ROBESPIERRE. He is right. That regular activity rests me. Work is beneficial to others as well as to oneself. The noise is refreshing to me. I have breathed such vitiated air all night! MADAME DUPLAY. What work kept you up last night? ROBESPIERRE. It was not the work, but the worry. MADAME DUPLAY. You seem preoccupied--as if some great catastrophe were about to happen. ROBESPIERRE. Yes, a catastrophe. MADAME DUPLAY. Can't you prevent it? ROBESPIERRE. Oh, I must bring it about, on the contrary. MADAME DUPLAY. Of course, I have no right to ask questions, but you mustn't be sad today. We're having a festival. Le Bas and Saint-Just came back from the army last night. ROBESPIERRE. Saint-Just returned! Good: I need him. MADAME DUPLAY. And I forgot to tell you: a general came here and wanted to see you, General Westermann. He came before sunrise, but I wouldn't let him in. He said he would come back in an hour. Will you receive him? ROBESPIERRE. I don't know. MADAME DUPLAY. He waited a long time in the yard--in the rain. ROBESPIERRE. Very well. MADAME DUPLAY. What an awful night! I came in soaked to the skin. ROBESPIERRE. Where were you? MADAME DUPLAY. At the Markets. I was waiting in line since midnight. They were pushing so! You had to keep your eyes open, or some one would take your place! The moment they opened, every one began to fight. I stood up for my rights, and I finally got three eggs and a quarter pound of butter. ROBESPIERRE. Three eggs for this household? Why, that's nothing at all! MADAME DUPLAY. One for Eléonore, one for Elisabeth, and one for you--my three children! ROBESPIERRE. Dear mother Duplay, you don't imagine I shall take bread out of your mouth? MADAME DUPLAY. You're not going to refuse! It was for you I went to the Market. You're not well; you have a weak stomach. If you could only eat meat! But you won't let us buy any! ROBESPIERRE. Meat is very scarce, and it must be kept for the soldiers and the sick. We have decreed a civil lent. My colleagues and I must offer a good example of abstinence. MADAME DUPLAY. Not everybody has your scruples. ROBESPIERRE. I know: I have seen some of them indulge in feasting amidst all this misery; it horrifies me. Every feast of that kind deprives the country of at least thirty defenders. MADAME DUPLAY. What misery! No more meat, no more poultry, no more dairy products. The vegetables have been commandeered for the army. And no more fuel. This is the second night that Duplay has stood in line at the coal boat. He's just come in--without a thing. And there is no wood at all. Do you know what they asked me for a cord? Four hundred francs. Fortunately spring is not far off. Another month of this, and we'll all be dead. I never remember so hard a winter!