analyze a little, and form a conception of life in general and marriage in particular which shall come a little nearer to the actual facts. You mustn't give way to the muddled confusions of a raving romantic. Are you unhappy ? Are you sure that the very fact of your mentioning it does not in advance constitute its refutation? RENEE Is that all you have to tell me? Don't you love me any more? OLIVIER Of course I do, of course. I merely object to your boarding-school girl's notions. I don't want love to take the place of reason and upset the rational arrangement of our existence. RENEE (slowly, as she recalls Meryac's words) The person who can reason isn't really in love. OLIVIER (going to her) I do love you. Come, now (smiling), forget every- thing, Renee. How beautiful you are! I love you now, dear, I love you deeply. (He takes her hand, then her arm) You're not very reasonable, but that is what makes you so tempting. And you always get what you want, don't you? I do love you. That's MOTHER NATURE what you want, isn't it? (Renee allows herself to be embraced) You are just as I want you to be. You are my own darling wife. Don't think, just love me. You are so lovely ! RENEE (suddenly tearing herself from him) No, no, no! Yes, I do want to be your wife, I wish it with all my heart and soul, but I want to be alto- gether your wife or else not at all. I 've suffered too long from your selfish and calculating love. I was on the point of giving in once more, but I saved myself. No, no, I refuse to be merely your pleasure. I want to love you, but not be a passive instrument. Yes, I want to be loved, but I want to be a woman, a whole woman a mother! Other- wise no, no, no ! That is too sickening, too dis- gusting! Your selfish and cowardly love has no beautiful purpose; you forget the true end of love, that's beautiful even when you don't think of it. But never to think of it, to avoid it, to decide to have no children, whose presence would purify and help us No, no, I can't and I won't. OLIVIER Really, this is becoming a mania with you. I have told you RENEE You have told me! And you gave me cold, selfish and cowardly reasons, and false science. You were afraid. OLIVIER I have already told you that I feel I have no right to impose upon another human being the obligation MOTHER NATURE 33 to live and to suffer. That right is really not a right at all, and only unthinking people assume it. I am not one of them. Whenever I see children, I can't suppress a feeling of horror toward those who dared bring them into the world, and impose upon them, as the result of a mere caprice, the great task of life. RENEE And when I see children, I think of their smiles and laughter. OLIVIER Pure selfishness! RENEE Selfishness! My happiness is the happiness of mak- ing them glad, of giving up my life for that purpose, showing them the happiness and beauty of life, preparing them for existence, and returning to them the joy and tenderness they give me. You call the love of parents for their children selfishness! You don't believe in it. You are simply afraid to assume the responsibility. That is all your reasoning amounts to. I want the joys of a mother as well as of a wife. I want to live a whole life; no woman has done that unless she knows the joy of motherhood. OLIVIER (going to her) Come, now, Renee, don't get so excited. RENEE (close to him) Don't touch me! I shan't be weak again. I've often given in because I loved you and was carried away at the moment. But I tell you, in my love for you there is also a mother's love. I want to have 34 MOTHER NATURE children. If your love won't give them to me, I don't want your love! OLIVIER This is ridiculous. Really, my dear, you must be out of your senses. RENEE Take care, Olivier, you must protect me against my thoughts, against my dreams. OLIVIER How do you mean? RENEE By understanding them, and by consenting to live without so much reasoning and analysis. Just live and be happy. (Again, as she remembers Meryac's words, and repeating them) Without stopping to consider right or wrong! OLIVIER (taking up his magazine again) Poor Renee, you 're nervous, that's what's the matter with you. I must work now. I 've begun a chapter on Integral Logic. RENEE Be careful, Olivier! OLIVIER What about? RENEE About me! CURTAIN MOTHER NATURE 35 ACT II The scene is the same. Olivier is seated at his desk. Klary, in a long and ample gown, with a fillet round her hair, stands leaning on the back of a chair, in a studied pose. KLARY Dear Master, yes, I dream of that: a Flemish in- terior, dirty whitewashed walls, and furniture of white wood. And just a few Japanese vases here and there. Human souls seem larger against a simple background. And to recite poetry there in a murmur, a whisper, so softly that you can scarcely distinguish whether it be a human voice that pro- fanes it or no ah! I'd love it. I was thinking about it only yesterday as I stood before a Primitive in the gallery. A masterpiece! OLIVIER Of whom? KLARY Unknown. That made it infinitely more beautiful. Don't you feel somehow that a picture by an Un- known is nobler, more mysterious, more captivating, more beautiful, than one by a well-known artist? OLIVIER Neatly phrased. May I use it? KLARY Why stultify our thoughts by writing them down, by submitting them to such degrading labor? Yes, the so-called Masters, with their celebrated works so soiled by the admiration of the mob, no longer 36 MOTHER NATURE possess for me the magic of great art. I must have the mystery of things whose story is hidden in the obscure past, lost, or considered unimportant. Their very humility stirs me. Oh, that little Primitive! OLIVIER Where is it? KLARY Behind the door in the large Van Eyck room. OLIVIER I know: a Virgin; marble floor, little trees, a tower in the background KLARY That's it. What lovely marble! OLIVIER But that's a Snellaert. KLARY A Snellaert ! Why did you tell me ? Now the mys- tery is gone! That was the most beautiful thing about it. You are too cruel. OLIVIER How is your St. George progressing? KLARY I scraped it out. OLIVIER Why? KLARY It was too definite, too clear. I like only sketches, vague outlines, indeterminate colors, so I scraped it. The St. George began to look like a human being awfully commonplace. I'm beginning an Orpheus, but my Orpheus is without the love-motive MOTHER NATURE 37 OLIVIER You are a true artist. The man who marries you will be lucky. KLARY When one devotes oneself to art, one never marries. The artist ought to experience every impression, and always seek new ones. (Looking at him) Now you, for instance, are not where you belong: your existence is commonplace in the extreme. You spend your life with ordinary people, because you are married, and faithful to your wife. All your impres- sions are on a dead level. OLIVIER What do you know about it? KLARY Oh I am just supposing. OLIVIER I want to prove how wrong you are. [He goes to her and kisses her. KLARY (coldly) There's nothing so much about a kiss! Do you think so? Does Lohengrin ever kiss Elsa? OLIVIER (nonplussed) Alas, I've not seen the Grail! KLARY You should try to behave as if you had. OLIVIER (solemnly) You are right. One must detach himself, live a spiritual life, nourished by reflection. But I am nearer that sort of life than you imagine. You see, 38 MOTHER NATURE I need help and encouragement, some one with whom I can commune and exchange ideas, and dream dreams, and tell of my contempt for life \_Enter the Maid with a cup of bouillon. MAID Monsieur's bouillon. OLIVIER (slightly annoyed} What is it? MAID The bouillon Monsieur ordered for four o'clock. It's four now, Monsieur. OLIVIER Very well. \_The Maid puts the cup on a small table and goes out. KLARY Doesn't your wife understand you? OLIVIER The only things my wife ever attaches any importance to are the current notions of sentimentality. She knows nothing of my aspirations as an artist, of my dream of a perfect intellectual life inspired solely by reason and ideas, and detached from all the pettinesses of existence and the baser appetites. KLARY You should never have married. OLIVIER How was I to know? I thought I was planning my life very well. Some day I shall write a book about the pains of existence, of the sufferings one must undergo merely to live. It's so debasing. (He mechanically reaches for the bouillon, which he swallows MOTHER NATURE 39 at a gulp) I beg your pardon. I always take it at four. I 'm a little tired and overworked. KLARY I take peptone. I detest meals. Whenever I eat, I feel the vulgarity of material things to my very finger-tips. I don't dare take up a brush or touch the piano. {Enter Darchi. DARCHI Ah, little Lilian! How are you? KLARY I 'm alive, and therefore ailing. DARCHI That's not polite to us. Were you discussing art with my son? OLIVIER Oh, yes. You've returned early. Is the concert over? DARCHI No. I was disgusted. Just think you'd never guess they played Gounod! I escaped. KLARY Do you still care for concerts? I never go. The only music I understand or like is my own impro- visation. And then to have to listen to music in company with a whole mob of people! Perish the thought! DARCHI You're rather severe. But we aren't a "whole mob of people." I hope we don't inspire you with the same disgust? 40 MOTHER NATURE OLIVIER I think she is right. DARCHI So do I, so do I. That goes without saying. Sensi- tive and delicate temperaments like ours suffer through contact with the impressionable mob of vulgarians. I'm disgusted with myself for going to that concert. (To Klary) All the more so as I have lost so much time with you. It 's such a pleas- ure to find a woman of your stamp, so intelligent and independent. You have no silly prejudices, you're not romantic and sentimental. You are strange, fascinating, novel: you are a real product of the age. You belong almost to to-morrow. OLIVIER You see, papa's in love with you! [Enter Renee and Blanche, left. RENEE (to Olivier, as she catches sight of Klary) I beg your pardon. I thought you were alone! (Distantly) Mademoiselle ! KLARY (familiarly) How do 'ye do, Madame? RENEE Very well, thank you. OLIVIER (to Klary) I should like you to meet my sister, Madame Loviat. (To Blanche) Mademoiselle Klary Lilian, the painter. [Renee goes out. Olivier is annoyed. BLANCHE Ah, it was Mademoiselle who exhibited The Appa- rition? MOTHER NATURE 41 KLARY (pleased) Yes, Madame. Do you remember it? BLANCHE Yes. Very pretty, though I was never quite able to distinguish what was in the midst of the iris. Was it a man or a woman? KLARY (with a disdainful smile) An apparition, Madame. BLANCHE Of course. The color was attractive. Bab insisted it was the Virgin. (Smiling) Bab is my eldest five years old. He paints, too water-color land- scapes. They're very nice. But when both children start painting! KLARY Have you two, Madame? DARCHI I am twice a grandfather I blush to admit! KLARY (to Blanche) I'm sorry for you. BLANCHE You're sorry for me! Why? I'm delighted. It's the most natural thing in the world. Don't you like children? KLARY Very much: they're nice other people's. BLANCHE Wouldn't you like to have two some day? KLARY I '11 never have any. 42 MOTHER NATURE BLANCHE I beg your pardon, but are you Mademoiselle Klary Lilian? Mademoiselle? KLARY Certainly, Madame. BLANCHE Then let me tell you, Mademoiselle, I think it's rather terrible to be so sure! OLIVIER Now, Blanche there's a misunderstanding. You don't see! BLANCHE No, I don't see! DARCHl Blanche, you make me blush. KLARY Dear Master, I'll leave you. We'll continue our study another time. (Bowing) Madame! Mon- sieur Darchi! OLIVIER I am sorry my sister is rather abrupt and frank BLANCHE Thank you! DARCHI Let me show you the way, Mademoiselle. [Darchi goes out with Klary. BLANCHE Nice people you are receiving! OLIVIER She is a very superior woman. MOTHER NATURE 43 BLANCHE Superior to whom? OLIVIER To the others. BLANCHE You're very amusing. OLIVIER She is an artist. BLANCHE I have my doubts. OLIVIER (with a shrug) Much you know about it! [Reenter Darchi. BLANCHE How do you know? At all events, I think a woman artist ought to have a fair share of womanliness. She ought to have taste and delicacy. I don't see very much taste in that dirty eccentric gown of hers, that was kept together with pins I saw them ! and her mussy hair tied up like the hair of a Botticelli angel. I see nothing delicate in a young girl's saying that she never intends to have children. That's not frankness, it's downright cynicism. If women artists can't remain women, I think we'd much better have ordinary women with grace, modesty, and simple loving qualities like Renee for instance and a fig for all your temperament and refinement! DARCHI You're a little fool. 44 MOTHER NATURE OLIVIER You are hopelessly middle-class, and naturally you typify the middle-class attitude. BLANCHE Very well, I do belong to the middle class and so do you, all of you. But you know, there is a way of being a decent woman, a wife and mother, and an artist, whether one is an aristocrat, a member of the middle or the lowest class, and that way is to preserve some of the true womanly attributes. An artist is a more sensitive and impressionable being than other people, isn't he? It is his business to interpret and exalt the beautiful feelings. Now, a woman has two great feelings beautiful feelings: first, love in and for itself, and then, mother's love. I am madly in love with my husband and I adore my two children. Therefore, I am a truer artist than Mademoiselle Lilian; or, at any rate, I am superior to her because I find beauty in doing my duty and playing my natural role. OLIVIER Good God, what nonsense! DARCHI Strange what broad ideas your brother and I have, and how narrow you are ! BLANCHE See here, papa, you're always trying to make people forget that you were once a stove-manufacturer a decent and honorable thing to be but I want to tell you, you've become more middle-class than ever. You pretend to tastes that you haven't got; you MOTHER NATURE 45 pose as something you are not; and you show your "intellectual" wares as others display their goods. Your brothers make a show with the good towns- people by piling up money; you try to make a show in your way. It's the same sort of vanity, and it's a thing that's as far from a really superior man as I can imagine. Now, don't be angry. You're a good man and I love you. I can't say as much for Olivier. OLIVIER As if I cared! BLANCHE I know you don't care about anything. Oh, I Ve quite forgotten little Bab hi the garden. (To Darchi) He wanted you. I think you promised to build something for him Grandpa! Are you coming? DARCHI Very well. Only you are a bit sharp. You don't understand [They go out. Olivier walks nervously up and down. He stops in front of his desk, lights a cigarette, and then continues pacing the room. Enter Renee, right. OLIVIER Renee, your behavior just now was inexcusable. RENEE I asked you not to receive that woman any more. OLIVIER You neglected, however, to give me any good reason for refusing to do so. 46 MOTHER NATURE RENEE I think you have no right to see women here whom I refuse to receive. OLIVIER Please, Renee, let's not have another useless argu- ment. I refuse to give up so much good energy trying to convince you that you are inspired by absurd prejudices. I've suffered enough from them already. RENEE As I suffered from many other things. During the past month ever since our last painful discussion on the same subject, which I don't even want to remind you of I 've been trying to forget all the dreams of my girlhood. Of course, I mustn't allow anything of your outrageous treatment toward me to be seen by any one. OLIVIER But I can't emulate your way of living. I must live with the people of my own circle. RENEE It seems to me your circle ought to be your family, your own fireside, and I myself. OLIVIER No : it is the