A Fool's Paradise Part 22

PRI. Good-night, madam.

BEA. Good-night. (_exit PRICE. BEATRICE crosses and locks R.U.D. Up R.C., looking at key_) Then, he does not suspect me! When I found Philip's door locked, I was half afraid. Why am I such a coward?--Is he with Philip? (_exit L., music swells. Re-enter L._) No! Philip is fast asleep. Can he be watching? (_goes down to R.I.D._) No! (_opens door R., looks out, then shuts and locks it_) Good night, Sir Peter!

pleasant dreams to you! (_stands looking at the key_) He suspects nothing. (_goes to L.C., R. of table. Produces medicine bottle and gla.s.s and pours out a dose_) It is a great temptation! (_produces phial from bosom_) Strange! how this fascinates me! With my life at stake, I scarcely can resist it. It possesses me! But, I suppose, I dare not. (_music dies away, knock at door R._) Who can that be?

(_second knock, aloud_) Who's there?

SIR P. (_off_) It's I--Sir Peter Lund! (_she puts away the phial_)

BEA. What an escape! (_unlocks the door and smiles sweetly_) Come in, Sir Peter. (_enter SIR PETER, R.I.D., leaving door ajar and holding the book behind his back_) I was just getting Philip's medicine.

(_goes to L., crossing behind sofa and table_)

SIR P. (R.C.) So I see. (_aside_) It's all right. I'm in time--(_puts book down on piano_)

BEA. I scarcely expected to see you again to-night. Do you want Philip? (_on knees, mending fire_)

SIR P. No, Mrs. Selwyn, it is you I want. (_goes to C._)

BEA. Me?

SIR P. I have something of the greatest importance to tell you. First, let me make sure that my patient cannot overhear us. (_goes towards L.D., back of sofa_)

BEA. (_rises_) He was asleep just now. (_goes up L. to door_)

SIR P. But he may have awakened.

BEA. Shall I see?

SIR P. Thank you. (_she goes L. and exits. SIR PETER watches her off, then goes to back of table and tastes the medicine in the gla.s.s, he puts it down, turns quickly, back to door L. signals towards door R., which he has left ajar; enter KATE, R.I.D._) Into there! (_pointing to conservatory_) Quick! (_off R.C._)

KATE. But what am I to do? Why have you brought me here? (_going up R.C., SIR PETER L. of her_)

SIR P. Keep your ears open, and you'll understand. (_exit KATE into conservatory, R., KATE in conservatory upsets a pot_) That's her confounded train.

_Re-enter BEATRICE, L.D., comes down L. to L.C._

BEA. What was that noise?

SIR P. (_at door of conservatory_) Ten thousand pardons: I've upset a flowerpot. (_comes down to C._)

BEA. You've been in the conservatory?

SIR P. Yes--to make sure that n.o.body was listening. In a case like this, one cannot be too careful.

BEA. Sir Peter, you alarm me. What dreadful secret are you going to tell me? (_goes to sofa_)

SIR P. (_R. of her_) Mrs. Selwyn, you are a woman of strong nerves, and you can bear a shock.

BEA. I think so.

SIR P. Well, I'm going to give you one--I've found it!

BEA. What?

SIR P. The serpent.

BEA. The serpent?

SIR P. Which Mr. Selwyn said did not exist, but the existence of which I suspected from the first.

BEA. A serpent in Ravenhurst?

SIR P. And a remarkably fine specimen, it turns out to be. Your husband is being poisoned. (_BEATRICE taken off her guard, reels, and sinks on sofa_) I can quite understand your emotion.

BEA. Poisoned?

SIR P. By a.r.s.enic, administered in his medicine.

BEA. But you put it there yourself. You told him, you were giving him a.r.s.enic.

SIR P. I was not. (_BEATRICE gazes at him as if fascinated_) I did not prescribe a.r.s.enic.

BEA. Might not the chemist--by mistake----

SIR P. I've seen him, and he a.s.sures me there was no mistake. Besides, though there was a.r.s.enic in the gla.s.s, there was _none in the bottle._ While you were all having your dinner, I took the liberty of a.n.a.lysing _that._ Mr. Selwyn is now in such a condition that the next dose may be fatal. The first thing to be done is, to protect his life. I have not left him since morning; but at the precise moment when the criminal, whoever it is, will probably administer the poison, I shall not be there to prevent it, because that moment will be when he takes the final dose of physic which I have ordered him, just before going to bed.

BEA. And knowing this, you have ordered it?

SIR P. With the object of detecting the culprit. Here I want your a.s.sistance. We must lay our plans carefully; for whoever is doing this, she is a very clever woman.

BEA. (_rises_) Woman! Then, you suspect--(_bell ready_)

SIR P. (_business_) Miss Derwent. (_BEATRICE starts_) What was that?

(_no noise heard_)

BEA. (_astonished_) Miss _Derwent!_

SIR P. I thought I heard a noise in the conservatory.

BEA. No one is there. The doors have been locked.

SIR P. Someone may have opened them. Let us make sure. (_goes into the conservatory R.C., disappears R., re-enters in a moment and comes down to C._)

BEA. Miss Derwent! (_down stage front of sofa_)

SIR P. (_returning_) Only the flower pot--caught in a plant, which must have given way. (_gets R. of sofa_)

BEA. Well? You were saying----

SIR P. I suspect Miss Derwent--She has, as humanity goes, a powerful incentive to this crime. On Mr. Selwyn's death, she expects to come into a large fortune.