A Fool's Paradise Part 5

BEA. You are cruel; but I suppose I deserve it. (_on a line with NORMANTOWER_)

NOR. My grievance is a thing of the past. I have no wish to injure you or to cause you pain, and I should not have expressed myself so freely just now, had I known that you were present or that I was speaking of the wife of a friend. (_a step down_)

BEA. You have been misinformed. There is not a word of truth in what you have heard about me.

NOR. No doubt. People exaggerate so. (_standing below her_)

BEA. They invent so.

NOR. They invent so.

BEA. And you have believed them! What must you think of me? (_moves away a little_)

NOR. To be perfectly frank, Mrs. Selwyn, I endeavour not to think of you at all. (_goes to fireplace R._)

BEA. (_goes up to L. of table_) You have forgotten me? You have stripped me from your mind?

NOR. I have done my best to forget you. (_leans on mantel, his back to her_)

BEA. (_moving away_) And this is constancy! (_down to L._)

NOR. (_faces round_) Constancy! I am not more punctilious than most men, but surely it is scarcely my duty to be constant to a woman who has become the wife of another. (_advances to R.C._)

BEA. (_goes up to C._) Ah! it is easy to talk of one's duty but it is not always so easy to do it. (_NORMANTOWER looks at her_) Ned--may I call you so? Let me tell you the secret of my life.

NOR. You have a secret? (_comes to her C._)

BEA. Yes--_I_ was always constant. I was forced into this marriage.

The letter I wrote breaking off our engagement was dictated to me. I never loved my husband. (_turns away to L.C._)

NOR. (C.) Mrs. Selwyn, you forget, your husband is my friend. If you didn't know it when he asked me here, you know it now.

BEA. (_turns to him_) I always knew it. It was I who suggested the invitation. I could bear my unhappiness no longer. I felt I must see you again. Oh, if you could only look into my heart! Ned! Though I used you badly, you are bitterly avenged! (_drops into sofa L.C., and buries her face in her hands_)

NOR. (_goes up to head of sofa, looking down on her_) I have no wish to be avenged. I loved you--I lost you--and there is an end of it.

(_turns up C._)

BEA. (_rising_) Why was I born a woman? (_crosses to R.C. corner of table_) Why was I not a man? To amuse myself just for the moment, and then to be able to forget!

NOR. (_comes down behind chair R.C._) You do us an injustice. We men are not so inconstant as you think. Sometimes we pretend to forget what we are half ashamed to remember. (_BEATRICE listens intently, watching him out of the corner of her eyes_) But the past is past. You are a wife now. (_goes to C._)

BEA. If I were not a wife?

NOR. Then, it would be different.

BEA. (_close to him_) Hush! I have said, I do not love my husband; and if you say that, you will make me hate him. To think that he--and he alone--stands between me and happiness.

NOR. Beatrice! (_recoiling_)

BEA. Don't shrink from me! Is it so wicked to want to be happy?

(_touching him_)

NOR. Happy?

BEA. If I were only free! (_goes down to R.C._)

NOR. (C.) You forget, though I have dropped in for a t.i.tle, I am almost as poor as ever.

BEA. (_goes up to him_) But I am not. (_laying her hand on his arm_) Philip has left me everything if I survive him.

_SIR PETER appears at the top of the staircase; she turns off suddenly, crossing NORMANTOWER, who goes down to R.C._

BEA. (_goes towards foot of stairs_) Well, doctor, how do you find your patient? (_up C._)

SIR P. (_up L.C._) Your husband is more seriously ill than I antic.i.p.ated. (_she glances at NORMANTOWER_)

NOR. Ill!

BEA. What is the matter with him?

SIR P. (_R. of chair, L.C._) Something occult--that's why I call it serious. There is nothing so serious as the unknown. (_NORMANTOWER turns up R. and looks out at window_)

BEA. Something _you_ can't make out? It must be occult indeed.

SIR P. (_goes to front of sofa L.C._) But something I _hope_ to make out before I go.

BEA. Then you propose to stay here? (_disconcerted_)

SIR P. With your permission--for to-night, at any rate.

BEA. I'll have a room prepared for you at once. (_about to go L.U.E., returns C. and works to R.C._)

SIR P. Don't trouble. The orders are already given. I've taken the liberty of choosing my own quarters. They open on the terrace, so I can take the air in the morning without disturbing the household.

(_sits on sofa_)

_Re-enter C. from. R., KATE DERWENT from grounds, TOM and MILDRED running up with her to the doors C. NORMANTOWER goes slowly down to R.

corner._

KATE. That'll do, children, I'm quite out of breath. (_comes down C.

TOM and MILDRED run off into grounds L._)

BEA. I am afraid the children give you no rest, Miss Derwent. (_R.C., L. of table_)

KATE. Oh, I don't mind. I like it. I was a dreadful tomboy myself, when I was their age. I haven't forgotten how to play leap-frog yet.

BEA. Your memory is really wonderful.

KATE. And I believe I could give as good a back--(_stooping to give a back, NORMANTOWER down R. laughs. Catching sight of NORMANTOWER, puts her hand to her mouth and stops short_)