people with whom I can discuss matters that interest me, stimulate me, develop my intel- lectual life. RENEE That is, every one except me. OLIVIER Is it my fault if nothing I do interests you? If you persistently refuse even to try to share my interests, MOTHER NATURE 47 to make the slightest effort to rise above the petty trivialities of the household? RENEE Do you call love and tenderness petty trivialities? I have tried to understand your aspirations, but I Ve not found one to take the place of love. OLIVIER Real love is a communion of ideas. RENEE Your ideas and your words are as cold as ice. OLIVIER As the ideas and words of any intelligent and strong man ought to be. You see, the woman you spoke of, and with whom I enjoy a purely intellectual relation- ship, understands and loves those ideas and words. However, our last discussion only proved how deep our misunderstanding was, and how impossible it was to bridge the gap. RENEE (proudly) I shouldn't think of forgetting that ! OLIVIER And as I require the companionship of intellectual people for the sake of my own development, I simply must RENEE No, you must not, unless you want to outrage every feeling in me. I won't stand it. My intelligence I know you don't think I have any ! OLIVIER Yes, I do, but you were never taught how to behave 48 MOTHER NATURE RENEE I tell you, my intelligence and my dignity refuse to bear it another instant. [Enter Heurtoux. HEURTOUX What is it, Renee? You're so excited! RENEE It's you, father? I'm glad you've come. HEURTOUX Why? What's the trouble? RENEE I 'm terribly unhappy. HEURTOUX Renee ! OLIVIER Let her speak. RENEE I'm a total stranger to my husband. He refuses to allow me to share his life with him. He says he belongs to a different race, and insists on receiving a woman here whom I refuse to recognize. OLIVIER Jealousy, you see. RENEE Jealousy, no ! I am not jealous, but I won't be made ridiculous. It's my pride and my dignity. You don't know that side of me. It's coming to the surface now. HEURTOUX Renee, please try to be calm. Olivier, she's right. What about this other woman? MOTHER NATURE 49 OLIVIER A painter. I talk to her about my work. HEURTOUX What work? OLIVIER I can't explain it to you: you don't understand HEURTOUX Because I see no evidence of your work. It's very strange. You talk about it to every one, and they waste your time, the time you could be spending on doing it. You've been married two years, and you've never got beyond talking about your books. OLIVIER My dear Monsieur, this is becoming absurd. Kindly allow me to do my own work in my own way. I tell you once for all, you will never understand. HEURTOUX I 've done a good share of work in my day. OLIVIER Your idea of work is a very narrow one. But when a man really respects ideas and realizes the vast importance of expression, he knows what infinite pains are required to put the ideas into definite shape. When I think, I work, and if the results of that work have not as yet become definitely formulated, they are none the less gradually accumulating, and will some day find a place in a book that will be unique of its kind, and worthy to be given to the world, Even dreams are preparation for the book. Granted 50 MOTHER NATURE that the dreams are never used as material, the good work will not have been in vain. But you don't see this, so HEURTOUX Don't worry: I see. And I understand it so well that in spite of my inferiority as a human being with human emotions, I think it's all nonsense. When you work for and by yourself, and when you dream that's not work; real work is useful work. OLIVIER Useful to whom? HEURTOUX To everybody. OLIVIER Ah, real work then is what you've done all your life: manufacturing cloth and selling grain? HEURTOUX Not necessarily. You must contribute something useful for everybody, either materially as I have done or add to the beauty of the world as you ought to do. OLIVIER I don't believe in the world; I don't even believe in the necessity of life sufficiently, that is, to make the effort. I didn't accept the duty. HEURTOUX You've got to accept it. And with the duty goes the right. Your right is the right to live. OLIVIER I didn't ask for it. I did not give myself life. MOTHER NATURE 51 HEURTOUX You take very good care to preserve it. You accept the right but refuse to perform the duty. OLIVIER You 're becoming very eloquent, Monsieur Heurtoux, for a a HEURTOUX Former manufacturer, eh? No, I'm not eloquent, I am simply telling you a few ideas of my own. The average man like me has very decided notions on the subject. You share in the results of other people's labor my own, the baker's, your maid's, that of the composer of the melody you are now whistling . You have contracted a debt. You don't realize it, and that is why you are making Renee unhappy. You see, there are certain duties that go together; work, love, parenthood; they are all contributions to life, and they are natural duties; you are bound to them merely because you exist, because you cling to life OLIVIER Who says I cling to life? HEURTOUX Your very conduct: everything you do. Why, that empty bouillon cup on the table! The life you received you must pay for. That is why we must work for the necessities of life, that is why we are endowed with instincts to love, and to beget children. These are like the mysterious laws of compensation and equilibrium in nature. Those who haven't these instincts and who fail to understand the duties are natural monstrosities. You smile 52 MOTHER NATURE OLIVIER Yes, a little. The "mysterious laws" of nature always make me smile. I refuse to allow myself to be influenced by instinct. I do not submit to nature : I analyse it. RENEE Stop! Nature will take her revenge on you. You spend your time dissecting the unnatural, abnormal sensations and ideas of what you call your circle, who know nothing of nature. You shut yourselves into a stuffy little room like this, where the sun you so much fear never penetrates. (She goes to the window at the back and opens it, pushing back the curtains. The sunlight floods the room. Trees and grass, and a lovely landscape, are seen in the distance) Can you analyse that? Can you dissect the thrilling sensations inspired by nature? No, you must feel them and be led and dominated by them. You must submit to all-powerful nature, to the great and overmastering force of life. I have my pride, as you have yours. I can understand your feeling of revolt against everything that man has made and con- trived, but when you revolt against Mother Nature, your struggle must end in failure. At base, I think you understand this, only you are afraid to look facts in the face; you draw the curtains! But you are playing a losing game. Nature comes to you all the same, and sooner or later she will be avenged. So far as you are concerned, your day is not far off. OLIVIER You, too, Renee, are waxing eloquent. You don't have to get so excited to show me the beauty of a MOTHER NATURE 53 little landscape a charming Corot, which I confess I admire. RENEE See, you can't admire nature except at secondhand. You admire Corots, Rousseaus, and Monets, but not nature, because you think of other things when you see her. OLIVIER My dear, you're becoming rather tiresome. Have you anything more to say? Or you, Monsieur Heurtoux? HEURTOUX No, I'm looking at the landscape, which your cur- tains were hiding. I 'm looking at Bab in the garden; Darchi is carrying him on his shoulders because he doesn't think any one is looking. Yes, I do think we belong to different races, but I wonder if the real intellectual, the true artist, is you who talk about the "great forces," or I, the old manufacturer, upon whom those forces are brought to bear, even tnough I can't analyse them. OLIVIER No, we are not the same, and therefore we can never understand each other. Now let us bring this dis- cussion to a close. My education and culture have opened up too wide a gulf between us. RENEE I have not finished yet. I want to ask you a simple question, and I beg you to think well before you answer. A great deal will depend on that answer, more than you imagine. Are you willing to refuse to receive that woman any more? 54 MOTHER NATURE OLIVIER My dear, I see no reason why I should give in to your whim. RENEE Very well. OLIVIER (going to the door) Good-bye, Monsieur Heurtoux. We'll meet again when you calm down a little, and perhaps you aren't so much inclined to philosophize. {Olivier goes out. Renee falls into a chair. RENEE I I want fresh air. Please open the windows. (Heurtoux opens the windows wide. The sun is setting. The stage is gradually becoming darker) Now it's all over! HEURTOUX What do you mean? RENEE I mean, I feel I am absolutely free now. HEURTOUX But, Renee, you are a married woman! RENEE Marriage has made me unhappy. It disgusts me, and I '11 have nothing more to do with it. HEURTOUX Renee ! RENEE (rising) Father, you don't know what I have gone through. You don't know what our marriage has been! MOTHER NATURE 55 HEURTOUX Yes, I do know. Your mother told me. (Renee hides her face. Heurtoux goes to her) Poor child! I like you better that way ashamed, even before your father. I like to see a woman blush for some things. Poor dear child, I know how unhappy you are. Perhaps it's my fault for allowing you to marry him. RENEE You mustn't blame yourself, father. HEURTOUX But I do. I am sorry for my short-sightedness. How many fathers there are like me who have lived decent lives as husbands and fathers, and yet seem to think a husband for then* daughter must be dif- ferent from what they are! They are taken in by the fine manners of a gentleman. Poor Renee, I ought to have found you a husband like myself (with a smile) or as I used to be. Nothing very bril- liant, but a good solid fellow, not over-subtle, but full of the love of life, with good strength and courage; a man of strong convictions, relying maybe a little too much on his emotions, but finding in them, because they are healthy, the pledge for a well-balanced and common-sense existence. You want a man nearer to nature, not so refined, but healthier and gentler, who loves you with less philosophy and more passion the way I loved your mother (Renee rises as she listens to her father, and looks out the window) and gives you children, fine healthy youngsters, like Bab. Aren't you listening, Renee? 56 MOTHER NATURE RENEE Yes, yes, father, but I was looking. See, outdoors everything is echoing your words: the breeze, the rustling of the leaves, Bab's voice HEURTOUX So you see, Renee, I am right hi blaming myself. [Enter Darchi, at the back. DARCHI The window open ! What are you doing? RENEE We were talking. Isn't Bab with you? DARCHI Meryac relieved me. The moment he appears on the scene, Bab forgets every one else. (To Heurtoux) You old emotional and impressionable Daddy, will you play a game of billiards with me? Olivier's not here : he's gone for a walk. RENEE Oh! DARCHI Yes. (To Heurtoux) Are you coming? HEURTOUX Yes, and I want to talk to you about something. DARCHI You're going to lecture me, are you? If so, I'll run away. HEURTOUX See you soon, Renee. Kiss me. [Renee offers her forehead, and Heurtoux kisses it. MOTHER NATURE 57 DARCHI Very touching family scene! [Heurtoux and Darchi go out. The stage has become quite dark. Renee goes slowly to the window, sits down, and gazes out. Andre and Blanche enter a moment later. BLANCHE What do you want? ANDRE I want you to kiss me. [He kisses her face and neck. BLANCHE What is the matter? The idea! ANDRE (kissing her again) This is my answer to your father's statement that no love can survive five years' married life. I can't discuss, and my lips refuse to argue except this way. BLANCHE I think they're most eloquent! ANDRE Do you? BLANCHE (offering her lips) You see ? I want more arguments. (Andre kisses her again) Then you still love me? ANDRE Dear little Blanchette! BLANCHE Very much? ANDRE Very much. 58 MOTHER NATURE BLANCHE As much as at first? ANDRE More. BLANCHE But you said then it was impossible to love me more ? ANDRE I thought so at the time, but I didn't imagine you could become more adorable than you were then. I was mistaken. I know you so much better now. BLANCHE You do indeed! ANDRE (with his arm around her waist) And you are my own wife BLANCHE Of course I am, you dear! ANDRE And yet I can never know you too well. I love you, I love you so much BLANCHE Stop! You mustn't profane my brother's office, the psychologist's sanctuary. Aren't you glad you aren't like him? If I had that kind of a husband, I 'd have deceived him long ago. ANDRE Now I'm warned. But I don't want to be like him, so there's no danger. BLANCHE Then we're not old married people? ANDRE Do you think we are? MOTHER NATURE 59 BLANCHE And we're not going to be? ANDRE Never even at eighty. We'll always be bride and groom. Let me kiss you again. (Renee rises. They turn) Sh! There's some one! Let's run! [They escape, without having seen Renee. RENEE How happy they are ! [She leans against the watt near the door. Singing is heard outside. Meryac's figure is distinguished passing on the terrace. On catching sight of Renee, he stops short, then enters. MERYAC Are you alone? RENEE I was watching the sun set. MERYAC And I have been looking for you. Your husband has gone out. Your father and father-in-law are talking on the road. Andre and his wife have dis- appeared somewhere, and your mother is with Bab. I haven't seen you for some days. Are you trying to avoid me? RENEE No. MERYAC I wanted so much to see you! RENEE But you 're so busy. Your factory, your minting Weren't you out hunting this gorgeous day? 60 MOTHER NATURE MERYAC No. I don't think I'll do any more hunting at all. RENEE (seated, as she looks off into the distance) Why not? MERYAC I feel sick about it, almost remorseful. Something happened it was really of no consequence a hunter would laugh at me. RENEE What was it? MERYAC Nothing, and yet it upset me, and brought tears to my eyes. It was three days ago. You remember how beautiful it was, how the sun bathed the whole countryside as it does to-day. Well, I started off with my dog. I was entranced with the soft summer air and intoxicated with the bright sunlight. I walked along oblivious of everything, in a dream the one I always dream, and which I dare not tell you I had forgotten all about hunting and lost sight of the dog. All at once I heard something run through the underbrush. I looked up, and twenty paces away I saw the dog madly pursuing a little gray mass. I don't know why I didn't raise my gun as I usually do, but somehow I was frightened and stunned. I called to the dog: "Frac! Frac, come here!" But the dog was too intent on his prey, and when I finally reached him, after a hot chase, he had already mangled the little gray mass. It was a young hare. I watched its last agony, and felt as if I were an accomplice to a murder. Strange, MOTHER NATURE 61 it wasn't the first time I'd seen an animal die; often I finished the work myself. I have always been so excited by the shooting that I never thought of the animal itself. But this time I felt the whole death agony as I saw the helpless little body palpitate in the clover. Everything danced before my eyes; I thought that all nature was trembling at the death of the little hare. You see, there's nothing extraordinary in this stupid little tale. But I don't think I'll hunt again. I don't think I'd dare look another living creature in the face. You have made me feel that way. RENEE i? MERYAC Yes, you. Ever since I saw you and loved you, I have felt a greater responsibility toward all life and a love for all creatures. When I think of you and I always think of you! all nature surges up in me, the whole of life. It intoxicates me. RENEE I have felt that, too! I know the feeling. When I was a child, and when I was still a young girl, I used to have hallucinations