SCENE I:--The recorder, then the doorkeeper, then Mouzon. When the

curtain rises the recorder, seated in the magistrate's armchair, is drinking his coffee. The doorkeeper enters.

RECORDER. Ah! Here's our friend the doorkeeper of the courthouse! Well, what's the news?

DOORKEEPER. Here's your boss.

RECORDER. Already!

DOORKEEPER. He got back from Bordeaux last night. Fagged out he looked.

RECORDER [loftily] A Mauleon magistrate is always fatigued when he returns from Bordeaux!

DOORKEEPER. Why?

RECORDER [after a pause] I do not know.

DOORKEEPER. It's the Irissary murder that has brought him here so early.

RECORDER. Probably. [While speaking he arranges his cup, saucer, sugar basin, etc., in a drawer. He then goes to his own place, the desk at the back. Mouzon enters. The doorkeeper pretends to have completed some errand and leaves the room. The recorder rises, with a low bow] Good-morning, your worship.

MOUZON. Good-morning. You haven't made any engagements, have you, except in the case of the Irissary murder?

RECORDER. I have cited the officer of the gendarmerie, the accused, and the wife of the accused.

MOUZON. I am tired, my good fellow. I have a nervous headache! Any letters for me?

RECORDER. No, your worship.

MOUZON. His Honor the State Attorney hasn't asked for me?

RECORDER. No, your worship. But all the same I have something for you. [He hands him an envelope]

MOUZON [opening the envelope] Stamps for my collection! I say, Benoît, that's good! Now let's see. Let's see. [He unlocks the drawer of his desk and takes out a stamp album] Uruguay. I have it! Well, it will do to exchange. And this one too. Oh! Oh! I say, Benoît! A George Albert, first edition! But where did you get this, my dear fellow?

RECORDER. A solicitor's clerk found it in a brief.

MOUZON. Splendid! I must stick that in at once! Pass me the paste, will you? [He delicately trims the edges of the stamp with a pair of scissors and pastes it in the album with the greatest care, while still talking] It is rare, extremely rare! According to the Philatelist it will exchange for three blue Amadei or a '67 Khedive, obliterated. There! [Turning over the leaves of his album] Really, you know, it begins to look something like. It's beginning to fill up, eh? You know I believe I shall soon be able to get that Hayti example. Look! See here! [In great delight] There's a whole page-full! And all splendid examples. [He closes the album and sighs] O Lord!

RECORDER. You don't feel well?

MOUZON. It's not that. I was rather worried at Bordeaux.

RECORDER. About your stamps?

MOUZON. No, no. [A sigh to himself] Damn the women! The very thing I didn't want. [He takes his album again] When I've got that Hayti specimen I shall need only three more to fill this page too. Yes. [He closes the album] Well, what's the post? Ah! Here is the information from Paris in respect of the woman Etchepare and her husband's judicial record. [The doorkeeper enters with a visiting-card] Who is coming to disturb me now? [More agreeably, having read the name] Ah! Ah! [To the recorder] I shall see him alone.

RECORDER. Yes, your worship. [He goes out]

MOUZON [to the doorkeeper] Show him in. [He hides his album, picks up a brief, and affects to be reading it with the utmost attention]