"My son," she says gravely, and emphatically,
"you must--it is your duty--I demand it of you!" "Ah!" cries Bernard. "I
understand--he is my father!"
After ecstatically lauding this situation and the scenes which have led
up to it, M. Sarcey continues--
When the curtain falls upon the words "He is my father," I at once
see two _scenes a faire_, and I know that they will be _faites_: the
scene between the son and the father whom he is to save, the scene
between Bernard and his half-brother Leopold, who are in love with
the same woman, the one dishonourably and the other secretly and
nobly. What will they say to each other? I have no idea. But it is
precisely this _expectation mingled with uncertainly_ that is one of
the charms of the theatre. I say to myself, "Ah, they will have an
encounter! What will come of it?" And that this is the state of mind
of the whole audience is proved by the fact that when the two
characters of the _scenes a faire_ stand face to face, a thrill of
anticipation runs round the whole theatre.
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