THE MOTHER. You know how to talk, and I don't; but, believe me sir, (_to Manager_) after he had married me ... who knows why? ... I was a poor insignificant woman.... THE FATHER. But, good Heavens! it was just for your humility that I married you. I loved this simplicity in you (_He stops when he sees she makes signs to contradict him, opens his arms wide in sign of desperation, seeing how hopeless it is to make himself understood_). You see she denies it. Her mental deafness, believe me, is phenomenal, the limit (_touches his forehead_): deaf, deaf, mentally deaf! She has plenty of feeling. Oh yes, a good heart for the children; but the brain--deaf, to the point of desperation--! THE STEP-DAUGHTER. Yes, but ask him how his intelligence has helped us. THE FATHER. If we could see all the evil that may spring from good, what should we do? (_At this point the Leading Lady who is biting her lips with rage at seeing the Leading Man flirting with the Step-Daughter, comes forward and says to the Manager_). LEADING LADY. Excuse me, but are we going to rehearse today? MANAGER. Of course, of course; but let's hear them out. JUVENILE LEAD. This is something quite new. L'INGÉNUE. Most interesting! LEADING LADY. Yes, for the people who like that kind of thing (_casts a glance at Leading Man_). THE MANAGER (_to Father_.) You must please explain yourself quite clearly (_sits down_). THE FATHER. Very well then: listen! I had in my service a poor man, a clerk, a secretary of mine, full of devotion, who became friends with her (_indicating the Mother_). They understood one another, were kindred souls in fact, without, however, the least suspicion of any evil existing. They were incapable even of thinking of it. THE STEP-DAUGHTER. So he thought of it--for them! THE FATHER. That's not true. I meant to do good to them--and to myself, I confess, at the same time. Things had come to the point that I could not say a word to either of them without their making a mute appeal, one to the other, with their eyes. I could see them silently asking each other how I was to be kept in countenance, how I was to be kept quiet. And this, believe me, was just about enough of itself to keep me in a constant rage, to exasperate me beyond measure. THE MANAGER. And why didn't you send him away then--this secretary of yours? THE FATHER. Precisely what I did, sir. And then I had to watch this poor woman drifting forlornly about the house like an animal without a master, like an animal one has taken in out of pity. THE MOTHER. Ah yes...! THE FATHER (_suddenly turning to the Mother_). It's true about the son anyway, isn't it? THE MOTHER. He took my son away from me first of all.