Why don't you say, rather, that she is foolish enough to give you half her salary. You make me sick——
[Enter Zinida, the lion tamer; burningly beautiful, her self-confident, commanding gestures at first glance give an impression of languor. She is Briquet's unmarried wife.]
Zinida
[To Mancini]: Good morning.
Mancini
Madame Zinida! This barbarian, this brute may pierce me with his dagger, but I cannot control the expression of my love! [Kneels facetiously before her] Madame! Count Mancini has the honour of asking you to be his wife. …
Zinida
[To Briquet]: Money?
Briquet
Yes.
Zinida
Don't give him any. [Sits down wearily on a torn sofa, shuts her eyes. Mancini gets up and wipes his knees.]
Mancini
Duchess! Don't be cruel. I am no lion, no tiger, no savage beast which you are accustomed to tame. I am merely a poor domestic animal, who wants, miaow, miaow, a little green grass.
Zinida
[Without opening her eyes]: Jim tells me you have a teacher for Consuelo. What for?
Mancini
The solicitude of a father, duchess, the solicitude and the tireless anxiety of a loving heart. The extreme misfortunes of our family, when I was a child, have left some flaws in her education. Friends, the daughter of Count Mancini, Countess Veronica, can barely read! Is that admissible? And you, Briquet, heartless brute, you still ask why I need money!
Zinida
Artful!
Briquet
What are you teaching her?
Mancini
Everything. A student had been giving her lessons, but I threw him out yesterday. He had the nerve to fall in love with Consuelo and stood there miaowing at the door like a cat. Everything, Briquet, that you don't know—literature, mythology, orthography——
[Two young actresses appear, with small fur coats thrown over their light dresses. They are tired and sit down in the corner.]
Mancini
I do not wish my daughter——
Zinida
Artful!
Briquet
You are stupid, Mancini. What do you do it for? [In a didactic tone] You are fearfully stupid, Mancini. Why does she need to learn? Since she is here she need never know anything about that life. Don't you understand? What is geography? If I were the government I would forbid artists to read books. Let them read the posters, that's enough.
[During Briquet's speech, the two clowns and another actor enter. They sit down wearily.]
Briquet
Right now, your Consuelo is an excellent artist, but just as soon as you teach her mythology, and she begins to read, she'll become a nuisance, she'll be corrupted, and then she'll go and poison herself. I know those books, I've read 'em myself. All they teach is corruption, and how to kill oneself.
First Actress
I love the novels that come out in the newspaper.
Briquet
That shows what a foolish girl you are. You'll be done for in no time. Believe me, my friends, we must forget entirely what is happening out there. How can we understand all that goes on there?
Mancini
You are an enemy of enlightenment, you are an obscurantist, Briquet.
Briquet
And you are stupid. You are from out there. What has it taught you? [The actors laugh.] If you'd been born in a circus as I was, you'd know something. Enlightenment is plain nonsense—nothing else. Ask Zinida. She knows everything they teach out there—geography, mythology—— Does it make her any happier? You tell them, dear.
Zinida
Leave me alone, Louis.
Mancini
[Angrily]: Oh! Go to the devil! When I listen to your asinine philosophy, I'd like to skin you for more than a paltry hundred francs—for two hundred—for a thousand. Great God! What an ass of a manager! Yes, right before every one of them I want to say that you are a stingy old skinflint—that you pay starvation wages. I'll make you give Consuelo a raise of a hundred francs. Listen, all you honest vagabonds, tell me—who is it draws the crowd that fills the circus every night? You? a couple of musical donkeys? Tigers, lions? Nobody cares for those hungry cats!
Zinida
Leave the tigers alone.
Mancini
Beg your pardon, Zinida. I did not mean to hurt your feelings—honestly. I really marvel at your furious audacity—at your grace—you are a heroine—I kiss your tiny hands. But what do they understand about heroism? [An orchestra softly plays the Tango in the circus. He continues with enthusiasm.] Hear! hear! Now tell me, honest vagabonds, who but Consuelo and Bezano draws the crowds! That Tango on horseback—it is—it is—— Oh, the devil! Even his fatuousness the Pope could not withstand its lure.
Polly
True! It's a great trick—wasn't the idea Bezano's?
Mancini
Idea! Idea! The lad's in love, like a cat—that's the idea. What's the good of an idea without a woman! You wouldn't dance very far with your idea alone, eh, Papa Briquet?
Briquet
We have a contract.
Mancini
Such base formalities.
Zinida
Give him ten francs and let him go.
Mancini
Ten! Never! Fifteen! Don't be stubborn, Papa. For the traditions of my house—twenty. I swear—on my honour—I can't do with less. [Briquet hands him twenty francs. Nonchalantly] Merci. Thanks.
Zinida
Why don't you take it from your baron?
Mancini
[Raising his eyebrows haughtily, quite indignant]: From the Baron? Woman! who do you think I am that I should be beholden to a stranger?
Zinida
You're plotting something artful. I know you very little, but I guess you're an awful scoundrel.
Mancini
[Laughs]: Such an insult from such beautiful lips.
[Enter an "artist," apparently an athlete.]
Athlete
Papa Briquet, there's a gentleman from beyond the grave asking for you.
Actress
A ghost?
Athlete
No. He seems alive. Did you ever see a drunken ghost?
Briquet
If he's drunk, tell him I'm out, Thomas. Does he want to see me or the Count?
Athlete
No, you. Maybe he's not drunk, but just a ghost.
Mancini
[Draws himself together, puffs up]: