PRESIDENT [_to Brignac_] You may return to your place, Deputy. But since the defence, with an assumption of excessive liberty, appears desirous of incriminating you, the Court may, perhaps, be permitted to express to you here the high esteem in which it personally holds you. [_He half rises from his chair, bowing to Brignac_]. BRIGNAC. I thank you, President. [_He goes back to his place_]. MME. D’AMERGUEUX [_to her neighbor_] Then it’s true what they say, that Brignac is to be Minister of Justice in the next Government? PRESIDENT [_to Lucie_] Defendant Jarras, have you finished? LUCIE. No, President. PRESIDENT [_with a gesture of weariness_] Go on, then; I’m listening. LUCIE. When I felt a child coming to life within me of a man who was nothing more to me, whose name even I no longer bore, and whom I hated with my whole soul, I prevented it from being born to a destiny of misery. I consider that I had the right to refuse the task of motherhood when it was forced on me against my will. PRESIDENT. I shall not allow you to justify an act which is a crime by law. LUCIE. I have nothing on my conscience to reproach myself with. PRESIDENT. Then you have a singularly indulgent conscience. All this comes from your pride. If you had not entered into a struggle with your husband, you would still bear a respected name and you would not be there. LUCIE. I knew that any child of his would be a degenerate. Had I not the right to refuse? PRESIDENT. No. LUCIE. I loved him no longer. Had I not the right to refuse? PRESIDENT. No. LUCIE. Well, then, have the courage to say that woman in the marriage of today is a slave whom man can reduce to be the instrument of his pleasure! Just as he likes he can leave her sterile or give her children—imperil her happiness, her life, or her health, and pledge her whole future without having to render more account to her than a bull who is put to a cow! If that’s it, very well! But say so! At least, let innocent girls know the shameful bargain that men offer them, with love for a bait and the law for a trap! PRESIDENT [_coldly_] You were the cause of your young sister’s death. You took her with you. LUCIE [_calmer_] Yes. [_She stops_]. PRESIDENT. Well? LUCIE. Our money was soon spent. Annette got some music lessons to give, but they sent her away when they found out her condition. I did sewing. PRESIDENT. Then you earned some money. LUCIE. I could not get work every day. When I did, I earned fifteen sous for twelve hours. It’s true I was not clever; there are women who earn one franc twenty-five-. We were seized by despair at the thought of the child that was coming. PRESIDENT. That was not a reason to take your sister and her child to their deaths. [_Lucie is seized by a nervous shudder and does not answer_] Answer me. COUNSEL. Let her take a minute, President.