they were wonderfully beautiful and I seemed to see the great hosts of life; they meant power and mystery to me. When you came here a few minutes ago, I felt so confused and troubled MERYAC * Troubled? Have you been suffering again? RENEE No. 62 MOTHER NATURE MERYAC Yes, you have. I can't bear to have you suffer. It's all the more intolerable in the presence of the supreme happiness of nature, that seems to cry aloud to us to thrill and be our true selves. You are so full of life, of passion, youth. [The sound of women's voices singing is heard more distinctly than before. RENEE It is wonderful! This beautiful evening! You and I can't be reasonable now. Let us go. MERYAC Are you afraid? RENEE (tense) Yes. And I do suffer. You are right: I am young, I love life. I feel those things you spoke of. Every- thing draws us together; the birds' wings, the singing, the laughing children. I understand the mysterious language of nature, but I am afraid of what it will tell me. I am afraid of myself. I'm so lonely! And I am afraid of you ! Let's go, let's go ! MERYAC (close by her) Renee, you mustn't be afraid. You give me joy and confidence. Remember, you have the right to love, to give yourself freely. Nature calls you! Listen to the singing and the children ! I love you, Renee, I love you! [He takes her in his arms. RENEE (freeing herself from his embrace) No, dear, no. Please ! Pity me ! I feel so weak I ! I'm not keeping anything from you, and I tell you I'm deeply troubled, because my pride has MOTHER NATURE 63 been hurt: I feel my will-power deserting me. Aren't you satisfied? You have felt my heart beat, and you have brought me to the verge of giving myself to you. I love you. You knew it already I don't mind admitting it. But I beg you, because I love you and because I want us to be worthy of each other, please go leave me MERYAC Renee, you told me you understood the language of nature! Isn't nature giving us to each other now? RENEE I do understand it MERYAC Not as I do. I must have you I want you! RENEE And I want you, but more still, I want to resist. I implore you, save me from myself. Yes, I too feel drawn to you, irresistibly. I am young, I have been sad and lonely, and I want to live I must live. And I love you oh, so much! Ever since you first told me you loved me, I 've been struggling hard with myself. I know it's no use now. I will be yours, I must be yours, because I love you, and I want to love you. But I don't want to do anything I should regret. Not here. I don't want my happiness to spring from defeat. I want it to be victory! Later to-morrow, perhaps then without regret, with- out remorse! Not to-day. Pity me. I love you, I am yours but not now. Not now. [She turns from him in tears. The singing outside is heard coming nearer and nearer. CURTAIN 64 MOTHER NATURE ACT III The scene is the same. Heurtoux, Mme. Heurtoux, and Darchi are present. DABCHI But it's not my fault. Anyway, I am sure you exaggerate. HEURTOUX Of course, it's not your fault, my dear Darchi. But it's high time you began to look facts in the face. I tell you, we are not exaggerating. MME. HEURTOUX Unfortunately! If Renee doesn't seem more des- perate, it's her pride. She sees you agree with Oli- vier in everything, and she refuses to show anything. But she is suffering. She can't stand the strain very much longer. I'm afraid it will tell on her. HEURTOUX That's what I said. That scene about little Lilian the other day was a fearful shock. It showed how serious the matter is becoming. I don't see any way out of it. Renee's excitement worried me as much as Olivier's indifference. DARCHI What do you want me to do? I'm not used to handling these sentimental affairs. But why the devil does Renee make such a fuss over Klary? The little girl is amusing that's all. HEURTOUX Too amusing! MOTHER NATURE 65 DAKCHI Grant even that Olivier is wrong. Grant it. What else has Renee to complain of? These griefs of hers are rather vague, it seems to me, a matter of impres- sions MME. HEURTOUX My dear friend, a woman's whole happiness is a matter of impressions. Probably the greatest lack in Renee's married life is impressions. You can't leave a young wife of twenty-five in the sort of moral desert in which Olivier leaves Renee. Renee is by nature lively, affectionate, tender. He maintains he must have quiet for his intellectual development much good it does him and he says she disturbs him. He neglects her, that's what he does, and re- fuses her everything she has a right to expect. You think her griefs are vague, and that she has nothing in particular to complain of. I tell you, she is right when she declares she is not getting out of marriage what she had a perfect right to expect. She's not a real wife in any sense of the word: she can't hope to be a mother. DARCHI Ridiculous sentimental feminine notions! A man and his wife can't always love as they did when they were engaged! MME. HEURTOUX Good Heavens, my dear Darchi, you surely don't expect me, an old woman, to tell you how a husband ought to love his wife; how he can go about it to make her forget certain disagreeable things and be 66 MOTHER NATURE happy! I was once a young wife myself, and I can tell you our married life wasn't a bit like Renee's and Olivier 's. (To her husband) Isn't that so, dear? (Heurtoux makes no answer, only he lightly kisses her hair) And I rather think your own wasn't either, for that matter! DARCHI We belong to another generation. HEURTOUX There are some things that never change from one generation to another, old man. Men and women love each other nowadays as they did in the past that is, when they really love. MME. HEURTOUX I knew your wife, Darchi, and I know she was very happy don't deny it! And I know, too, that you let her have the upper hand with you. DARCHI Come, now, I MME. HEURTOUX Yes, yes, yes. You were very much in love with her. And you had children. DARCHI Who've given me any amount of trouble. MME. HEURTOUX Whom you love all the same, and who have given you great happiness. Why, your behavior at this very moment is only the result of your admiration for Olivier. And look at Blanche, who has given you grandchildren, to whom you are a model grand- daddy when no one is looking! MOTHER NATURE 67 DARCHI I haven't a heart of stone, of course MME. HEURTOUX Then try to appear what you really are. You have good, simple, healthy feelings which you try your best to conceal and stifle, in order to ape your son. It reminds me of the way you hide your comfortable old Voltaire armchair in your bedroom, while you pretend to like those nasty little English things you can't sit down on! DARCHI Who told you that? MME. HEURTOUX Blanche. You see, we know you. There's no use trying to make us believe you are an advanced mod- ern, that you've done away with all human feelings, and so on. We won't believe you. HEURTOUX You understand, Darchi, this is a very serious matter. Our girl is threatened with great unhap- piness. And it's high time you did something. DARCHI (nervously) I? HEURTOUX Yes, you. You are the only one who can say certain things to Olivier. We couldn't. I tried yesterday, but it was useless. You could say things to him without hurting his pride. DARCHI I? My dear friends, I don't think so. I really am in earnest I haven't been so serious for a long 68 MOTHER NATURE time. What you tell me about Renee troubles me, I confess. I know I deserve a severe scolding. It's partly my own fault. MME. HEURTOUX No one is blaming you. DARCHI I think I ought to blame myself. You have changed me. I haven't really thought about myself for years. But how could it be helped? I had such confidence in Olivier's intellect. I couldn't foresee all this trouble. HEURTOUX But if you step in now DARCHI Believe me, I want to help. But I'm sure Olivier wouldn't listen to me. You see, he's so used to having me agree with him in everything. He knows so much more than I do, and he argues better. I've become the obedient son, and he the father. Why, he'd laugh in my face respectfully of course! Still, he'd laugh. And he'd say all sorts of fine- sounding things, and I'd understand about half of them. Of course, my answers would be ridicu- lous. And besides, I'm afraid he would use my own arguments against me. HEURTOUX You are in a bad way, Darchi! DARCHI It's not easy being the father of a superior man! I'm nothing but a retired manufacturer. How can I answer clever arguments? How can I confess my MOTHER NATURE 69 ignorance? It would be too humiliating. I'd hare to pretend to be superior in my own way. That's the simplest method, but it has its drawbacks. I feel that mote keenly now than ever before. It hurts me to have to confess this to you. I can't help you at all. HEURTOUX Well, try, at least. DARCHI I'll try, but I haven't much hope. I'll see him at once. (He goes toward Heurtoux) You don't blame me, do you, Heurtoux? HEURTOUX (grasping his hand) Of course not. I feel sorry for you, as I do for our- selves. DARCHI (as he goes out) I'll try. MME. HEURTOUX Poor fellow! HEURTOUX He's beginning to see the light. MME. HEURTOUX He at least has Blanche. While we I'm so afraid for Renee! HEURTOUX Darchi is not the only one who blames himself. MME. HEURTOUX What do you mean ? HEURTOUX I mean I blame myself, too, for what has happened. It's somewhat my own fault. 70 MOTHER NATURE MME. HEURTOUX How do you mean, your own fault? HEURTOUX I ought to have known better than to give her such a husband he was too different. That's the usual mistake of fathers like me. If we have no money to give our daughters, we many them off to rich men, deceiving them meanwhile as to the state of our finances. If we have, then we look for a son-in-law from the upper classes, and we find out when it's too late that sincerity and hard work are the only roads to intelligence and virtue. The girl is made unhappy, and we are punished for our stupidity and pride. The punishment may be a cruel one, but it is none the less deserved. MME. HEURTOUX You're right. We were mistaken. And yet you and I, dear, knew how to be happy, and we loved each other. We were happy, I think, because we never tried to find out the why and how of it all. Hap- piness comes when you don't think too much about it. I only hope Renee won't do anything rash. I'm so afraid HEURTOUX But Renee has a very strict sense of duty. MME. HEURTOUX Still, I'm afraid. I know her. The way she keeps things to herself why, the strain must be terrible. Her strength and patience must be nearly at an end. And she is young and romantic, you know. She is honest and upright, of course, but she belongs to MOTHER NATURE 71 her own generation, and if she knows her duties, she also knows her rights. I'm very much worried. When I saw her a few moments ago she was almost too calm! Especially after the scene yesterday. [Enter Renee. RENEE Have you seen Blanche, mother? MME. HEURTOUX Not long ago. She must be somewhere in the house. Come here, Renee, we want to talk with you. RENEE What is it, mother? MME. HEURTOUX We want to know what's the matter. You are so changed. Have you had an explanation with your husband? Is everything better now? RENEE No, we've had no explanation. There will be no more explanations, unless MME. HEURTOUX What is the matter, dear? Look at me straight in the face. (Renee looks steadfastly at her mother) You're so changed since yesterday. It almost seems as if your trouble had been wiped away. There is a look of joy, of victory, in your eyes RENEE I'm just calm, mother, that's all. And I have per- fect control over my feelings. I 'm not worrying any more. I've made an important decision. I see everything clearly now. I've found my will-power again. 72 MOTHER NATURE MME. HEURTOUX A decision? What? RENEE Mother, please don't make me tell you now. You will know soon. MME. HEURTOUX What is it ? Renee, are you hiding anything from me ? From your father and mother? That's not right. RENEE Yes, it is. You see, I'm afraid you'll both object. You made me a decent girl, and you've given me feelings. You yourselves have given me the example, only your notions of decency and uprightness are a little different from mine; they belong to different times. I do respect you, and I admire your principles, but I think I have the right not to agree with you on certain matters. I imagine you wouldn't approve of what I have decided to do. But nothing can prevent me HEURTOUX Not even your father and mother, Renee? RENEE No, not even you. I love you both dearly, and I should feel terribly hurt if I did something you disapproved of, but I feel that this is a matter con- cerning my whole future happiness. I shall soon be very happy, and so will you. MME. HEURTOUX Don't you see how your attitude, your silence and calmness, have hurt us already? If you behave this way, it must be a very serious matter. Your decision MOTHER NATURE 73 must be irrevocable? You you aren't forgetting your duties, are you, Renee? RENEE What duties? MME. HEURTOUX As a wife, my child. ^ RENEE As a wife? I am not a wife, as you know only too well. HEURTOUX Your duties as a woman, then. RENEE I am not even a woman! At least, so far I haven't lived the life of a real woman. What I want now is the duties of a woman! HEURTOUX What are you going to do, Renee? See how upset your mother is. She is afraid for you, and for us. Tell us what you've decided to do. We'll try to understand and help you, if we possibly can. RENEE Forgive me, father and you too, mother. I'm going to hurt you, I know, but I can't help it; it's inevitable, and it's absolutely necessary. That's the only sorrow I have in all my happiness. But I must tell you if not to-day, then to-morrow. MME. HEURTOUX (crying) Renee! RENEE I only want you to understand, and not blame me. You spoke of my duties as a woman. My duty as MOTHER NATURE a woman is to give all my love and be faithful to the man who loves me. Olivier does not love me. HEURTOUX He is your husband! RENEE Do you insist that I sacrifice my whole life for that reason? For the sake of a convention? Would you ask me to drag out my life to the end, with- out hope? You can't ask me to do that! You wouldn't want me to! To live alone without love, me a woman of twenty-five MME. HEURTOUX You are cruel, Renee. You say you would be alone. What about us? RENEE You know I love you, mother. I respect you, and I adore you. I want to be like you, when I am your age. I want to look back on my life and think of it with pride, and know I have deserved my happiness. What I admire and love in you is what your life has been how quiet and strong ! your sense of duty accomplished. I know what you have been when I see father kiss your white hair, and when I think that I am part of your love for each other. That is why I want to be like you, to the end of my life. MME. HEURTOUX My dear child, what are you going to do? It's a terrible thing that you can't realize your dreams, unless you do wrong by leaving your husband and going to some one else MOTHER NATURE 75 RENEE That's what I want! HEUBTOUX And forget us! RENEE I shan't forget you. I know that you suffer as I do more, perhaps. I want a different life from now on. But I promise, you will find happiness in my happiness. I make you cry now, but soon I shall make you laugh with me. You will be happy, as you were when I was a child. That is the only real joy parents have children but think how wonderful it is! I want that joy too, mother! You must promise to stand by me, and take care of me. Promise; I need your support. MME. HEURTOUX (in tears) Poor darling! Do you think we'd give you up? What would our life be without you now? RENEE What mine would be twenty years from now, if I failed to do what I have decided to! HEURTOUX But tell us [Enter Olivier. RENEE (with dignity and strength) Now I '11 tell you, mother ! I have asked my husband to be present and hear my decision. OLIVIER Good setting! Really effective! What