YANETTA. Poor people are forced to be very grasping or else to die of starvation.
YANETTA. Did you suppose I was going to accuse him?
YANETTA [_weakly_] No, I've never been convicted.
Mouzon. That is curious because there was a girl of your name in Paris who was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for receiving stolen property.
YANETTA [_weakly_] For receiving stolen property--
MOUZON. You are not quite so bold now--you are disturbed.
MOUZON. You are pale--you are trembling--you are feeling faint. Give her a chair, Benoît. [_The recorder obeys_] Pull yourself together!
MOUZON. Here is the report which has been sent me. "The woman Yanetta X--was brought to Paris at the age of sixteen as companion or lady's maid by Monsieur and Madame So-and-so, having been employed by them in that capacity at Saint-Jean-de-Luz." Is that correct?
MOUZON. Here is some more. "Illicit relations were before long formed between the girl Yanetta and the son of the family, who was twenty-three years of age. Two years later the lovers fled, taking with them eight thousand francs which the young man had stolen from his father. On the information of the latter the girl Yanetta was arrested and condemned to one month's imprisonment for receiving stolen property. After serving her sentence she disappeared. It is believed that she returned to her own district." Are you the person mentioned here?
YANETTA. Yes. My God, I thought that was all so long ago--so completely forgotten. It is all true, Monsieur, but for ten years now I've given every minute of my life to making up for it, trying to redeem myself. Just now I answered you insolently; I beg your pardon. You have not only my life in your hands now, but my husband's, and the honor of my children.
YANETTA. No, Monsieur. Oh, you aren't going to tell him! I beg you on my knees! It would be wicked, I tell you, wicked! Listen, Monsieur--listen. I came back to the country; I hid myself; I would rather have died; I didn't want to stay in Paris--you understand why--and then in a little while I lost mother. Etchepare was in love with me, and he bothered me to marry him. I refused--I had the courage to go on refusing for three years. Then--I was so lonely, so miserable, and he was so unhappy, that in the end I gave way. I ought to have told him everything. I wanted to, but I couldn't. It would have hurt him too much. For he's a good man, Monsieur, I swear he is. [_Mouzon makes a gesture_] Yes, I know, sometimes when he's been drinking, he's violent. I was going to tell you about that. I don't want to tell you any more untruths. But it's very seldom he's violent now. [_Weeping_] Oh, don't let him know, Monsieur, don't let him know. He'd go away--he'd leave me--he'd take my children from me. [_She gives a despairing cry_] Ah, he'd take my children from me! I don't know what to say to you--but it isn't possible--you can't tell him--now you know all the harm it would do. You won't? Of course I was guilty--but I didn't understand--I didn't know. I wasn't seventeen, sir, when I went to Paris. My master and mistress had a son; he forced me almost--and I loved him--and then he wanted to take me away because his parents wanted to send him away by himself. I did what he asked me. That money--I didn't know he had stolen it--I swear I didn't know--