(General consternation.)

Adolphe.  Think of what you are saying!  Weigh your words!  Do you realise what you said just now?

Maurice.  What did I say?

Adolphe.  You said that you had killed Marion.

Maurice.  Is there a human being here who could believe me a murderer, and who could hold me capable of taking my own child’s life?  You who know me, Madame Catherine, tell me:  do you believe, can you believe—­

Mme. Catherine.  I don’t know any longer what to believe.  What the heart thinketh the tongue speaketh.  And your tongue has spoken evil words.

Maurice.  She doesn’t believe me!

Adolphe.  But explain your words, man!  Explain what you meant by saying that “your love would kill everything that stood in its way.”

Maurice.  So they know that too—­Are you willing to explain it, Henriette?

Henriette.  No, I cannot do that.

Abbe.  There is something wrong behind all this and you have lost our sympathy, my friend.  A while ago I could have sworn that you were innocent, and I wouldn’t do that now.

Maurice. [To Jeanne] What you have to say means more to me than anything else.  Jeanne. [Coldly] Answer a question first:  who was it you cursed during that orgie out there?

Maurice.  Have I done that too?  Maybe.  Yes, I am guilty, and yet I am guiltless.  Let me go away from here, for I am ashamed of myself, and I have done more wrong than I can forgive myself.

Henriette. [To Adolphe] Go with him and see that he doesn’t do himself any harm.

Adolphe.  Shall I—?

Henriette.  Who else?

Adolphe. [Without bitterness] You are nearest to it—­Sh!  A carriage is stopping outside.

Mme. Catherine.  It’s the Commissaire.  Well, much as I have seen of life, I could never have believed that success and fame were such short-lived things.

Maurice. [To Henriette] From the triumphal chariot to the patrol wagon!

Jeanne. [Simply] And the ass—­who was that?

Adolphe.  Oh, that must have been me.

Commissaire. [Enters with a paper in his hand] A summons to Police Headquarters—­to-night, at once—­for Monsieur Maurice Gerard—­and for Mademoiselle Henrietta Mauclerc—­both here?

Maurice and Henriette.  Yes.

Maurice.  Is this an arrest?

Commissaire.  Not yet.  Only a summons.

Maurice.  And then?

Commissaire.  We don’t know yet.

(Maurice and Henriette go toward the door.)

Maurice.  Good-bye to all!

(Everybody shows emotion.  The Commissaire, Maurice, and Henriette go out.)