The Forfeiture | Page 9

thousand francs is
enough for my father.
GERONTE: Yes, that's enough.
ARAMINTE: So as not to dispute further, give them.
BELISE: Come then, we will execute--
ARAMINTE: I have on me what I got from the notary.
BELISE: He has given me some to end this business.
VALERE: Let's see if by chance I don't have your promissory notes.
Yes, truly, I believe they are here.
GERONTE: The business seems to me easy to finish.
VALERE: Let's see.
BELISE: This is my note.
ARAMINTE: Here's my signature.
BELISE: Forty thousand francs on my banker and ten.
ARAMINTE: Thirty thousand in bills of exchange plus fourteen and
six.
VALERE: What happiness.
ISABELLE: I breathe.
VALERE: With great pleasure I tear up your forfeitures.
(Enter Frontin with a cape, a short wig and a cap like Pasquin)
FRONTIN: Our lovers are satisfied. We must amuse them.
ARAMINTE: Oh, it's you Chevalier. Why are you dressed like that?
BELISE: Oh. It's the Senechal. What is this mystery? Why aren't you
wearing your usual clothes?
FRONTIN: Here I am only a servant-chevalier.
ARAMINTE: He's playful.
BELISE: But Senechal--
FRONTIN: Although Senechal, I often wear livery.
BELISE: Have you gone mad?
ARAMINTE: Drunk on pleasures, my sister sees in you her lover, the
Senechal, dear Chevalier.
BELISE: Sister we are misunderstanding each other. He's the Senechal
Groux.
ARAMINTE: But I think you are dreaming. He's my Chevalier Cique.
FRONTIN: Yes, from complacency to please the younger, I am playful,
lively and to please the elder, stern. But unable to be two except in

appearance I must admit that Frontin is neither Cique nor Groux.
BELISE: What?
ARAMINTE: How's that?
VALERE: It's Frontin himself.
BELISE: Where are we?
VALERE: A scoundrel of a valet to pretend to be such a person.
ARAMINTE: A valet?
BELISE: A valet.
GERONTE: The wisest thing would be to ask us about this matter in
private.
ISABELLE: Pardon the nephew for the valet's sake.
BELISE: Oh, sister.
ARAMINTE: Oh, sis, let's hide our shame from them.
(Exit Araminte and Belise)
VALERE: The fear they have of making the subject of a fine story
perhaps may make them less unjust to me.
FRONTIN: In comic moral, it is, I believe, permitted, for Frontin to
punish the aunts' avarice and to make fun of these broken down lovers.
CURTAIN

End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Forfeiture, by Riviere
Dufresny, translated by Frank J. Morlock.

The Forfeiture

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