COUNSEL. Here it is.
PRESIDENT. You are not Tupin’s counsel.
COUNSEL. No, President, but my learned friends have done me the honor—for which I thank them—to confide to me the task of dealing in my speech with the case as a whole, reserving to themselves to deal with particular aspects of it as they relate to their clients.
PRESIDENT. I will hear you now solely for the purpose of reading these accounts. But this is not the time for you to address the court. You understand: I will hear the accounts and nothing more?
COUNSEL. Certainly, President. [He reads] The daily nourishment of five children consists of a four-pound loaf, soup of vegetables and dripping, and a stew which costs ninety centimes. Total, 3f. 75c. This is the expenditure of the father: Return ticket for tram, 30c. Tobacco, 15c. Dinner, 1f. 25c. The rent is 300f. Clothing for the whole family, and boots: sixteen pairs of boots for the children at 4f. 50c. each, four for the parents at 8f.: total again, 300f. Total for the year: 2,600f. The expenditure then must be set down at 2,600f. Tupin, who is an exceptional workman, earned 160f. a month, that is to say, 2,100f. a year. There is therefore an annual deficit of 500f. As I have promised, I will not add a word. [He sits down].
MME. D’AMERGUEUX [to her husband] He might well have saved the three sous a day for tobacco.
COUNSEL. Does the Court wish to have this paper put in?
PRESIDENT. There is no object in that. [To Tupin] I will not quarrel with your figures: I accept them. But I repeat: there are charitable institutions.
TUPIN. And I repeat that I don’t want to beg.
PRESIDENT. You prefer to commit what is almost infanticide? A man whose daughter is on the streets and whose son is a thief can accept charity without degradation.