FIRST PART, Image A: Drawing Room. The Countess and Mr. Damien enter. Costumes from the era of Louis XV.

THE COUNTESS: Mr. Damien, I would like to thank you for lending me your goddaughter.

DAMIEN: At your service, Countess, it is my first duty and the most pleasant one. As soon as I was told that you needed her, it was natural for me to bring her immediately to your tower.

THE COUNTESS: My God! What would we become without her? My poor aunt, the Marquise, lived only on fantasies. She bequeathed us the Tower of Ferbrook, with the condition, as you know, that we must spend a month here every spring. That's touching, I won’t deny - but what an idea!.. Even she could never live in this solitude. She spent the whole winter in Paris, longing for her tower, and as soon as summer came, she would rush off to vacation somewhere else!

The truth is she had fallen into the clutches of doctors. Although she was a very healthy woman, she spent her summers at the spa, drinking a lot of waters and bathing in mud. And when autumn came, she would quickly return to Paris to order her new dresses. So, poor thing, when would she have time for the tower?.. However, she swore on everything she held most sacred - that is, on us - that the following spring she would come to reside at Ferbrook...

But as soon as May arrived, the doctors sent her off to other waters, and other mud... Ultimately, death relieved her from those miraculous treatments - God rest her soul. And her last wish was for us to fulfill her oath.

DAMIEN: A sacred duty...

THE COUNTESS: Of course. A month in the countryside passes quite quickly, as long as you organize a dance or two. Unfortunately, the inheritance came with one more obligation...

DAMIEN: The Orphanage...

THE COUNTESS: Exactly. A joke from the late lady. I can imagine her laughing when she added in her will that we would be obliged to maintain twelve orphans in the tower!

DAMIEN: Perhaps it was her Christian sentiments?

THE COUNTESS: Are you joking? My aunt was raised on nothing but atheist philosophers. Besides, she hated children. It was a dislike that remained with her from the day some rascals kicked a ball at her head.