ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST ACT

Madame Evrard, housekeeper of M. Dubriage, an old bachelor, is anxious to secure her position by becoming Madame Dubriage, and thus obtaining, lawfully, the supremacy into which she has managed to creep. For that purpose, she has made a league with Ambroise, the steward or butler ; and thèse worthies contrive to estrange their master fromhis nearest remaining relative, Armand, a nephewwhom he has never yet seen. The young man, after enlisting in the army, had married a lady of Colmar ; Madame Evrard and Ambroise calumniate him, intercept his letters, and describe him as a worthless scamp, who has forfeited the esteem of ail right-minded people. At the suggestion of George, M. Dubriage's porter and godson, Armand arrives in Paris, enters his uncle's service as a valet under the assumed name of Charles, and a counter scheme is laid between them with the view of obtaining the admission of Laure, Armand's wife, as a housemaid, and of thus defeating the plot of the intriguing housekeeper.

CEL