Читать книгу The Count of Monte Cristo, Part One - Александр Дюма - Страница 7
ОглавлениеACT I, SCENE 2
The home of Edmond’s father. A little room with a sloping roof, window filled with creeping plants.
LA CARCONTE
So there, Papa Dantès, you say that my drunken Caderousse isn’t here.
DANTÈS
No, cousin, I haven’t even seen him all day.
LA CARCONTE
Go on! He must still be at the cabaret.
DANTÈS
Let’s see—a little mercy for poor Caderousse, cousin!
LA CARCONTE
Oh! It’s that he doesn’t do more than that, you see. A man who had such a good situation.
DANTÈS
Well, but he’ll always have it.
LA CARCONTE
Yes, but little by little, he loses all his skill and then they won’t give him credit any more for anything.
DANTÈS
Bah! Cousin, you have some property in Arles and when you wish to leave Marseille.
LA CARCONTE
Ah! That’s exactly what I fear.
DANTÈS
How’s that?
LA CARCONTE
Because it will be my death, you see. If I return to Arles, I am lost.
DANTÈS
Ah, yes, those cursed fevers.
LA CARCONTE
I thought I was dying of it, you know.
DANTÈS
Poor woman! But things are better, right?
LA CARCONTE
I am cured—and since I cannot retake the same air—
DANTÈS
You will excuse me, cousin?
(He stand in a chair to attach the blinds to the window.)
LA CARCONTE
Take care. You are high up, it is nothing to joke about.
DANTÈS
Oh—don’t worry.
LA CARCONTE
I hear a step. It cannot be him.
DANTÈS
You see quite well it doesn’t do to think badly of his approach.
LA CARCONTE
It’s not him.
(seeing Edmond)
Wait! Wait! Oh—but—
DANTÈS
What?
EDMOND
(low to Carconte)
Silence!
LA CARCONTE
Yes, and even—
(she gestures that she must go)
Right?
EDMOND
Thanks!
LA CARCONTE
He’s going to be very happy, Papa Dantès.
(Exit La Carconte)
DANTÈS
(his back turned)
Speak, cousin, since it still isn’t him. Who is it then, huh?
EDMOND
It’s me, father.
DANTÈS
Ah, my God—my God!
EDMOND
What’s wrong with you, father? Are you getting sick?
DANTÈS
No, my dear, Edmond! No, my child! But I wasn’t expecting you—and the joy—the shock of seeing you return here so unexpectedly, oh, my God! It seems to me I am going to die.
EDMOND
Well, pull yourself together, Father—it’s I—it’s really me! Everyone says that joy never does ill and that’s why I came in without warning. Come on, smile at me, instead of looking at me as you are doing with terrified eyes! I am back, we are going to be happy.
DANTÈS
Ah! So much the better boy! But how are we going to be happy? You will never leave me again?
EDMOND
Poor Captain Leclere is dead and it’s likely I am going to have his place. Do you understand? Captain, with five hundred crowns in appointments and a share of the profits. Isn’t that more than a poor drudge like myself could hope for?
DANTÈS
Yes, my son, yes—indeed—it’s very lucky.
EDMOND
Also, I want from the first money I receive, for you to have a small house with a garden where you can plant your flowers. But what’s the matter, Father? They were saying you were sick.
DANTÈS
Patience, Edmond; it is nothing!
EDMOND
Come, come, Father, a glass of wine—that will revive you—where have you put your wine?
DANTÈS
No, thanks—don’t look.
EDMOND
Easily done, father. Tell me where it is.
DANTÈS
Useless. There is no more wine.
EDMOND
What do you mean? There is no more wine? Could you have been short of money, Father?
DANTÈS
I lack nothing since you are here, my child!
EDMOND
What, could Mr. Morel not have transmitted to you the two hundred francs on the day of my departure three months ago?
DANTÈS
Yes—it’s true. But you forgot a little debt at the home of your neighbor, Caderousse. He reminded me of it saying that if I didn’t pay on your behalf, he would go to Mr. Morel for payment. Then from fear that this would injure you—
EDMOND
Well?
DANTÈS
I paid.
EDMOND
But it was 140 francs that I owed neighbor Caderousse.
DANTÈS
Yes.
EDMOND
And you gave him from the 200 francs I left for you?
DANTÈS
Yes.
EDMOND
So that, for three months, you’ve had sixty francs to live on?
DANTÈS
You know how little I need.
EDMOND
Oh, my God, my God, pardon me.
DANTÈS
What’s wrong with you?
