FullReads

JEAN.
Don’t drink any more.

JULIE.
Oh, what does it matter? My father was utterly at a loss to know where to get money to rebuild with. Then my mother suggested that he try to borrow from a man who had been her friend in her youth–a brick manufacturer here in the neighborhood. My father made the loan, but wasn’t allowed to pay any interest, which surprised him. Then the house was rebuilt.

[Julie drinks again.]

Do you know who burned the house?

JEAN.
Her ladyship, your mother?

JULIE.
Do you know who the brick manufacturer was?

JEAN.
Your mother’s lover?

JULIE.
Do you know whose money it was?

JEAN.
Just a moment, that I don’t know.

JULIE.
It was my mother’s.

JEAN.
The Count’s–that is to say, unless there was a contract.

JULIE.
There was no contract. My mother had some money which she had not wished to have in my father’s keeping and therefore, she had entrusted it to her friend’s care.

JEAN.
Who kept it.

JULIE.
Quite right–he held on to it. All this came to my father’s knowledge. He couldn’t proceed against him, wasn’t allowed to pay his wife’s friend, and couldn’t prove that it was his wife’s money. That was my mother’s revenge for his taking the reins of the establishment into his own hands. At that time he was ready to shoot himself. Gossip had it that he had tried and failed. Well, he lived it down–and my mother paid full penalty for her misdeed. Those were five terrible years for me, as you can fancy. I sympathized with my father, but I took my mother’s part, for I didn’t know the true circumstances. Through her I learned to distrust and hate men, and I swore to her never to be a man’s slave.

JEAN.
But you became engaged to the Lieutenant Governor.

JULIE.
Just to make him my slave.

JEAN.
But that he didn’t care to be.

JULIE.
He wanted to be, fast enough, but I grew tired of him.

JEAN.
Yes–I noticed that–in the stable-yard!

JULIE.
What do you mean?

JEAN.
I saw how he broke the engagement.

JULIE.
That’s a lie. It was I who broke it. Did he say he broke it–the wretch!

JEAN.
I don’t believe that he was a wretch. You hate men, Miss Julie.

JULIE.
Most of them. Sometimes one is weak–

JEAN.
You hate me?

JULIE.
Excessively. I could see you shot–

JEAN.
Like a mad dog?

JULIE.
Exactly!

JEAN.
But there is nothing here to shoot with. What shall we do then?

JULIE
[Rousing herself].

We must get away from here–travel.

JEAN.
And torture each other to death?

JULIE.
No–to enjoy, a few days, a week–as long as we can. And then to die.

JEAN.
Die! How silly. I think it’s better to start the hotel.

JULIE
[Not heeding him].

By the Lake of Como where the sun is always shining, where the laurel is green at Christmas and the oranges glow.

JEAN.
The Lake of Como is it rain hole, I never saw any oranges there except on fruit stands. But it’s a good resort, and there are many villas to rent to loving couples. That’s a very paying industry. You know why? They take leases for half a year at least, but they usually leave in three weeks.