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not by the Protestant, churches.  The rest of the play is purely human in its note and wholly universal in its spirit.  For this reason I have retained the French names and titles, but have otherwise striven to bring everything as close as possible to our own modes of expression.  Should apparent incongruities result from this manner of treatment, I think they will disappear if only the reader will try to remember that the characters of the play move in an existence cunningly woven by the author out of scraps of ephemeral reality in order that he may show us the mirage of a more enduring one.

There are crimes and crimes
A comedy
1899

CHARACTERS

Maurice, a playwright
Jeanne, his mistress
Marion, their daughter, five years old
Adolphe, a painter
Henriette, his mistress
Emile, a workman, brother of Jeanne
madame Catherine
the Abbe
A Watchman
A head waiter
A Commissaire
two detectives
A waiter
A guard
servant girl

ACT I, SCENE 1.  THE CEMETERY 2.  THE CREMERIE

Act II, scene 1.  The Auberge des Adrets
              2.  The Bois de Boulogne

Act III, scene 1.  The Cremerie
               2.  The Auberge des Adrets

Act IV, scene 1.  The Luxembourg gardens
              2.  The Cremerie

(All the scenes are laid in Paris)

THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES

ACT I FIRST SCENE

(The upper avenue of cypresses in the Montparnasse Cemetery at Paris.  The background shows mortuary chapels, stone crosses on which are inscribed “O Crux!  Ave Spes Unica!” and the ruins of a wind-mill covered with ivy.)

(A well-dressed woman in widow’s weeds is kneeling and muttering prayers in front of a grave decorated with flowers.)

(Jeanne is walking back and forth as if expecting somebody.)

(Marion is playing with some withered flowers picked from a rubbish heap on the ground.)

(The Abbe is reading his breviary while walking along the further end of the avenue.)

Watchman. [Enters and goes up to Jeanne] Look here, this is no playground.

Jeanne. [Submissively] I am only waiting for somebody who’ll soon be here—­

Watchman.  All right, but you’re not allowed to pick any flowers.

Jeanne. [To Marion] Drop the flowers, dear.

Abbe. [Comes forward and is saluted by the Watchman] Can’t the child play with the flowers that have been thrown away?