does it all mean? 76 MOTHER NATURE RENEE I '11 tell you. You remember, a month ago I told you to take care, and defend me against myself? You shrugged your shoulders. And you remember, yesterday, after I had warned you of the importance I would attach to your answer, I asked you whether you would refuse to see that woman whose presence here is an insult to me? You refused. A month ago I still hoped I might be able to bring you closer to me and make you at least behave as other men do. At that time I had no intention of doing what I have now decided on, and your answer was what urged me to take the step. OLIVIER (coldly) What step? RENEE I am going away. MME. HEURTOUX Going away, Renee? HEURTOUX What! RENEE I say, I am going away. Please let me finish, father. OLIVIER (disdainfully) So you are going away? See where your silly roman- tic ideas are taking you! My dear, do you know you have no right to do that unless you are divorced from me, and also that that divorce must first be obtained ? You will find it difficult to prove anything against me. MOTHER NATURE 77 RENEE I know that. But I have no intention of getting a divorce at present. That will come later. I am simply going away. If I stayed to discuss and argue, I should continue to be a slave, and that I refuse to be. I refuse too, to ask you for my right to live and love. I am taking that right now. So you see, you must free me some day. Then I shall marry and become the sort of wife you refused to let me be. That is why I am leaving. OLIVIER (as before) May I know where you are going? RENEE No, but I shall tell you what I am going to do. OLIVIER And what pray may that be? RENEE This evening I shall belong to the man I love. MME. HEURTOUX What are you saying! My dear child! HEURTOUX You don't know what you're saying! OLIVIER Stop it ! This is my affair ! This evening, you say ? Are you quite sure this evening will be the first time? RENEE What I am doing now ought to speak for the past, I think. I am warning you, you see, because I can't bear to lie to you or conceal anything. Because I'm not guilty. I feel sure I am acting within my 78 MOTHER NATURE rights. I've submitted too long, waited too long for you to understand and love me as I wanted to be loved, as I have a right to be loved, and as I once loved you! I loved you with every illusion of first love. But when I began to lose hope, and when I saw that you would never really be my husband, I thought that at least you would give me a child some day the child I so longed for, that would have purified our passion and given me some- thing to live for, and make our useless home some- thing beautiful and worthy. But you refused! If I can't get that sort of love and Me from you, I don't want to live. I crave it with my heart, with my senses and now I am going where I can get it. I am going away deliberately; I know perfectly well what I am doing: I am going to give myself to a man who will give me what I want. I go joyfully, because I shall take what belongs to me by right. What I want above everything else on earth is a child that will make me a better woman, obedient to the law of life that you so heartily despise ! OLIVIER That will do! Really, this is ridiculous. You seem to forget that this is a wrong and an outrage against me! You're not the one to argue with There's some one else to reckon with! It must be Meryac, eh? RENEE Yes. OLIVIER Good ! I ought to have suspected it. Do you think for an instant I '11 allow you to go off that way, just MOTHER NATURE 79 because you want full liberty for your love affairs? I know very well that this isn 't the first time RENEE You lie! OLIVIER That's enough! RENEE I am not afraid of you. I am going to do what I said I would. How can you stop me? Supposing you do to-day, what about to-morrow? You can't lock me up. OLIVIER I'll settle that with your lover. RENEE I hardly think so. He won't risk his life fighting you. Your life is useless, his belongs to me. OLTVTER Oh, he's a coward, then! RENEE Do you dare speak of cowardice? You make me smile. You are afraid of life; you are afraid to assume its duties and responsibilities. HEURTOUX Renee, calm yourself. Think of us! OLIVIER Why, it's all your fault. See where those damned sentimental notions are leading her! Thrown her into the arms of the first good-looking male she meets. I ought to have known that a woman brought up by such parents was not the wife for an artist. I could never hope to bring her up to my level 80 MOTHER NATURE HEURTOUX If you had been a real artist, I don't think things would have come to this pass. I don't approve of what Renee is doing, but I advise you not to call yourself an artist. All you do is to muddle everything up with words; every impression you receive is from a book or a picture; your eyes can't bear direct sunlight; you deform and pervert nature by your everlasting analysis; you deny the great laws of life and try to formulate rules for love itself. Do you really think you are the artist? Is it not rather Renee ? She gives herself up maybe a little too readily to the marvelous beauty of life; she lets nature breathe the sweetness of life into her veins; she allows her healthy instincts free play. She thrills with life, and laughs and cries at God's handiwork, which you try to analyse and describe and formulate. You never feel a true emotion, or shed a tear Look at you now, for instance! I repeat, I don't approve of Renee, but I understand! OLIVIER Let's cut this discussion short. Let her go. After all, I shall be freer than she. And, besides, my pride wouldn't allow me to hold her by force. After everything she just said, I don't want to see her again. I leave her to the animal who wants her. Perhaps I'll have a little peace and quiet now. I've wasted too much time and energy on an igno- rant and unsympathetic woman. [He goes out. RENEE (excitedly) I'm free now! (She goes to her parents, with tears MOTHER NATURE 81 in her eyes} Don't cry, father! Mother, don't blame me! And don't be sad. I'm going to be so happy! Look out there, see the country, and the sky, and the sunlight! They are all calling to me. Everything is waiting for me. You taught me to love those things, didn't you ? I belong to them, I 'm part of them, because I am a woman, a human being. And I 'm going to be everything that a woman should be! Don't cry, mother! HEURTOUX Well, I don't think RENEE Don't argue with me, father! Let me go now. I feel I must obey the highest of all laws! CURTAIN PROGRESS (Les Stapes) A PLAY IN THREE ACTS Les Etapes was first performed at the Theatre du Pare, Brussels, in 1907. Persons in the play : DOCTOR THERAT DOCTOR LEGLAY, his son-in-law VANNAIRE EDMOND, Leglay's son A Man Patient A Servant MADELEINE, Therat's daughter MADAME THERAT A Woman Patient The scene is in two different rooms in Therat's home, presumably in a large Belgian city. The time is the present. PROGRESS ACT I Doctor Leglay's consulting office. This room connects with the drawing-room by a large doorway, which is open. The furnishings are severe: bookcases, a desk, and a table with surgical instruments. As the curtain rises, Doctor Therat is seated, his wife facing him. Leglay and Vannaire are nearby. MME. THERAT (to her husband) You must rest; you may, now that Paul is working with you. VANNAIRE Your wife is right: you must rest. THERAT I don't intend to let Paul do all the work by himself. LEGLAY You know I am quite ready to do that, master. THERAT I know, and I thank you. But it would not be right; it wouldn't be fitting. MME. THERAT (interrupting) No, it wouldn't be right or fitting if Paul were an ordinary assistant or a total stranger; but your son-in-law, practically your son! LEGLAY Of course. But I should be only too glad if I were able 85 86 PROGRESS THERAT For my part, I should be sorry. (To Leglay) You ought to understand. You cannot forsake science after having devoted your life to it. It yields us such glorious returns. Only this morning I operated on a woman a poor creature, she would have interested you, Vannaire: splendid case for a novel- ist. She was a young mother, abandoned death staring her in the face, and the possibility of leaving a helpless orphan. (He rises, and speaks proudly} I saved her. That gives me more joy, a juster reason to be proud than anything else; it gives me more genuine pleasure than I could have from any amount of rest. At such times we love our profession passionately when we work, secretly, to preserve a spark of life in a being we do not know, who was the day before merely indifferent to us, a human being from whom we had absolutely nothing to expect. That being pays us nothing, and perhaps will never suspect the danger from which we have saved him. At a time like that we do not sell our power: we make a present of it. Our only fee is the satisfaction of realizing what we have accomplished. VANNAIRE That must be splendid the finest sort of work! MME. THERAT But you mustn't kill yourself with work. A time comes when you have given all you have to give, and work is over. THERAT Work is never over: does death rest? PROGRESS 87 MME. THERAT But you surely have a right to think a little of your- self! (Bitterly) The finest sort of work! It's the most thankless sort of work! There is Therat, after forty years of the hardest sort of work he's not rich! THERAT (quietly) We do not need wealth, Nannie. We live comfort- ably. MME. THERAT Or if you'd had the glory you deserved for all your work and your discoveries ! (With a touch of bitterness) Except for your connection with the Academy of Medicine why, a tenor is better rewarded! It's all a grand swindle! THERAT What of it? The scientist does not labor for him- self, his reputation, or his fortune. He works for the best that is in him, to add his mite to the store of human knowledge that has been handed down to him by those who have gone before. He gives himself to the great nameless masses of mankind, whom he does not know. It is a crime if he refuses to relieve suffering that is, if he is able. We ask nothing from the unknown man who falls, and whom we must help. We do not think of the energy we spend in helping him; we go to work in- stinctively, because the sight of evil which can be cured is intolerable to us. (With a change in manner, he says playfully) Then, what do you expect of me? Do I seem old and decrepit? Never fear, Nanine, 88 PROGRESS never fear; I am not so old! Come, now, see whether everything is in order in my office. It is nearly time for the consultation. Are you going to stay, Vannaire? VANNAIRE Only a moment. THERAT Shall we see you this evening? VANNAIRE Yes. THERAT You won't need me, Leglay, will you? You don't anticipate any complication? LEGLAY I don't think so no, I hardly think so. THERAT See you later. [Therat goes out with his wife. LEGLAY Did you hear? He gives me advice on how to con- duct myself! The scientist's personality matters nothing; his desire for glory is nothing in com- parison with the accomplishment of his mission. He doesn't work for himself, but for mankind. He must seek the truth, and trouble his mind about nothing else. I look up to Therat as my master; he gave me his daughter; I admire him as a scientist and love him as a father. I admire his enthusiasm, and his high sense of duty. He has given me respect, a sense of fidelity toward my work, and I have acted according to his ideals. But Therat is mistaken: PROGRESS 89 the very nobility of his passion has led him to formu- late and apply laws which are too rigid and narrow. Can I blind myself to reason, can I give the lie to that very science which he has taught me, to my conscience, which he has so jealously guarded? Well, it is the same thing over again: who ever dis- covered a truth that did not contain in it somewhere an error? Was there ever a genius so perfect that he could escape correction at the hands of posterity? VANNAIRE Yes, yes, I know. From my own experience, I know, because I am not a genius. LEGLAY You? But you are famous. Your novels ? VANNAIRE Famous and disillusioned. You still have that beautiful faith which gives happiness to others, and torture to you who possess it. I am afraid the same disillusion will come to you later on. LEGLAY Very well, if it is a necessary preparation for the future. VANNAIRE Unfortunately, it spoils the present. No one but a fool enjoys fame. If you are not a fool, then you will be saddened by the thought that you can foresee, almost to the minute, when your fame will vanish. But that makes little difference. You cannot choose your destiny. For my part, I took up writing, be- cause I always believed that thoughts, however slight, were far too serious and too sacred to be formulated 90 PROGRESS without a great deal of reflection. A serious word, spoken without premeditation, is an evil action. LEGLAY Every one respects and admires you. VANNAIRE At fifty I have acquired a certain notoriety, thanks to twenty-five years of ceaseless labor, of feverish effort, directed toward the expression of moral beauty which I believed, and still believe, capable of some little inspiration to the souls of my fellow men. I spent those twenty-five years in poverty, consistently refusing to write useless or harmful books, the sort that would have afforded me quick and easy success. I was looked down upon by the successful, and at last, scarcely had I managed to gain a little respect for my work, Vhen the younger generation, whom I loved and in whom I had great hopes, treated me as a ridiculous enemy. They gave me no respite, not even a few years between the hostility of the older and the younger gene- rations in which to experience the joy of having revealed even a little beauty and given aid to human- ity. They might at least wait until we are dead before demolishing our statues. LEGLAY It was cruel of them, I admit. But has one the right not to be? I have often tortured myself with the same question. I love Therat, I admire his work, I should like nothing better than to see him end his days in glory a glory which he deserves. But I know, I am positive, you see, that he is mistaken - [PROGRESS 91 VANNAIRE Can't you wait until he is no longer with us? Until Madeleine no longer stands between you both? LEGLAY Do you think I have the right, in order to spare those who are dear to me and for my own peace of mind, to keep silent, and thereby condemn people who might otherwise live? VANNAIRE (slowly) Are you sure you are right? LEGLAY (excitedly) Am I sure? I am as sure of the truth as if I held it here, tight in my hand, just as I hold the lives of people it will save! VANNAIRE (thoughtfully, as he looks straight at Leglay) Therat spoke to me with just that confidence, thirty years ago. LEGLAY I know. He thought he was right, but he was over- confident. He thought he knew the whole truth. VANNAIRE And now you think you do. LEGLAY My truth is the result of his error, which I have studied. But what difference does it make? I believe! When a man believes, he must proclaim his belief from the house-tops. I feel I must sow my knowledge everywhere among men. It will bear fruit. If I kept it to myself, it would become sterile and die. 92 PROGRESS VANNAIRE But if the germ itself is an error? LEGLAY Every error needs only to be confronted by the truth, and it will be corrected. But to keep the truth to yourself, and say nothing about the error, is the act of an accomplice. And besides, one can benefit mankind by dragging an error to light and destroying it. But I tell you, I am sure! There is no possible room for doubt. What I maintain is based upon all the laws of life. If I could only explain VANNAIRE No, no, Leglay. I am not a scientist, and I shouldn't understand. And then I might be obliged to agree with you. I probably should. And that would seem a little like betraying an old friend. I feel certain I should take sides with you, and that would mean