pen to me, I will kill myself
before the door; my parents will no doubt come here before going to
bed, to see if we are all right together, and they will find me dead,
and you will be hanged.

BAR. Ha! ha! ha! ha! the silly creature! Tell me who would lose the
most? Nonsense, you are not so foolish as to play such a trick.

ANG. You don't believe me. See, here is my knife all ready, if you do
not open at once I will pierce myself to the heart with it.

BAR. Take care, it is very sharp.

ANG. You won't open to me?

BAR. I have told you twenty times that I shall not open; kill
yourself, die, go to the devil, I care not.

ANG. (_pretending to stab herself_). Farewell then.... Ay! I am dead.

BAR. Can she be stupid enough to do such a thing? I must go down with
the light and see.

ANG. (_aside_). I will pay you back. If I can only slip into the house
while you are looking for me, it shall be my turn. (_She runs past_
BARBOUILLE, _and manages to get into the house without his knowledge._)

BAR. Well! I knew she was not so stupid as all that! She is dead, and
yet she runs like Pacolet's horse.[8] To say the truth, she really
frightened me, she did right to run away, for if I had found her alive
after she had given me such a fright, my boot would have taught her
not to play the fool. I must go to bed now. Hallo! the wind must have
shut the door to, I fear. Hi! Cathau, Cathau, open the door.

ANG. (_at the window_). "Cathau, Cathau! well what is the matter with
Cathau?" and where do you come from, you drunkard? Well, well, my
parents will soon be here, and will hear all about you. You wine-tap,
you infamous wretch, you do not stir from the public-house; but leave
a poor wife with little children waiting for you all day at home
without caring to know if they want anything.

BAR. Open quickly, she-devil! or I'll break your head open.

SCENE XII.--GORGIBUS, VILLEBREQUIN, ANGELIQUE, LE BARBOUILLE.

GOR. Why, what is it now? still quarrelling and fighting?

VILL. What? will you never agree?

ANG. Only just look at him! he is drunk, and returns at this time of
night to make a noise and threaten to kill me.

GOR. She is right: it is not at this hour of night you should come
home. Why can you not, like a good father of a family, come home early
and live at peace with your wife?

BAR. Deuce take me, if I left the house! Ask those gentlemen who are
on the terrace there. It is she who has only just come home. Ah! how