tting the bell!
Good-evening, Monsieur Feliat.

_Therese takes up the bell, which is on the table._

MADAME GUERET. I was going to forget it! Oh, what a nuisance! All this
is so new to me.

FELIAT. Excuse me! I really didn't recognize you for the moment.

THERESE [_laughing_] Ah, my dress. Startling, isn't it?

MADAME GUERET [_with meaning_] Startling is the right word.

RENE [_appearing at the back, disappearing again immediately, and
calling_] The bell! And you, on the stage, Mademoiselle Therese!

THERESE. I'm coming. [_She rings_] Here I am!

_She goes out._

MADAME GUERET [_with a sigh_] And I had it let down!

FELIAT. What?

MADAME GUERET. Her dress. [_To her husband_] What I see most clearly in
all this is that she must stay with us.

_Rene comes fussing in._

RENE. Where's the queen? Where's Madame Nerisse?

MADAME GUERET. I've not seen her.

RENE. But goodness gracious--! [_He goes to the door on the left and
calls_] Madame Nerisse!

MADAME NERISSE [_from outside_] Yes, yes, I'm ready.

_Madame Nerisse comes in. She is about forty, flighty, and a little
affected._

RENE. I wanted to warn you that Ulric will be on your right, and if he
plays the fool--

MADAME NERISSE. Very well. Is it time?

RENE. Yes, come. [_To Madame Gueret_] You won't forget the trumpets?

MADAME GUERET. No, no. All the same, you'd better help me.

RENE. I will, I will.

_He goes out with Madame Nerisse._

FELIAT. You know, if she wants one, she'll find a husband at Evreux.

MADAME GUERET. Without a penny!

FELIAT. Without a penny! She made a sensation at the ball at the
sous-prefecture. She's extremely pretty.

MADAME GUERET. She's young.

FELIAT. Monsieur Gambard sounded me about her.

MADAME GUERET. Monsieur Gambard! The Monsieur Gambard who has the house
with the big garden?

FELIAT. Yes.

MADAME GUERET. But he's very rich.

FELIAT. He's forty-nine.

MADAME GUERET. She'll have to take what she can get now.

FELIAT. And I think that Monsieur Beaudoin----

GUERET. But he's almost a cripple!

MADAME GUERET. She wouldn't do so well in Paris.

GUERET. She wouldn't look at either of them.

FELIAT. We must try and make her see reason.

_Rene enters busily. Lucienne follows him. Feliat is standing across the
guichet through which Barberine is to speak. Rene pulls him away without
ceremony._

RENE. Excuse me, Uncle; don't stand there before the little window.

FELIAT. Beg par