that I should be false to my generation, which admires Therat LEGLAY No more than I do. Why can't we change our ideas, and cast aside our errors? Why can we not turn over a new leaf, improve ourselves, carry on the work we have begun? VANNAIRE Impossible, my friend. The men who make it pos- sible for others to reach the goal of beauty and truth which they themselves have discovered, are incap- able of making that beauty and truth triumph. Their passion was too jealous to allow the rest. A man never notices the gradual aging of a woman PROGRESS 93 whom he loves; he does not wish to have her young again, for he has grown old along with her, and can no longer supply any but the comparatively small demands she makes upon him. LEGLAY And for that reason the young must be energetic; if they are not, they stagnate. VANNAIRE Of course, of course. I don't blame you, Leglay. But I am sorry for Therat, and for you, and for Made- leine. You are facing a terrific struggle. I did what you asked of me; I took chances and just mentioned certain books, certain articles touching upon methods opposed to his own. He was at once deeply agitated, and became almost severe; he was bitter, and lost his temper when he spoke of the younger men, their self-sufficiency, their prejudice, their lack of disinterestedness. He be- haved exactly as I thought he would. It was quite impossible to argue with him. LEGLAY Oh! (A pause) Would he discuss any points at all? VANNAIRE Oh, yes, only I didn't understand very much of what he said: therapeutics, and so on; it was all too far from the field of a poor cynical psychologist. Have you spoken to Madeleine yet? LEGLAY Yes. VANNAIRE Well? 94 PROGRESS LEGLAY She was as upset as he, and as firm in her ideas. VANNAIRE She defends her father. LEGLAY Whom, by the way, I am not attacking; I am merely trying to complete the work he has begun. Unfortunately, she understands something of that work. If she were absolutely ignorant, she would stand between her affection for her father and her love for me, and her love for me she adores me would win out. But she knows a little, and she agrees with her father. Women cling to what they know with the more egotistical tenacity, because they so rarely know. If my Madeleine knew nothing, she would blindly believe in the ability of the man she loves! VANNAIRE If she had been that sort of woman, you would not have loved her. LEGLAY That's probably true. And yet her very intelli- gence and culture now rise up and form a barrier between us. [Enter a Servant. SERVANT Monsieur, the gentleman who comes every Tues- day is here. LEGLAY (quickly) He's here? Show him in at once. (The servant goes out, and Leglay loalks toward the large door) Excuse PROGRESS 95 me, please, Vannaire. Please stay; I shan't be long not more than a moment. (He goes into the drawing-room, and returns shortly after with a man, whom he leads to the window) How are you ? THE PATIENT I'm better, Doctor; I'm sure I'm better. There's less irritation. LEGLAY The cough? THE PATIENT Not so bad. LEGLAY (joyfully) Good! Healthy color in the cheeks, too. I was anxious to know at once. Now, will you wait a few moments for me? (He conducts the Patient back into the adjoining room} I '11 ask you to come in again shortly, and we'll fix you up. Good. Just a few minutes, eh? And then we'll [Leglay closes the door as soon as the Patient leaves. LEGLAY You see my situation now. That man came to me with a bad case of tubercular ulcer. He is still ill, but vastly improved since I took hold of him. I am delighted to see signs of life again in his eyes. But I must hide him this man whose life I am saving from my father-in-law; I must be careful not to refer to him, because Therat must not take my patient from me. He mustn't touch him; I want to take care of him myself. If Therat knew, he might decide that an operation was necessary, and he would be acting from noble and disinterested 96 PROGRESS motives. Now, such an operation would not kill the patient, and it would undoubtedly remove the cause of his suffering, but it would be disastrous all the same, because it might easily give cause to other evils, not so easily remedied. So you see I must treat my man in secret. I am continually afraid that my father-in-law will catch sight of him. Of course, this one patient is nothing: there are others, whom he does know of. Every day they come with the fullest confidence and ask us to save their lives. I can't choose my own means, I must take anything that comes to hand that might help them. Even now there are patients waiting. Now is when they come. At this hour every day I suffer agonies; every time the bell rings it is like an appeal to my conscience, my tortured conscience. VANNAIRE You are not doing wrong. LEGLAY I am not doing all the good I might. (After a pause, passing his hand over his brow) Well, I shall see whether there is still some way of doing my duty, and allowing those who are dear to me to live in peace. It is a very difficult matter. [As he speaks, he fills a syringe with a fluid and lays it on the desk. VANNAIRE Good-by, Leglay. I '11 see you later. LEGLAY Good-by, and thank you. PROGRESS 97 VANNAIRE I 'm afraid I haven 't given you much encouragement. LEGLAY That was not your fault. Your good- will is enough; you might have been against me, you know. You are an old friend of Therat's, and you might have thought VANNAIRE I think nothing. I only know that you are both very firm in your convictions, and I have no idea which of you is right. But it would be only natural that you should formulate your truth after Therat had made a practical application of his. I am just trying to break the shock. Good day. LEGLAY (accompanying him to the door) Thank you once more. To-night, then. VANNAIRE Yes. \_He goes out. Leglay goes impatiently to the door of the drawing-room, opens it, but starts back in surprise as Therat appears, followed by the Patient. LEGLAY Oh, it's you! THERAT Yes, I have just examined Monsieur. (To the Patient) Come back to-morrow. LEGLAY (in consternation) But I was going to THERAT (with authority) He will return to-morrow. (To the Patient) We shall take care of you. [He rings. 98 PROGRESS LEGLAY (calmly} Very well. Will you come back to-morrow ? (Leglay conducts the Patient to the door) To-morrow, then. THE PATIENT Yes, Doctor. (Fearfully) You don't think it will be necessary to ? LEGLAY Don't worry. Everything is all right. We shall continue the treatment. [The Patient goes out. Leglay returns to Therat, scrutinizing him but saying nothing. THERAT (calmly) We shall operate on that man the day after to-morrow. LEGLAY Master! THERAT (impassively) Yes? LEGLAY But but it is not necessary. THERAT Tubercular ulcer: it is necessary. How could you have failed to notice it? He must be operated upon at once. LEGLAY (resolutely) I promise to cure him without the operation. THERAT (picking up the syringe and flinging it away) With that? LEGLAY With that and other things. THERAT First of all, what's in that thing? PROGRESS 99 LEGLAY A composition I've been experimenting with. THERAT And of which you have told me nothing. LEGLAY I was afraid you wouldn't believe in it. THERAT And why did you never mention this man to me? He told me you had been treating him for the past three months? LEGLAY I thought you would consider an operation necessary. THERAT Ah ? You are right. As a matter of fact, I think it is. He must be operated upon immediately. LEGLAY Please let me treat him. I am sure of what I am doing. THERAT (proudly) And what about me? You think I am not sure? When you learn your mistake, it will be too late. LEGLAY I am not making a mistake. I have cured many others the same way. THERAT Without taking me into your confidence, of course! You seem to forget that you are working for me, and are responsible to me. I tell you there is danger, grave and imminent danger, unless we operate, and operate we will. 100 PROGRESS LEGLAY Impossible. THERAT (angrily) What! LEGLAY Please, master father, listen to me: I shouldn't think of opposing my will to yours. If I thought your help was indispensable, I should have brought this patient to you, in all humility. But an oper- ation is not necessary: there is another way of curing him. He is improving already. THERAT But you know it's not a dangerous operation? LEGLAY No operation is without danger. THERAT (bitterly) I see: you've been reading some new dissertation. I really think you belong to the opposition. LEGLAY Against you? No. You know very well I don't. I am just one of those who wish to supplement your work, and with all due respect complete your experi- ments. THERAT Destroy, rather! I am defending my methods and ideas. I have arrived at my beliefs only after an enormous amount of work. That man will be oper- ated upon because I judge an operation necessary. LEGLAY No, no, no. I won't have it. He is mine, do you understand, mine ! His life has been in my hands for PROGRESS 101 the past three months; little by little, I have built him up, strengthened him, made him a new man. For three months I have watched anxiously over him, and seen him revive. Three months ago you might have had a right to decide: his life was his own to dispose of. But to-day it belongs to me as well, because of what I have added to it since I first took him. You may not touch him, you have no right to cut into the living flesh which I have built up. I can't allow you to, and I won't! It isn't my pride, it is my instinct that forces me to do this. (In a low determined tone) You know that instinct of preservation in all of us: it seems to stretch forth arms, and clutch at others THERAT (troubled) But what are you afraid of ? Did you ever know an operation of this sort to prove fatal? LEGLAY Fatal, no. But I have seen what is just as serious more serious THERAT Really? LEGLAY Yes. Do you remember that woman, the one you operated on two days before my wedding? THERAT She is still alive, is she not? LEGLAY Yes, she is alive. But I watched her case, because even at that time I had begun to doubt. She is condemned to live a wounded, mutilated creature, half-dead. 102 PROGRESS THERAT Without me she would have died. LEGLAY No: we should have cured her. THERAT Cured her? (Sarcastically) You, perhaps? LEGLAY With your help, if you had consented to assist me; or without it, if you had allowed me a free hand. THERAT How much time would you have required? LEGLAY I don't know it makes little difference. But I would have restored life to a whole creature. Now she is atrophied, joyless, without ambition, a mother without strength and energy. THERAT (troubled) Do you think that was my fault? You were present with me. I did not touch a single organ that was indispensable. LEGLAY What do we know about that? Merely because we don't know the function of an organ, and are unable to determine what it is used for, we conclude, most unwarrantably, that it is useless. And in the name of a science that is still only feeling its way, that is full of mystery, which is every day subject to modifi- cation of some sort, we commit irreparable blunders, cut away some part of the human mechanism which is not superfluous, because nature has created it. We don't know why it is there: therefore it is PROGRESS 103 good for nothing! We are like peasants who burn a Titian because we know nothing of art. THERAT There is a lesson there, to be sure. LEGLAY No, no. Excuse me, if I am too excited. I am afraid, I tell you, and I frankly confess the agony I feel. I don't mean to offend you, I want only to tell you that I am afraid: for mankind, for you, for your reputation THERAT Which you now wish to shatter you whom I made what you are a scientist, and my own son! LEGLAY But I am trying to save your reputation. Oh, I want so much to convince you! You know how much I admire you. I don't want you to risk damaging the reputation you have worked so hard to earn merely by obstinacy. And besides, I have no right to think of you, or myself. THERAT Yourself, perhaps! I am fifty years old; I have behind me thirty years of work and experience, and I am in a way your father. My pride, my name and Madeleine's, too ought to be sacred to you. LEGLAY You taught me to believe that as individuals we did not exist, that we did not work for ourselves, but for all mankind. In the struggles with my conscience, when I think of you, your face disappears and I 104 PROGRESS seem to see other faces, innumerable faces, stretching far off into the distance into the future; and men, women, children rise up, suffering, afraid, begging for help. And I tremble THERAT (triumphantly) You tremble? Send them to me! LEGLAY No. THERAT Send them to me ! And don't worry. Let me bring comfort and assurance to your multitudes, by showing them my assurance. I have about me a whole legion of human beings men and women who came tottering to me, more dead than alive. I have kept off death with the clean, sharp edge of my knife, held tight in my hand. Let me show your restless multitude men who would have been dead twenty years ago but for my help. I can look upon them with pride and calm assurance. I have re-created them, made them over, by the sure skill of my hand, the quickness and accuracy of my eye. Show that to your multitude, and tell it that my hand is still sure and my mind clear. You need no longer be afraid! [_Enter Madeleine. Ah, Madeleine, it's you? Come [Madeleine looks anxiously at the two men. LEGLAY (nervously) Madeleine! MADELEINE What is it? PROGRESS 105 LEGLAY Don't stay here ! THERAT You must stay by all means. She must hear what you think of her father, and what you intend to do. She will judge! LEGLAY Please be calm! Madeleine, you know what I think of your father. I am only asking him to listen to me, as a teacher listens to the respectful objections of his pupil. His work deserves the greatest admi- ration, but I believe that in certain cases, there is another way of proceeding THERAT A better way, eh? How modest of you! You have been able to discover in a few years what thirty years of research and work have not revealed to me! (To Madeleine) You hear? MADELEINE Father, you must not get so excited. LEGLAY I have benefited by your work. Your knowledge helped me, reenforced me. Thanks to you, I began where you had left off. You accomplished one stage in the evolution. You made your researches in your own field, and discovered all there was to discover. I have looked elsewhere: I have noticed that life has infinite resources, that it has furnished us weapons with which to fight disease; a whole mass of defenders which we must call upon for aid. Now, this serum 106 . PROGRESS THERAT Will not restore a" single organ or replace a decayed tissue! LEGLAY It will arrest the course of the disease without taking anything from the system. THERAT Always? LEGLAY Often. But when there is the least possibility, you must THERAT So you're advising me! I see. I see that you, my son, are trying to throw me, my thoughts, my work, my discoveries, into the scrap-heap and with the very weapons I have trained you to use! Very well, I can't prevent you. I suppose it's only natural for the young to crowd the old out of the way. You want room LEGLAY Oh, master! MADELEINE Father, you don't think ? Paul may be mistaken LEGLAY (sadly) I am not mistaken. THERAT I can defend myself, I can prove I'm not yet ready to be laid on the shelf. And I don't need help, not even yours. The ungrateful future is just a little too much in a hurry. [Madeleine sinks into a chair. PROGRESS 107 LEGLAY If you were willing to discuss the matter calmly, I should be glad to tell THERAT We shall discuss it when you know as much as I do. LEGLAY (discouraged) Then we shall never discuss it. The younger and the older generations can never sincerely, peacefully, compare then* convictions, their discoveries, and their consciences. The older will always say to the younger, after having taught him all he knew: "You are too young, you don't know " THERAT And the other insinuates: "You are too old, and you no longer know." Nor is it the younger who suffers. LEGLAY Master, you don't doubt my good faith, do you? I believe sincerely in what I maintain. I believe that if you modified your methods, restricted the application of them hi a simple way, science and mankind would gain immeasurably. And you sin- cerely believe that I ought to be silent, for your sake, for the sake of my future. THERAT For my sake! I ask nothing of you. I maintain that you are presumptuous, and that your presump- tion blinds you. I am ready to defend my science against your theories. That is all. LEGLAY So we are ? 108 PROGRESS THERAT Adversaries, yes. You wished it. MADELEINE (rising) Oh! LEGLAY And we ? THERAT Shall separate of course. MADELEINE (terrified) Father! Father! [She falls into the chair again, her face buried in her hands. LEGLAY (Booking at his wife) Madeleine? THERAT (with an effort) Madeleine! She will tell you. \_He goes toward the door. LEGLAY (taking a step toward him} Master, won't you ? THERAT (turning to him coldly) What? LEGLAY (after a moment's hesitation) Very well. {Therat goes out. For a few moments Leglay and Madeleine say nothing. MADELEINE (crying) Why did you tell him? LEGLAY I had to. MADELEINE You promised me you would wait. PROGRESS 109 LEGLAY I did wait. I have been waiting for months, as you know, and I've been tortured. And I would have continued to wait, but your father happened to see one of my patients, and insisted that I should act on his advice. I couldn't allow that. It would not be right. MADELEINE Is it any more right to drive him to despair, and make his last years bitter? You honor him, you love him or at least you did? LEGLAY I still love him, and I admire him, too. MADELEINE When you love people, you believe as they do, and don't make them suffer. LEGLAY There are duties that are above respect and above affection. MADELEINE Toward whom? Toward people you don't know. You are sacrificing my father for total strangers, sacrificing me, too LEGLAY You, Madeleine? Don't say that! I have thought of no one but you for ever so long. If it hadn't been for you, and for the child you are going to bear, I should have acted according to my conscience long ago. That is the only reason why I have not gone ahead: because you don't believe in me, because I have not been able to convince you. I wanted to 110 PROGRESS go on, with your approval, yours above all. You're torturing me now MADELEINE I believe what my father has taught me. I believe in his uprightness, and in his reputation as a scientist. I grew up while he was making that reputation, and it shaped my heart and my reason. Do you ask me to forget all that? Forget how passionately, how lovingly he guarded and watched over me, so that a little of his glory might be reflected upon me ? Now for the first time, you wish that glory to weigh a little heavy on him, and you ask his daughter to turn from him. I couldn't! I am too much afraid of being ungrateful. LEGLAY Are you not rather afraid of being selfish? You are not afraid to ask me to sacrifice not only the pride but the very lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, for the peace of mind of those who are dear to you ? MADELEINE I ask nothing of them! I owe them nothing. My father has already sacrificed too much to a world that is of no interest to me v and of which I know nothing. I care about the happiness of those to whom I owe something. LEGLAY (protesting) Madeleine! MADELEINE I care nothing about the others. I don't need them. LEGLAY (irritated) Do you think so? Still, the moment anything goes wrong, you are the first to appeal to science, that very PROGRESS 111 science which has been so slow in its formation, through centuries of human effort. Can you live without taking into account your duties toward those who are unknown to you? You can, of course, but only if you blind yourself to all they have done, all they have taught you. You can, but you will have to live in a cave, clothe yourself hi the skins of beasts, eat what I can kill, asking no help of me to bring your child into the world, a child whom you cannot teach to read because that is only done with the aid of books, books written by men you don't know! MADELEINE (crying) Paul, you are brutal! LEGLAY What you say is abominable; it wounds me. It does not sound as if it came from your generous self from your intelligence : you can't really think it. The truth is, you do not believe in me. You don't hesitate a moment between what your father says, and what I say. MADELEINE You forget that I, too, know LEGLAY You don't want to know anything except what your father has taught you. You shut your eyes to every- thing else. MADELEINE Yes, I know I am ignorant. This is not the first time I have felt that you despised my intellect. LEGLAY You ignorant? Unfortunately, you are not. 112 PROGRESS MADELEINE You wish I were, in order that I might always agree with you. A woman ought to be merely a com- placent bedfellow and nothing else. Oh, yes. She oughtn't to have ideas of her own; she ought never to judge. She is created only to be loved, and to follow her husband. That is your ideal! LEGLAY My ideal is was a love that should unite two thoughts as intimately as MADELEINE As the one is willing to give in to the other! LEGLAY If that dream is impossible, if the brain is to be considered more important than the heart, if intellect insists upon rebelling against love MADELEINE Love! A fine sort of love that insists on submission to everything, that would force me to be ungrateful! LEGLAY Madeleine, let's not say things we shall regret. MADELEINE Let us say what we think. Let us not be false to our reason, and make believe that we love each other! You love only my body. LEGLAY You say I don't love you! (He seizes her hands violently) I don't love you? We don't love each other? Madeleine, remember, think of those won- derful days of madness, folly ! PROGRESS 113 MADELEINE I won't! I don't want to remember them. That was a time when instinct had the upper hand. For the rest of our lives we ought to forget. LEGLAY No, they were beautiful days, which ought to make us forget the cares of life, free us from the weight of thoughts, and render us two irresponsible beings serenely at one with each other. MADELEINE (tearing herself away from him) No, no! I don't want to think of that! It leads to base weakness! I don't want to be a vile play- thing, an instrument of unthinking pleasure! That is not love! We don't think the same way, you and I. We don't love each other any longer. LEGLAY You can't believe that! MADELEINE I certainly cannot love any one who insults a man I admire and worship, who sacrifices everything to foolish pride, possibly interest LEGLAY Madeleine, I forbid you! MADELEINE What! You can't forbid me anything. LEGLAY No, I don't want to, but you can't talk that way to me. Think, think of what binds us together, think of the child you are going to give me, of the hope and confidence with which we created it. Madeleine, don't let your pride destroy all our happiness. You and I are sincere, loyal human beings. Suppose we 114 PROGRESS don't agree ? Very well, but we have the same ideals ; our eyes are lit by the same flame. Look (He takes her hands and draws her toward him) Look into my eyes; you see truth there I read it in yours. Now you dare not tell me we no longer love each other. My wife! You are my wife, you will remain my wife; you aren't the sort of person to whom memories mean nothing. Ours are so profound, Madeleine, they raise us so far above our thoughts, our foolish pride! Look at me. (Almost unconsciously, Madeleine softens, and allows herself to be drawn into his embrace) You aren't against me, are you? You are not my enemy? MADELEINE But, father ? LEGLAY You are not against him, either. On the contrary, you will be a link, a strong link between us, and perhaps some day you will succeed in bringing us together. You, Madeleine, are the future, you will bring us the future. For the child's sake, the quarrels of the past and the present must be forgotten. Every- thing will quiet down, you will see. We do love each other, don't we? You will stay with me? Won't you ? [Madeleine does not answer, but she softly responds to his embrace. He is about to kiss her, when Madame Therat appears in the doorway, in terror. MME. THERAT Madeleine! Paul! MADELEINE What is it? PROGRESS 115 MME. THERAT Your father! MADELEINE What is it? MME. THERAT He's ill fainted ! I don't know Come quick ! MADELEINE Oh! (Turns to Paul) You see? [They both rush to the door. At the same moment, Therat appears, pale, gaunt, and proud. THERAT It's nothing, Nanine, nothing a little dizziness nothing at all. (Looking at Leglay) I'm still hale and hearty. Well, have you decided anything? (Leglay does not reply. Therat turns to Madeleine, sorrowfully) Madeleine, Madeleine! MME. THERAT What do you mean? THERAT Madeleine ! MADELEINE (going toward him, sobbing) Father! Oh, father, I am with you, I am with you! LEGLAY (crying out) Madeleine ! [He stops himself with an effort. THERAT And you ? LEGLAY (after a pause) I? (Gazing for a long while at Madeleine) I I have no longer the right to stay with you. I I am going. CURTAIN 116 PROGRESS ACT II The scene is the same. Madeleine and Vannaire are present. Both have aged considerably, though Madeleine, who is only thirty, possesses a sad yet striking beauty. MADELEINE (seated) Oh, it's to-day! Very well. I had forgotten. You know, these visits are very painful to me. VANNAIRE But, Madeleine, what Leglay asked was the very least of what he had a right to expect. Remember, he is not separated from his wife and child by even a divorce decree! Since the child was born seven years ago he has come to see him only once a month. MADELEINE You know how painful it is to know he is in this house, the house of my father, whom he has caused to suffer. VANNAIRE You know very well he suffers, too. You must admit he has been most dignified not to say stoical. During this separation, which has lasted nearly eight years, he might unconsciously have come to hate you and gone to law: you know the law gives him certain rights. Remember, he was not guilty toward you. He lives in silence, away from the child whom he has a right to take from you. MADELEINE (quickly) Oh PROGRESS 117 VANNAIRE He might; there's no doubt about that. He con- sents to live away from that child and from a woman who loves him. MADELEINE Please, Vannaire! You know I don't want to hear such things. For the past eight years my father has been suffering from a malady of which Paul is the sole cause. VANNAIRE That was not Leglay's fault; it's the fault of the age, of new scientific discoveries. Listen to me, my dear Madeleine, I've been wanting to ask you this question for some time. Suppose Leglay had said nothing, in spite of his conviction which was known to you could you have been absolutely happy? Would you not have despised him in a way? MADELEINE If I were positive that he knew the truth, but I am not. VANNAIRE Madeleine, you must admit I assure you that at my age, and I'm well on in years, I can't confess without a little bitterness that you and my poor friend Therat are the only ones who do not feel that Leglay is right. MADELEINE I refuse to believe until my father tells me I must, until he himself believes. I'll never forget the cause of this illness that's killing him. You wonder 118 PROGRESS at my firmness, but think, for the past eight years, I have watched my father growing older, a victim of the shock he received that day. If I were ever to weaken toward my husband, I should have only to look at my poor dear father. That gives me renewed energy. Don't you see how he has aged and suffered? VANNAIRE Oh, yes, yes. He is one of the victims of the cruel and necessary progress of thought. But he is not the only one: there is you yourself, the child, and Leglay. Have you seen Leglay lately? MADELEINE Not for a long time. I never go out. VANNAIRE Neither does he except to visit his patients at the hospital, where he is the head doctor. He shows noble devotion. MADELEINE Like my father! VANNAIRE Like your father. And sometimes he goes to the Academy of Medicine. He works and works, alone and in sadness. He, too, has aged a great deal MADELEINE And I, too? VANNAIRE You are graver, more beautiful. That isn't " aging" MADELEINE (with a vague smile) Oh, you only say that ! PROGRESS 119 VANNAIRE He is much older than you. You didn't know his hair is almost white? [Madeleine, surprised, raises her eyes questioningly to Vannaire, then, without replying, drops her head heavily. Enter Mme. Therat. MME. THERAT How are you, Vannaire? VANNAIRE (going to Mme. Therat) How are you ? And how is Therat ? MME. THERAT (sadly) Always the same: he says nothing. Ever since he began sending patients to other doctors, he's scarcely spoken a word, you know. VANNAIRE They say he suffers more since he stopped working. MADELEINE He has too much time to brood. Nothing ever excites him any longer. There is nothing to take his mind off the past nor my mind off it, either. When he had his patients, he put into them his doubts, his fears, his hopes. Then he confided in me, and I feared and hoped with him. (Then, pensively, as if speaking to herself) That was forget- fulness, or the will to forget. MME. THERAT (to Vannaire) The child is the only one he speaks to now and you. It seems you are the only one he can confide in. VANNAIRE Because I suffer as he does. 120 PROGRESS MME. THERAT He seems to live with only one thought. So long as he had patients, and busied himself with them, it kept life in him, or at least some appearance of life. But since he's been idle, he says nothing, except to refer to his ill-health, that began VANNAIRE Is he coming down-stairs? MME. THERAT I think so. But he hardly ever comes here, and then only to see a patient, whom he sends to another doctor. Another has just been announced. VANNAIRE Whom does he send them to? MME. THERAT I don't know; he never says. He doesn't tell you, Madeleine, does he? MADELEINE Never. VANNAIRE Nor me. {Enter Therat. He looks much older and his face is thin and solemn. THERAT Oh, it's you, Vannaire. Why didn't you come up? (To his wife} He hasn't come yet? MME. THERAT No. MADELEINE Father, I ought to warn you: M. Vannaire has PROGRESS 121 reminded us that he is coming to-day you know: to see the boy. THERAT (impenetrably) Ah! MME. THERAT Again ? So soon ? But it hasn't been a month since his last visit? MADELEINE Yes it has, mother. VANNAIRE Exactly a month, Madame. [T her at sits dowr\. MME. THERAT I'll see that the boy is ready. (To Madeleine) Up-stairs, as usual? MADELEINE Of course, mother. [Mme. Therat goes out. VANNAIRE Are you waiting for a patient? THERAT Yes. A few still come from time to time. VANNAIRE And you don't treat them yourself? THERAT I don't care to any longer. VANNAIRE Why not? THERAT I am too old. You don't write books any longer, do you? 122 PROGRESS VANNAIRE Oh, yes, but I don't talk about it. THERAT You and I are old men we're played out. If I were to treat patients, they would complain in a week's time because they were not completely cured, and go elsewhere to young doctors. I prefer to send them away at once. VANNAIRE To whom? THERAT That depends: some to one, some to another VANNAIRE To doctors who believe in your methods? THERAT (after a moment of hesitation looking at him) Of course. You don't imagine ? What time do you expect him? VANNAIRE Whom? THERAT Him! VANNAIRE Oh, Leglay? Soon, I think. He generally comes about three. THERAT I see. MADELEINE (going to him) Poor father! I do make you suffer, don't I? It doesn't do you any good to know that he comes here. PROGRESS 123 VANNAIRE Nonsense. It makes no difference to