EDMOND
Oh, my poor Father, you have broken my heart.
DANTÈS
(smiling)
Bah! You are here! Now everything is forgotten because everything is fine.
EDMOND
Yes, I am here with a good future and a little money. Here, take, take.
(he tosses his money on the table)
And send right away to get something.
DANTÈS
Send for what?
EDMOND
Why for you? Come here, Father, take, take! Buy some provisions. Be happy, poor Father. Tomorrow there will be more.
DANTÈS
Easy, easy! With your permission, I will employ your purse moderately. People will think if they see me buy many things at once that I was forced to wait for your return to buy them.
EDMOND
Do as you wish, Father, but before all else, get someone to serve you. I have down there in the depth of the hold some excellent coffee and contraband tobacco for you—you will have some tomorrow. It comes from Smyrna, but hush, someone is here.
DANTÈS
Hey, it’s Caderousse who will have heard of your arrival and who wishes to congratulate you on your safe return.
EDMOND
Good! Still some lips say one thing while the heart says another. But—no matter—he’s a neighbor who has helped us in the past—let him be welcome.
CADEROUSSE
Eh? You’ve come back, little one?
EDMOND
As you see, neighbor Caderousse, and ready to be agreeable to you in whatever may be.
CADEROUSSE
Thanks, thanks, I have no need of anything—and rather others sometimes have need of me. I don’t say that to you, boy—I already have ready some money you returned me—that was done between neighbors and we are quits.
EDMOND
Due is never quits with those who have obliged you, for when you no longer owe them money, you still owe them thanks.
CADEROUSSE
What’s the good of speaking of it? What is past is past. Let’s speak of your happy return, boy. I had gone to the port to look for some chestnut clothe when I met friend Danglars. “You at Marseille,” I asked him, “Eh, yes, all the same,” he replied. “I could be there, but I’ve returned.” “And Edmond?” I thought of you right away. “Where is the little fellow? “But with his father, doubtless.” And I came straight here to have the pleasure of shaking the hand of a friend!
EDMOND
This good Caderousse! He loves us so much.
CADEROUSSE
Certainly I love you, and esteem you even more. Considering honest men are rare. But it appears that you are returning rich.
EDMOND
Ah! This money isn’t mine, neighbor—it is my father’s. I was expressing the fear that he lacked something during my absence and to reassure me, he opened his purse. Come, Father, put your money in the moneybox unless neighbor Caderousse has need of it, in which case it is completely at his service.
CADEROUSSE
Not at all, boy, I don’t need anything, and thank God the state nourishes its help. Keep your money, keep it, one never has too much!
EDMOND
It was with good intention.
CADEROUSSE
I have no doubt of that. Well, there you are in good with, Mr. Morel, lucky dog that you are.
EDMOND
Mr. Morel has always been good to me.
CADEROUSSE
In that case, you were wrong to refuse to dine with him.
DANTÈS
What—you refused to dine with him? He had invited you to dinner then?
EDMOND
Yes, Father.
DANTÈS
And why did you refuse, boy?
EDMOND
To return home to you sooner. I was in a hurry to see you.
CADEROUSSE
I know someone down there behind Fort St. Nicholas who won’t be upset that you will be captain.
DANTÈS
Mercédès, right?
EDMOND
Yes, Father—and with your permission now that I have seen you, Father, now that I know you are well, I ask your permission to pay a visit to the Catalans.
DANTÈS
Go, my child, go—and may God bless you in your wife as God has blessed me in a son!
CADEROUSSE
Never mind, never mind. You would do well to hurry.
EDMOND
Why?
CADEROUSSE
Because Mercédès is a pretty girl, and pretty girls do not lack admirers—her especially. They follow her by the dozen—but you are going to be captain, to you she will give preference.
EDMOND
Which means that if I were not—
CADEROUSSE
Eh! Eh!
EDMOND
Come, come, neighbor, I have a better opinion than you of women in general and of Mercédès in particular—and I am convinced that, captain or not, she will remain faithful to me.
CADEROUSSE
So much the better! So much the better! When one is going to marry it is always good to have faith. But never mind, believe me, little fellow, don’t lose any time in announcing your arrival.
EDMOND
I am going.
DANTÈS
And I, I will accompany you to La Cannebierre—I want to part with you only at the last possible moment.
CADEROUSSE
I must ask your permission to stay here an instant, Father Dantès. This devil Carconte bored no doubt, that I didn’t return, left in her turn—and she has taken the key—so that I am locked out.
DANTÈS
Stay, neighbor, stay. You know you are at home here.
