Comedy - 1 Act Paris 1951
A young girl of eighteen arrives for private tuition at the home of a dapper, apparently ineffectual professor, who is in late middle-age. The girl is at first able to dominate the professor with her youth and energy but gradually, during the course of his incoherent lessons on arithmetic and linguistics, he assumes control of their meeting.
As he rambles deeper and deeper into his wild linguistic theories, the girl develops a raging toothache, which the professor ignores. When his sense of power is at its height, the professor, in the middle of a tirade on the meaning of the word 'knife', stabs and kills his pupil. In a panic, he calls his maid Marie, who scolds him for the murder and reveals that the girl is the professor's fortieth victim during that day alone.
While the professor and Marie prepare to put the pupil's body in a coffin, another youngster arrives at the door for yet another lesson.
Cast
The professor
The girl pupil
Marie