you, does it, Therat? Madeleine is exaggerating. {Therat says nothing, but puts his hand mechanically to his heart. All three are silent for a moment, then the bell rings. MADELEINE (suddenly) The bell! [Therat looks closely at her. VANNAIRE Well? MADELEINE It's he! VANNAIRE Possibly. \_She goes to the bay-window > Vannaire following. Therat keeps his eyes fastened on her. MADELEINE (in an undertone to Vannaire, as she listens) You say his hair is white? (Both look out the window) That's not he. It's the patient to see father. (To Therat) We'll leave you. [Madeleine and Vannaire go out. Enter a servant a moment after, introducing the patient, a woman. PATIENT Doctor! THERAT Madame! PATIENT I should like you to -examine me. My throat has been bothering me. I Ve tried a few simple remedies : 124 PROGRESS gargled, inhaled, and so on, but the throat is only worse. My tonsils THERAT Let me see (He takes a pallet and examines her throat) Yes, yes, you ought to have come sooner. PATIENT (nervously) Is it very serious, Doctor? THERAT No, it's not very serious, but it is serious. PATIENT I shan't have to be operated on? THERAT (after a pause) Operated ? (With an effort) No no there's no necessity. Of course, you didn 't know when you came: I am not practising any longer? PATIENT Oh! THERAT No. The only thing I take is an exceptional case now and then. You had better see another physician. (With difficulty) You'd better go to to go to Doctor Leglay Paul Leglay, Rue Blanche. He will take good care of you; he is a very able physician. PATIENT Doctor Leglay, Rue Blanche. You don't think I '11 have to have an operation ? THERAT No, no, I'm sure you won't. PATIENT Thank you, Doctor. PROGRESS 125 THERAT Just one word: don't say it was I who sent you. He is a little erratic touchy, and he might be you understand? Pride physicians' pride! PATIENT Very well, Doctor, and thank you. You Ve given me courage. I was afraid I might have to be operated on. I was told you might want to [Therat rings. He smiles a bitter smile. The servant enters, and escorts the patient out of the room. Therat returns slowly to his desk, throws down the pallet with a petulant gesture, then sits down, putting his hands over his eyes. Enter Mme. Therat. MME. THERAT Are you through? THERAT Oh, it 's you? MME. THERAT Is it over? THERAT Yes. MME. THERAT Do you feel well? You aren't tired? THERAT I 'm very well. MME. THERAT Did you send the patient away? THERAT Yes. MME. THERAT To whom? 126 PROGRESS THERAT To whom? To Doctor Blanche. [He rises. Enter Madeleine and Vannaire. Made- leine is agitated. THERAT Are you coming up, Vannaire? We'll have a chat. VANNAIRE Suppose we stay here? MADELEINE You know, father, he is upstairs, with the boy. MME. THERAT Has he come ? I didn't know. Are you sure ? MADELEINE (feverishly) I'm positive I saw him! ^T her at turns to her. MME. THERAT You saw him? How? VANNAIRE We met him just now on the stairs. MADELEINE I hadn't seen him for a long time. His hair is snow- white. THERAT Then he's here? MADELEINE Yes. THERAT (goes to her, takes her head between his hands, and gazes into her eyes) You look as if you were going to cry, Madeleine. PROGRESS 127 MADELEINE (deeply moved) No, no, father. I I 'm not crying [Her words are checked by a violent sob. MME. THERAT What is the matter, Madeleine? What's wrong? You're not crying for him, are you? Not for him? THERAT Poor child! MADELEINE No, no, father. I don't know why I 'm crying. The boy up there and and this is the first time I've seen him! (She rises and looks at her father) No, not for him, not for him ! THERAT Poor child! MADELEINE I I just need to cry. Please go, mother. I'm going up to my room. I'll be all right. MME. THERAT I'll come with you. MADELEINE No, mother. Leave me to myself. Don 't worry. [She goes out. THERAT (falling into a chair) My poor dear child! [He puts his hand to his heart, and closes his eyes for a moment. MME. THERAT (going quickly to him) Are you still suffering? 128 PROGRESS THERAT It's nothing. Dizziness. Madeleine is the one who suffers. MME. THERAT Yes, and you, too. But you both suffer for the same reason. It is his fault. THERAT (severely) Nanine ! Now MME. THERAT You're not going to defend him, are you? He took from us everything that was worth having: your reputation and our girl's happiness. He has ruined OUT life. When you turn pale and put your hand to your heart, I know you're thinking of him! It's he and what he did just for his own reputation! THERAT Nanine, you must not say such things. MME. THERAT What! Do you think he was right? THERAT No, I don't. (Pensively} No no. But I don't think he acted from selfish motives. We must at least give him his due. I believe he thought he was acting in the interest of science and he was. MME. THERAT Science! Yes, ah, science ! It's never satisfied, no matter how much one sacrifices to it. THERAT Nanine ! PROGRESS 129 MME. THERAT Science demands too much; it has taken away my happiness in life. I used to believe in it, when I was young, even when it was taking you from me. I saw it taking your youth from you, and mine from me. I was thrilled when you talked about it, and showed such splendid faith in it, when you told me of the great happiness it would bring us some day. I didn't rebel against it then. I was willing to grow old before my time, and see you giving yourself up to it. Science seemed to make you happy. And I was proud of you. I believed you would be re- warded with glory and a brilliant reputation. That was your only recompense. And it was in the name of science that that glory was stolen from you. It's always that way. Science demands every sacrifice, and gives nothing in return except perhaps a brief make-believe glory that your own associates snatch from you the moment they are able. That's the way you get glory: steal it from some one else. It seems you have to make science over again, unmake it, and then make it over once more. If you have to do that, then it doesn't exist! THERAT (rising, then forcefully) Nanine, don't say that! MME. THERAT I 've suffered too much through you and through Madeleine. I've seen too much trickery. I know too much about it THERAT (with sharp authority) Stop it! You insult us! 130 PROGRESS VANNAIRE My dear friend, please be calm. No one is respon- sible THERAT And leave us ! MME. THERAT (nervously) But you THERAT (quietly) Please go. MME. THERAT You don't blame me? I didn't mean to THERAT (with a bitter smile) No, no, you dear old wife. Not at all. Only, I don 't like your very goodness, your love for Madeleine and me to make you say things that are unjust and untrue. Now I want to chat with Vannaire quietly. Won't you leave us ? MME. THERAT Certainly. (She goes to the door) You're quite sure you 're not ill ? THERAT No: I am very well. [She goes out. THERAT Vannaire, I am simply terrified. VANNAIRE Why? THERAT I have just heard the only voice that has the power to make me hesitate and doubt: the voice of igno- rance, my own ignorance. PROGRESS 131 VANNAIRE My dear fellow, what are you saying ? Others believe in you and admire you. You don't have to go out- side this house: Madeleine, I THERAT You? VANNAIRE Yes, I. THERAT No, Vannaire. You think a great deal of me, you know how devoted and disinterested my work has been; you recognize my enthusiasm, but you don't believe in me. VANNAIRE I believe in you as I believe in myself. I believe that you and I have done our work conscientiously and done it well. THERAT And that that work is now over. VANNAIRE Our function was to THERAT But are you sure Madeleine still believes in me? She doesn 't doubt ? VANNAIRE I am positive. THERAT How? VANNAIRE She told me an hour ago. 132 PROGRESS THERAT Were you discussing me? VANKAIRE Yes. THERAT VANNAIRE (hesitating) You THERAT And him! VANNAIRE Yes. THERAT What started you? VANNAIRE Why, his visits. She was upset, and I tried to soothe her. THERAT You were defending him! VANNAIRE I was defending only his intentions, as you yourself were. THERAT And what did she say? VANNAIRE At the end of our discussion she said, "When my father says he is right, then and then only will I believe." THERAT (fearfully) I? When I tell her? PROGRESS 133 VANNAIRE But she is sure you won't, because you are so sure yourself. You are positive he is mistaken THERAT (after a pause) Vannaire, you noticed Madeleine's agitation a few moments ago? You saw her cry. She loves him, doesn't she? VANNAIRE (embarrassed) ) Oh, I can't say. THERAT Be frank with me, Vannaire. You must. Made- leine's unhappiness is a very serious matter. She must not be allowed to suffer any longer on my account. I ought to have seen things sooner, but I was blind. It was just like a foolish old scientist to forget love. We have no right to sacrifice the lives of our children for the sake of a few months for ourselves. She still loves him, Vannaire, still, or once again VANNAIRE Yes, I think she has always loved him. She is the sort of person who makes great efforts to stifle the affections. She experiences the martyr's bitter joy by suffering for her faith. You are her faith. THERAT And she suffers. VANNAIRE Yes. THERAT Why couldn't I have seen that? Why couldn't I have foreseen it? It was inevitable. (A pause) 134 PROGRESS Vannaire, bring her to me. I shall tell her myself that Paul is right VANNAIRE (astonished) You '11 tell her that ? Why ? THERAT (in a whisper) Because it is the truth. I now see it. VANNAIRE (nervously) The the truth? THERAT You have known it for a long time. Go and bring her. Please while I have the courage. [Vannaire, deeply stirred, goes out. Therat sits motion- less, staring at nothing. Madeleine enters after a few moments. MADELEINE You wanted to see me, father? THERAT Yes, I want to say something to you. Did Vannaire hint ? MADELEINE No. THERAT Come here, closer to me. Sit down here. (She sits down near him) I find it very hard to tell you. I can't speak very loud. MADELEINE (nervously) Father, what's the matter? Aren't you well? THERAT I have a confession to make, dear my little girl, my Madeleine! What I have to say is painful, very painful. You know how I love you, and you know PROGRESS 135 I have always labored to make you happy. You don't doubt that, do you? If you have suffered through any fault of mine, it was only because I did not know, I did not understand MADELEINE Oh, I know, father. I know how you love me! THERAT But what you don't and could not know is all you have meant to me. You are my child, my own flesh and blood, but you are something else besides. I have enjoyed glory of a sort, Madeleine, but I never cared for it except for your sake. You remember my triumphs, and the flattering things that were written about me, how I was made a leader among the scientists. I have known every sort of adulation. But never did any of it give me half the pleasure, the pride and joy, as when I saw the first glimmerings of admiration light up your little wondering eyes when you began to understand things. From that time on, all my pride was centered in you; I worked to gain your approval, and only yours. Madeleine, I never felt so proud as on that day when you were little more than a child and understood very little of what you were saying, and you came to me after school and said: "Papa, they tell me you're a great scientist." MADELEINE Father, why are you telling me that? THERAT That you may know, and have a little pity MADELEINE Pity? I admire you as I always did. 136 PROGRESS THERAT Understand me, Madeleine. You must realize what you have been for me. You must be the judge, because it is you who will transmit memories of tenderness and memories of pride to your children. I have always thought of you as a sort of pledge to the future. You were the visible, the marvelous promise of to-morrow, the to-morrow of happiness for which I struggled, to which all men ought to be able to look forward, and be grateful at the same time to those who have gone before them. When you placed your confidence in me, Madeleine, I read the whole future in your eyes, and as your eyes reflected mine and you seemed to think the same thoughts and have the same faith, I hoped that some part of me would be passed on and live, and a little of all my efforts be remembered in the future. MADELEINE It will be, father! THERAT When I am with you I feel greater pride than with any one else, because I love you most. Only when people doubted my beliefs in your presence was I so anxious to refute them and prove I was right. I wanted to put a sacred mission in your hands. And before you I feel more humiliated to confess a mistake. I couldn't bear to see you even a little less proud than I. MADELEINE But I am proud of you, father. You have no mis- take to confess. PROGRESS 137 THERAT (his head bowed) Yes, yes, child MADELEINE (quickly rising anxiously) What mistake? What mistake? THERAT (making a great effort) During the last few months, you know, I have not received any patients. I sent them to another physician. Madeleine, I I have sent them to to your husband! MADELEINE To Paul? Then ? THERAT Yes. I believe I believe that he is right. MADELEINE For months! [She draws away toward the door, slowly. THERAT I confess it, child, because I want you to be happy, I want you to live. But but you have no idea what this confession has cost me. I want you to feel just a little of your old pride in me. Be a little tender toward your father. See I I'm ' crying. I am so sad MADELEINE (at the door) Yes, yes, father ! But (She goes out quickly, as if she were walking on air) Paul ! Paul ! THERAT (rises and tries to take a step toward the door, but falls) Madeleine! My child! MADELEINE (outside) Paul! CURTAIN 138 PROGRESS ACT III A simply furnished drawing-room. Therat is seated in an armchair. He looks very old. Madeleine, whose hair is beginning to turn grey, sits at a small table, uniting. After a moment, enter Edmond Madeleine 's son. EDMOND Grandfather, I've come to say good-bye. THERAT Where are you going? EDMOND To class. THERAT What is it this afternoon? EDMOND The clinic. THERAT What professor? EDMOND Ferruel. THERAT Oh, yes. He's new, isn't he? They tell me he's just published a book, an important book. EDMOND I don't know. But he's interesting. And the course is fascinating. MADELEINE (smiling) You find them all fascinating. PROGRESS 139 EDMOND Yes I only wish there were more of them. MADELEINE So you enjoy them? EDMOND I'm mad about them! MADELEINE Do you hear that, father? You must have been like that at twenty, weren't you? THERAT Yes. Oh, dear, yes. (After a pause, he says bitterly) Poor boy! EDMOND Why, grandfather? Isn't it splendid to be so enthusiastic? A doctor who isn't excited about his subject would make a pretty poor shopkeeper. MADELEINE A doctor? But you're not a doctor yet. EDMOND I shall be in two years. MADELEINE Are you sure? EDMOND Absolutely. (To Theraf) But I've never seen any one so enthusiastic as you! [He sits down near Therat. THERAT Yes, I was, of course, I used to be. But I have suffered a great deal as a result. (He puts his hand to his heart) But I am not any longer. 