Ramel
Don’t be startled, Marguerite.

Marguerite
You must have heard all we said.

Ramel
Don’t be alarmed.  My business is to keep secrets.  I am the state’s
attorney.

Marguerite
Oh!

Scenesecond

The same persons, Pauline, Godard, Vernon, Napoleon, Ferdinand, the
General, Madame de Grandchamp.

(Gertrude rushes to Marguerite and snatches the cushions from her hands.)

Gertrude Marguerite, you know very well what pain you give me, by not allowing me to do everything for your master; besides, I am the only one who knows how to arrange the cushions to his liking.

Marguerite (to Pauline)
What a to-do about nothing!

Godard
Why, look!  Here is the state’s attorney!

The General
The state’s attorney at my house?

Gertrude
I am surprised!

The General (to Ramel)
Sir, what brings you here?

Ramel
I asked my friend, M. Ferdinand Mar—­

(Ferdinand checks him by a gesture.  Gertrude and Pauline look at him in alarm.)

Gertrude (aside)
It is his friend, Eugene Ramel.

Ramel
My friend, Ferdinand de Charny, to whom I have told the object of my
visit, to say nothing about it until you had finished your dinner.

The General
Ferdinand then is your friend?

Ramel I have known him from childhood; and here we met in your avenue.  On meeting, after nine years of separation, we had so many things to talk about, that I caused him to be late.

The General
But, sir, to what circumstance am I to attribute your presence here?

Ramel
I come in the matter of Jean Nicot, known as Champagne, your foreman,
who is charged with a crime.

Gertrude
But, sir, our friend, Doctor Vernon, has declared that Champagne’s
wife died a natural death.

Vernon
Yes, sir, cholera.

Ramel
Justice, sir, believes in nothing but investigations and convictions
of its own.  You did wrong to proceed before my arrival.

Felix
Madame, shall I bring in the coffee?

Gertrude
Wait a while! (Aside) How changed this man is, this attorney.  I
shouldn’t have recognized him.  He terrifies me.

The General
But how could you be brought here by the crime of Champagne, an old
soldier for whom I would stand security?

Ramel
You will earn that, on the arrival of the investigating magistrate.

The General
Will you be pleased to take a seat?

Ferdinand (to Ramel, pointing out Pauline)
That is she!

Ramel
A man might lay down his life for such a lovely girl.

Gertrude (to Ramel)
We do not know each other!  You have never seen me, have you?  You must
have pity on us!

Ramel
You may depend upon me for that.