Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 5

KATE. And all the time the letter was there, waiting; and none of you knew except the clock. Harry, it is sweet of you to tell me. [_His face is not sweet. The illiterate woman has used the wrong adjective._] I forget what I said precisely in the letter.

SIR HARRY. [_Pulverizing her._] So do I. But I have it still.

KATE. [_Not pulverized._] Do let me see it again.

[_She has observed his eye wandering to the desk._

SIR HARRY. You are welcome to it as a gift.

[_The fateful letter, a poor little dead thing, is brought to light from a locked drawer._

KATE. [_Taking it._] Yes, this is it. Harry, how you did crumple it!

[_She reads, not without curiosity._] "Dear husband--I call you that for the last time--I am off. I am what you call making a bolt of it. I won't try to excuse myself nor to explain, for you would not accept the excuses nor understand the explanation. It will be a little shock to you, but only to your pride; what will astound you is that any woman could be such a fool as to leave such a man as you. I am taking nothing with me that belongs to you. May you be very happy.--Your ungrateful KATE. _P.S._--You need not try to find out who he is. You will try, but you won't succeed." [_She folds the nasty little thing up._] I may really have it for my very own?

SIR HARRY. You really may.

KATE. [_Impudently._] If you would care for a typed copy----?

SIR HARRY. [_In a voice with which he used to frighten his grandmother_.] None of your sauce! [_Wincing._] I had to let them see it in the end.

KATE. I can picture Jack Lamb eating it.

SIR HARRY. A penniless parson's daughter.

KATE. That is all I was.

SIR HARRY. We searched for the two of you high and low.

KATE. Private detectives?

SIR HARRY. They couldn't get on the track of you.

KATE. [_Smiling._] No?

SIR HARRY. But at last the courts let me serve the papers by advertis.e.m.e.nt on a man unknown, and I got my freedom.

KATE. So I saw. It was the last I heard of you.

SIR HARRY. [_Each word a blow for her._] And I married again just as soon as ever I could.

KATE. They say that is always a compliment to the first wife.

SIR HARRY. [_Violently._] I showed them.

KATE. You soon let them see that if one woman was a fool, you still had the pick of the basket to choose from.

SIR HARRY. By James, I did.

KATE. [_Bringing him to earth again._] But still, you wondered who he was.

SIR HARRY. I suspected everybody--even my pals. I felt like jumping at their throats and crying: "It's you!"

KATE. You had been so admirable to me, an instinct told you that I was sure to choose another of the same.

SIR HARRY. I thought, it can't be money, so it must be looks. Some dolly face. [_He stares at her in perplexity._] He must have had something wonderful about him to make you willing to give up all that you had with me.

KATE. [_As if he was the stupid one._] Poor Harry.

SIR HARRY. And it couldn't have been going on for long, for I would have noticed the change in you.

KATE. Would you?

SIR HARRY. I knew you so well.

KATE. You amazing man.

SIR HARRY. So who was he? Out with it.

KATE. You are determined to know?

SIR HARRY. Your promise. You gave your word.

KATE. If I must--[_She is the villain of the piece, but it must be conceded that in this matter she is reluctant to pain him._] I am sorry I promised. [_Looking at him steadily._] There was no one, Harry; no one at all.

SIR HARRY.. [_Rising._] If you think you can play with me----

KATE. I told you that you wouldn't like it.

SIR HARRY. [_Rasping._] It is unbelievable.

KATE. I suppose it is; but it is true.

SIR HARRY. Your letter itself gives you the lie.

KATE. That was intentional. I saw that if the truth were known you might have a difficulty in getting your freedom; and as I was getting mine it seemed fair that you should have yours also. So I wrote my good-by in words that would be taken to mean what you thought they meant, and I knew the law would back you in your opinion. For the law, like you, Harry, has a profound understanding of women.

SIR HARRY. [_Trying to straighten, himself._] I don't believe you yet.

KATE. [_Looking not unkindly into the soul of this man._] Perhaps that is the best way to take it. It is less unflattering than the truth. But you were the only one. [_Summing up her life._] You sufficed.

SIR HARRY. Then what mad impulse----

KATE. It was no impulse, Harry. I had thought it out for a year.

SIR HARRY. A year? [_Dazed._] One would think to hear you that I hadn't been a good husband to you.

KATE. [_With a sad smile._] You were a good husband according to your lights.

SIR HARRY. [_Stoutly._] _I_ think so.