140 PROGRESS EDMOND Nonsense! THERAT No: it is all too heart-breaking too deceptive. And you must remember, the science I loved is now an antiquated science, old like me. No, I'm not enthusiastic now, and I no longer want to be. EDMOND Do you really believe that, grandfather? Then why do you ask me questions every day about my courses, and what I am taught ? Why do you explain the things my teachers don't explain to me ? You 're a wonderful teacher, and you are enthusiastic, grand- father. You inspire me. THERAT (raising his head with a smile which is full of anguish) Then I am still good for something? MADELEINE Father! The idea. THERAT Well, if I am, it's in spite of myself. I don't intend any harm and it is harmful. I am afraid that there will come a day when you will not forgive me: the day you learn. Now you must run on to your class, boy it is time EDMOND Good-bye, grandfather. I must be off. I'll come back and tell you what we've done. Good-bye, mother. [He kisses Madeleine and goes out. MADELEINE (going to Theraf) Don't you need anything, father? PROGRESS 141 THERAT No, thank you. MADELEINE You're not suffering? THERAT Not very much, but you know I never feel very well. MADELEINE Doesn't Edmond tire you? THERAT Edmond? Why? MADELEINE He 's so exuberant. THERAT No, no, he's a distraction. Tell me: he said he'd be a doctor in two years' time. He's determined, is he? He wants to practise? Are you going to let him? MADELEINE Naturally; you know very well THERAT But I always hoped MADELEINE Why? He's born to it. He loves science, and apparently science loves him. Think, he will have finished his studies at twenty-two. That's really remarkable. THERAT Yes. MADELEINE And then, it's natural; he'll be a scientist, like his grandfather and his father. He'll prove worthy of them and their profession. 142 PROGRESS THERAT But his grandfather is nothing at all now. MADELEINE Don't say such cruel things. You know it's not true. You know every one respects you, you know how deeply Edmond admires you, and that his ambition is to be like you. THERAT Yes, yes I know. But I am afraid. (He takes her hand in his) You know, Madeleine, I don't blame you, but one day the day I cried, and you left me alone MADELEINE Father! THERAT I am not blaming you it was inevitable. I often think of that day, and I am afraid the time will come when science will take my grandson away from me as it did my daughter. Some day Edmond will learn that of everything I told him not a shred is true. I shall be alone then. MADELEINE Father, please don't talk that way. Every one here loves and respects you. Everywhere you are con- sidered a great man. THERAT I hope I'll never see the day. But I don't think I'll last - [He puts his hand to his heart again. Enter Leglay. LEGLAY Has Edmond gone? PROGRESS 143 MADELEINE Yes. LEGLAY (very respectfully to Therat) Master, you haven't given your answer about the Academy ? THERAT The Academy ? LEGLAY I told you: they asked me to insist on your coming. They want to honor you in public. They haven't seen you for twelve years, you know. THERAT They shall never see me. MADELEINE I think you're wrong, father THERAT No, I 'm right. I don't want to, and I am right. No, what would be the use ? \_Enter Vannaire. VANNAIRE I was told to come in, and I came. How are you, Madeleine? Hello, Paul? How are you, Therat? THERAT Well, thanks. VANNAIRE Grand council, eh? MADELEINE We 're trying to persuade father to go to the Academy of Medicine, where they want to see him again. 144 PROGRESS THERAT Exhume me! No, no. (He rises painfully) Van- naire, give me your arm, will you? We'll have a chat in the garden, and watch the dead leaves. [Vannaire offers his arm to Therat, and the two go out. LEGLAY (sadly) The same old story! MADELEINE What do you mean? LEGLAY Always the same resentment. MADELEINE No, no, you mustn't say that. He's not resentful toward you. LEGLAY But his silence, his obstinate silence MADELEINE It's not only when you are present: he was that way even before you came back. He's often that way with me, and he was with mother. He didn't blame her for anything. Think how he grieved for her! He talks only with Vannaire and Edmond per- haps because they stand for the past and the future in his mind, while you and I are the present. And he suffers, you know. It's our fault. [She sits dovm. A pause. LEGLAY Madeleine you, too MADELEINE It's the fault of his illness. Every time he puts his hand to his heart, it is like a reproach. That is PROGRESS 145 our fault. You yourself told me that with his power of resistance, he would have lived a long time. It's our fault LEGLAY No, it is not our fault; it was the fault of the facts over which we had no control. Those facts crushed him. They made us suffer, too. We weren't selfish: we sacrificed ourselves. Remember that. MADELEINE Oh, I remember! LEGLAY Think of those eight terrible years, while I waited for you. We were young, and we loved each other. You never stopped loving me, did you? MADELEINE Oh, how I loved you! LEGLAY I spent days and nights in torture, when memories and desires caused me fearful struggles with my conscience. There were times when I was on the point of throwing everything to the winds and giving up every attempt to win you back. And then I would return to my clinic or my laboratory, ashamed. And I found in the anxious look of a patient the power to carry out my sacrifice. MADELEINE Yes, we have suffered. For the sake of our pride, wasn't it? LEGLAY Possibly, Madeleine. If neither you nor I had had it, perhaps everything would have blown over, but 146 PROGRESS it would have been shameful. Pride, yes, but it was the pride that refuses to be happy at the price of base compromise, the pride of suffering for some- thing great for faith. MADELEINE Faith? LEGLAY Yes. The same faith was in us both. MADELEINE But we suffered because we thought differently. LEGLAY So it appeared. You believed in your father, didn't you? Why? MADELEINE Because I loved and venerated him. LEGLAY You loved him because you saw in him the work of a lifetime, devotion to mankind, the great unknown masses; an unswerving ideal of happiness for others; you saw in him a great, unselfish conscience, that thought and acted for the good of others. You admired your father, who refused to think of himself. It was my ambition to be like him. We were both urged on by the same sentiment. But he stood be- tween and separated us, caused us untold suffering. If it had not been for him, we should have been just selfish lovers, happy, but with no true ideal fleshly and of the earth. But the day we came together again, we enjoyed something new, some- thing grand, uplifting: the grave joy of deserved and ennobled happiness. (Going to her and taking her hand) You felt that, Madeleine, I know you did. PROGRESS 147 MADELEINE (troubled) I don't know LEGLAY I'm sure you did. Before we were separated, a sort of shame made you turn your face in moments of extreme passion. Now you feel that our love is not merely a futile pleasure; you feel that within us there is something more than ourselves. You look at me and you see the whole world everything that I struggle for. (They embrace) In this kiss there is a touch of bitter remembrance : the fears and hopes we have experienced prolong it, carry us beyond and above ourselves. In you it is the whole world I love, and its aspirations toward happiness, paid for by suffering. MADELEINE (putting her hands about his head and drawing it towards her) I see that in your eyes. [They kiss again and look into each other's eyes. A pause. Enter Therat, slowly, leaning on Vannaire's arm. VANNAIRE Brrr! It's getting cold! It's more comfortable indoors. THERAT Cold outside and sad! [He sits down. VANNAIRE No, not sad. To-day we see the beautiful melancholy splendor of autumn, but there's nothing sad about it. 148 PROGRESS MADELEINE Isn't it beautiful? The leaves are getting richer and richer every hour. THERAT And more fragile and tremulous. MADELEINE They are never more beautiful. THERAT Yes to those who can hope to see them bloom again! In a month's time the branches will be only black lines against a livid sky. They are already alone in the garden. (To Vannaire) That rose, that last rose I showed you the petals, so withered and faded! And the dead leaves look like flesh at an autopsy. I remember that rose the day before yesterday. It was radiant then; its color seemed to affect the atmosphere. It stood so straight on its stem that it seemed to exercise some sort of power and be worthy of its high-sounding name: "Glory of Dijon!" What is left? A little decayed matter, which will become dust to-morrow; nothing of the marvelous brilliancy that proudly shot its color into the sunshine. VANNAIRE Now you're thinking of yourself. But something does remain. In your memory there remains that brilliancy. THERAT My memory will soon be dead. VANNAIRE It will exist in other memories. Other roses will PROGRESS 149 bloom, and people will watch and examine them more carefully because of the memory of the first. What has once truly lived never dies; what has been appreciated and understood, lives. Every dead rose has, before it withered, impressed its color on the soul of man. When, to-day, we try to think of a delicate tint with which to adorn ourselves, all the flowers in the world, all that have ever existed, have their share in our choice; a combination and modification of their tints goes to make the desired shade, which gives us joy. Every flower has left its streak of color; we do not always see them, but we feel their influence, because those who have gone before have seen them. No, Therat, nothing that has once truly lived ever dies. [A pause. All four are deep in thought. All at once Therat, with a slight sigh, puts his hand to his heart. Vannaire, Madeleine and Leglay dart toward him. MADELEINE Father, what's the matter? (Therat does not answer) Father! LEGLAY (feeling Therafs pulse) Master! \A long pause. Therafs head falls heavily against the back of the chair. They all look anxiously at him. THERAT (raising his head) It's nothing not this time. I 'm I 'm still good ^ for (Looking at Leglay, who holds his wrist) How * long do you think, Leglay? LEGLAY (embarrassed) Oh, there is no reason why 150 PROGRESS THERAT Come, come, you know as well as I do LEGLAY I see no alarming symptoms. THERAT (speaking with difficulty) Look, look at that hand. (He shows his hand) It it's arter arteri help me: arteri LEGLAY Arteriosclerosis ? THERAT Withered! Yes. Already you see I don't remem I can't think of the word. Isn't that a symptom, Leglay ? That's a phenomenon of a of a (With a gesture of profound despair) I don't remember ! Of of aph ! LEGLAY Aphasia? No, no. You're just a little tired and dizzy. THERAT Leglay, in a month two months, at the outside, I shall be dead. MADELEINE (shocked) Father! VANNAIRE Now, now, Therat, you only imagine LEGLAY You are mistaken. THERAT I am not mistaken. If I can't think of the words, I know the facts. I know and I see. I can see my heart and my arteries. I know they are used up, PROGRESS 151 worn out, practically empty. The heart may be good for another month, but no more LEGLAY I assure you, master, you're exaggerating. The disease is not so far advanced. THERAT (with authority) You are mistaken. You don't know. You ought to know. I'll let me explain: the hypo hypos (irritably} Oh, I can't remember the word! LEGLAY Hyposy stole? THERAT Yes. (Therat looks intently at Leglay} Yes, but I I see, you know what I am going to to tell you. You know as well as I better, because you know the words. I know things, and I realize that my heart is atrophied. I know what will cause my death, but I can't explain it. It would be better to die as soon as possible. I'm not a scientist. Leglay, tell me tell me the word hypo LEGLAY Hyposystole. THERAT Hy po sys tole. Hy po sys sys No, I can't! It's all over! VANNAIRE Come, now, my dear Therat, this isn't anything. You're just tired out MADELEINE Of course, father. Don't think about it any longer. Rest, and don't wear yourself out. 152 PROGRESS THERAT It's all over! I don't remember! The words leave me, one by one. I don't know anything. I I'm dying [Enter Edmond. MADELEINE (surprised) Home so soon? EDMOND Yes. I didn't wait till class was over. MADELEINE You're excited? What happened? EDMOND Oh Ferruel, the professor, spoke of father LEGLAY Of me? EDMOND Yes, and grandfather, too. THERAT (rising) Me? LEGLAY What did he say? EDMOND He spoke of your work your methods he criticised them [Therat listens breathlessly. LEGLAY But you are allowed to discuss questions in class? You said something? What did you say? You didn't let that pass ? EDMOND (hesitating) I said nothing at all. PROGRESS 153 LEGLAY What! EDMOND Because I had nothing to say. [Therat, with renewed effort, stands up even straighter than before. LEGLAY (agitated) Then do you think Ferruel is right, and I wrong? Do you believe that? You didn't defend me? EDMOND You see in a way, he is right. He said LEGLAY What? And you pretend to judge? You must learn first, or keep still! VANNAIRE Leglay, don't get excited. MADELEINE Paul! THERAT (leaning on the arm of the chair) Let him talk, Leglay. It's his turn now! LEGLAY (in a whisper) His turn ! THERAT Tell us, son EDMOND It's this way: Ferruel cited examples proving that certain curative methods are not always effective. (To Leglay) You never denied that, did you? He praised you highly, but he added that you were wrong in applying your methods too rigorously. 154 PROGRESS He thinks it's dangerous always to begin with experimenting LEGLAY He doesn't know what he's talking about ! Of course, Ferruel thinks I 'm becoming too prominent. THERAT Leglay, don't talk that way. I used to think the same of you, and I was wrong. Go on, son, what else did he say? EDMOND He says that there are positive means of knowing certain cases where the therapeutic method is useless. Then he talked at length about you, grandfather, told about your methods of diagnosis, which he thinks splendid THERAT (looking proudly at Madeleine) You see? EDMOND I couldn't say anything, because he was so respectful to you both, and he admired you. LEGLAY Do you think so? EDMOND Yes, he said you'd both done splendid service in the cause of science, only that you had both gone too far hi the application of your ideas and the valuable discoveries you had made. He says you complement each other, and that the new science will take some- thing from each of you as a starting point in the search for a new method, and definite conclusions PROGRESS 155 LEGLAY Definite! Ferruel going to lay down definite con- clusions ! You youngsters going to arrive at definite conclusions! YANNAIRE Leglay, don't lose your temper. Your son is just as you were at twenty. His convictions are just as strong as yours were. Let him keep them. Perhaps it's absurd, or unjust, but you know it is necessary. THERAT (slowly, quietly, with an effort, but with passion) Yes, yes, it is necessary, it is necessary, and just, Vannaire. You must let him believe, because he is going to search. Allow him to believe he will find the ultimate, the definite conclusions, for without that faith he would not seek them. Perhaps, per- haps, Leglay, he will crush us, but it makes no differ- ence. Leglay, come, give me your hand. I I begin to understand; I can see things clearly now. You were right, Leglay, not to give in to my selfish pride; and Edmond is right in looking fairly and squarely at your work and mine. Ferruel has a clear vision and it it's always that way. One after another, we work at the same task; even when we seem to contradict each other, and disagree and dispute, even when we are mistaken, we are leading men toward the same goal. Each of us marks a stage in progress. The future is never mistaken. I did what it was necessary for me to do. You too, Leglay. Madeleine's instinct was right when it drove her toward you. It was right that she should disagree; without that struggle, our labor would have proved fruitless. (To Edmond) You, son, work 156 PROGRESS on, and don't be afraid to attack what we have estab- lished. Go on, your faith will always help you; go [He falls into his chair, exhausted, his eyes closed. Every one goes toward him. EDMOND (deeply stirred) Go! Father, I don't THERAT (opening his eyes again) Yes, yes, you will go on if you think it necessary and worth while. Promise me, promise me. You know I haven't much longer to live. My mind is clear now. I can see you going on, without turning back, along the road we once trod. You are right. Go on ahead CURTAIN University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 047 364 5 Unil