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BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, JUN., _Of the "Académie Française."_
JOHN DE HUN. NOURVADY. GODLER. RICHARD. TRÉVELÉ. A COMMISSARY OF POLICE. LIONNETTE. RAOUL DE HUN (six years). A LADY'S-MAID. A NURSE. ANTHONY. A FOOTMAN. A SECRETARY OF THE COMMISSARY OF POLICE. TWO AGENTS.
_A large and very elegant drawing-room, looking out on a garden. French window with balcony at the lower extremity to the right. To the left a conservatory. To the right a door opening into the apartment of_ LIONNETTE. _To the left a door opening into the apartment of_ JOHN.
RICHARD, THE FOOTMAN; afterwards JOHN and LIONNETTE.
THE FOOTMAN (_to_ RICHARD, _who waits sitting near a table, turning over some papers_.)
I am quite at your service, Master Richard, but I regret that you have inconvenienced yourself to come.
Not at all; I live about two steps from here, and every evening, after my dinner, I take a short walk. Only, I am in a frock-coat, and you have friends.
Men only, some club friends. Lionnette is with them in the conservatory.
Muster all the courage of which you are master.
It is the fault of her mother, who reared her in luxury and without order. It is my fault, too, who was not as rich as my love; who not only never knew how to refuse her anything, but who did not even allow her time to wish for it; who told her to buy whatever she might wish for.
And who also gave her by power of attorney--serious imprudence!--the right of buying, selling, of disposing of her property, and, in consequence, of yours, as it seemed fit to her. You owe one million, a hundred and seven thousand, one hundred and twenty-seven francs, fifty-two centimes. When I say, you owe, that is a figure of speech; your wife owes. In that amount there are only thirty-eight thousand francs of your own personal debts, and for which personally you have to be responsible, as you were married under the system of "separation of property."
I authorised my wife to make debts, these debts then are mine. In other words, as she has no money, it is I who have to pay. What are my assets?