ABBÉ. Yea, the police have had to step in to protect him against all those ugly rumours and the rage of the people. Probably the Commissaire will be here soon.
MME. CATHERINE. [To ADOLPHE] There you see what happens when a man cannot tell the difference between good and evil, and when he trifles with vice. God will punish!
ADOLPHE. Then he is more merciless than man.
ABBÉ. What do you know about that?
ADOLPHE. Not very much, but I keep an eye on what happens—
ABBÉ. And you understand it also?
ADOLPHE. Not yet perhaps.
ABBÉ. Let us look more closely at the matter—Oh, here comes the
Commissaire.
COMMISSAIRE. [Enters] Gentlemen—Madame Catherine—I have to trouble you for a moment with a few questions concerning Monsieur Maurice. As you have probably heard, he has become the object of a hideous rumour, which, by the by, I don't believe in.
MME. CATHERINE. None of us believes in it either.