Roger Dautran is a senator in the prime of life—that is, from the point of view of a man of fifty—he has a most devoted wife, past the prime of life—from the point of view of the man of fifty—and childless. Dautran has a large heart and a great yearning for sympathy from the other sex, and he frankly admits that if ever he has made a telling speech in debate, his only inspiration has been the presence of a sympathetic spirit in the ladies’ gallery. So the impressionable senator, finding home-life somehow incomplete, has drifted into the habit of consistently dining out, and leaving his devoted wife to the desert, of tedium of an improving book to read in nice large print.
On the first night of our acquaintance with the restless Roger, he is just off to dine at a restaurant, when his wife presents to him a girl whom she suggests she shall retain in their household as companion for them both, to lend a fragrance of youth to their dull, middle-aged menage. Mauricette is a beautiful child, eighteen years of age, and so soon as Dautran has seen her he elects to dine at home that very evening, and for the next six weeks it would be good betting that he never dined out.
After six weeks we find the party very much united at Dautran’s country house; to the delight of his wife, the senator has become quite redomesticated, but the pity of it is that this has only come about at the expense of the heart of poor Mauricette, who has fallen in love with her elderly admirer, who in his turn can think of nothing but her and himself.
The second act is full of good things; a doctor, the type of youth in the district, and a protégé of Dautran, thinks it would be a very good thing for Mauricette and himself if they married, and tells the girl so with the full approbation of Mme. Dautran, who by this time is getting a little tired and doubtful of her scheme for the re-domestication of her husband. Mauricette has no room in her heart for the doctor, and asks for time to consider his offer, but closely following upon this she is exposed to an offer of a less honourable nature from a visitor to the house, and in less time than it takes to tell there is a terrible storm raging in the drawing-room, and Dautran is inadvertently but obviously proclaiming his love for the girl. Mauricette, to put matters right, agrees to marry the doctor, and forthwith leaves the house, to the grievous distress of Dautran.
In the last act we find, six months later, Mauricette married to the doctor and the best of friends, but Roger still holds her heart. He is bent upon again seeing her, and so an interview is granted by permission of the doctor.
At first Mauricette talks affectionately to Roger without looking at him, until in a very dramatic moment she looks up, sees his grey hair and careworn face, and recoils from the man who had taught her to love him. And so youth mates with youth, and the doctor is made happy.
Miss Dorothea Baird is a charming Mauricette, and deserves the highest praise for her performance. Since her great success as “Trilby,” she has not, in our opinion, had such a good part, and she certainly makes the most of it. Mr. H. B. Irving gives us an extremely clever study of Roger Dautran, especially in the last act, where the senator is made to realise that he is beaten by the clock.
Mr. Leslie Faber has an unsympathetic task in playing the doctor, who is the representative of youth, but he succeeds in his difficult task. Miss Marion Terry supplies a large share of the success of the evening, her study of the loving wife, who, in her anxiety to please her husband, introduces a very pronounced element of discord into the home, being extremely clever.
“Mauricette” is altogether charming.