CADEROUSSE
Thanks.
EDMOND
Come, Father.
CADEROUSSE
Give my best to Mercédès, little fellow.
EDMOND
I will add them to those I am going to give her.
DANTÈS
When you leave, lock the door.
CADEROUSSE
Be easy.
(Dantès and Edmond leave.)
CADEROUSSE
(alone)
I am sure of one thing—it’s that this money was brought by the little fellow—and that the old boaster hasn’t a trace of a sou in the house.
Anyway we are going to see. Ah, they are going down the street to Meilhan. Very Good! For people who are disgustingly rich here’s an armoire that’s stupidly furnished. Look at it. Yes, it’s so! That’s a bottle but it is empty. At home with me, there are no empty bottles so long as my purse is full—and I judge others by myself. A scrap of bread. I am not deceived. The old boy was completely broke and the gold was brought by the little fellow. When one thinks what the proud do!
DANGLARS
Caderousse! Caderousse!
CADEROUSSE
Ah, it’s Danglars. To whom I gave a meeting at my home and who found the door locked! Hey, Danglars, come up, come up. No one is here. Come here!
DANGLARS
(entering)
Where are they then?
CADEROUSSE
They left. I am the master of the house.
DANGLARS
Well—did you see him?
CADEROUSSE
I left him.
DANGLARS
Has he spoken of his hope of being captain?
CADEROUSSE
He spoke of it as if he already was.
DANGLARS
Patience! Patience! He presses a little too much.
CADEROUSSE
It seems the thing has been promised by Mr. Morel.
DANGLARS
Which makes him very happy?
CADEROUSSE
Meaning that he is insolent. He already offered me his services as if he were a great person.
DANGLARS
Is he still in love with the pretty Catalan?
CADEROUSSE
Madly amorous. He went there—but either I deceive myself or there will be some disagreement there.
DANGLARS
Explain yourself.
CADEROUSSE
What’s the use?
DANGLARS
It’s more important than you think. You don’t like Edmond.
CADEROUSSE
I don’t love the arrogant.
DANGLARS
Well, what do you know relative to the Catalan?
CADEROUSSE
Well, I know that every time Mercédès comes to town, she is accompanied by a big stud of a Catalan with a black eye, red complexion—very brown, very ardent and whom she calls “my cousin”.
DANGLARS
Ah, truly! And do you believe this cousin is paying court to her?
CADEROUSSE
I think so. What the devil do you expect of a big boy of twenty and a pretty girl of seventeen?
DANGLARS
And you say Dantès went to the Catalan?
CADEROUSSE
He left in front of my eyes.
DANGLARS
If we were to go the same way? We would stop at the Reserve and drink a glass of Lamalga where we would get some information.
CADEROUSSE
Who would give it to us?
DANGLARS
We will be on the way and we will see from his face what has happened.
CADEROUSSE
Let’s go! But you are paying?
DANGLARS
Certainly! Are you coming?
CADEROUSSE
Here I am!
(A stranger enters.)
STRANGER
Pardon, gentlemen.
CADEROUSSE
What is it?
DANGLARS
What do you want?
STRANGER
Is this where the Captain of the Pharaoh lives?
DANGLARS
The mate, you mean!
STRANGER
Captain or mate, so be it! The one who was in charge of the ship during the voyage.
DANGLARS
Yes, sir, this is where he lives.
CADEROUSSE
Or rather his father.
STRANGER
Never mind! And he is not home?
CADEROUSSE
He just went out.
DANGLARS
Is it something in which one can act for him?
STRANGER
I want to ask some information from him.
DANGLARS
About what?
STRANGER
On the course the ship took.
DANGLARS
I can tell you that.
STRANGER
You?
DANGLARS
Yes—I am comptroller aboard the Pharaoh. What information do you wish?
STRANGER
Ah! Very simple. I wanted to know if, in its course, the boat had stopped at Porto Ferraio.
DANGLARS
Yes, sir.
STRANGER
Thanks.
DANGLARS
Well?
STRANGER
What?
DANGLARS
That’s all you wish to know?
STRANGER
Yes.
DANGLARS
What more do you want?
STRANGER
I want nothing else. Good day, gentlemen.
(The stranger leaves.)
CADEROUSSE
Well, there’s a character.
DANGLARS
There’s something strange in all this, Caderousse. Come, come.
CADEROUSSE
Wait a while.
DANGLARS
The old caitiff didn’t he tell me to close his door? As if he had something to lose from this shack—there!
(They leave.)
BLACKOUT
