Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe: Three Plays By BrieuxBrieux, Eugène
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Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe: Three Plays By Brieux
Brieux, Eugène
French drama
MOUZON [_with great sincerity_] He has not confessed it, but he is on
the point of doing so. I myself know what happened that night after he
left your house--witnesses have told me.
YANETTA. No! No! My God, my God! Witnesses? What witnesses? It isn't
true!
MOUZON. Well, then, don't be so obstinate! In your own interest, don't
be so stubborn! Shall I tell you what will be the end of it? You will
ruin your husband! If you insist on contradicting the evidence, that he
passed the night away from the house, you'll ruin him, I tell you. On
the other hand, if you will only tell me the truth, then if he is not
the murderer, he will tell us what he did do and who his companions
were.
YANETTA. He hadn't any.
MOUZON. Then he went out alone?
YANETTA. Yes.
MOUZON. At ten o'clock?
YANETTA. At ten.
MOUZON. He returned alone at five in the morning?
YANETTA. Yes, all alone.
MOUZON. But perhaps you are thinking of some other night. It was really
the night of Ascension Day when he went out alone?
YANETTA. Yes.
MOUZON. Benoit, have you got that written down?
RECORDER. Yes, your worship.
MOUZON. Madame, I know how painful this must be to you, but I beg you to
listen to me with the greatest attention. Your husband was pressed for
money, was he not?
YANETTA. No.
MOUZON. Yes.
YANETTA. I tell you no.
MOUZON. Here is the proof. Three months ago he borrowed eight hundred
francs from a cattle-dealer of Mauleon.
YANETTA. He never told me about it.
MOUZON. Moreover, he owed a considerable sum to Goyetche.
YANETTA. I've never heard of that either.
MOUZON. Here is an acknowledgment written by your husband. It is in his
handwriting?
YANETTA. Yes, but I didn't know--
MOUZON. You didn't know of the existence of this debt? That tends to
confirm what I know already--your husband went to Irissary.
YANETTA. No, sir; he tells me everything he does.
MOUZON. But you see very well that he doesn't, since you didn't know of
the existence of this debt. He went to Irissary. Don't you believe me?
YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur, but he didn't kill a man for money; it's a lie,
a lie, a lie!
MOUZON. It's a lie! Now how am I to know that? Your husband begins by
denying everything, blindly, and then he takes up two methods of defence
in succession. You yourself begin by a piece of false evidence. All
this, I tell you again, will do for the man.
YANETTA. I don't know about that, but what I do tell you again is that
he didn't kill a man for money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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