I'll Leave It To You Part 20

SYLVIA. Well, I guessed from the first and found out afterwards.

DANIEL. But how?

SYLVIA. Well, uncle darling, I knew that no one with a smile like yours could ever have a bob!

(_Kisses him, goes off laughing._ UNCLE DANIEL _settles himself in armchair, smiling._)

CURTAIN.

ACT III.

SCENE.--_The scene is the same as the preceding acts. Alterations in the furniture are noted at the end of the play. It is seven-thirty on the morning following the events of_ ACT II. _When the_ CURTAIN _rises, the sun is streaming in through the open window_ L.C. BOBBIE _can be seen standing just outside looking up apparently at an upper window._

BOBBIE (_calling softly_). Faith! Faith!

FAITH (_heard off_). What is it?

BOBBIE. Come down and talk to me.

FAITH. Don't be silly--

BOBBIE. Please do--I've got lots to tell you.

FAITH. Oh, all right--wait a minute.

(BOBBIE _comes mooching into the hall through the window._ _Enter_ FAITH _downstairs._)

FAITH. Good morning, Mr. Dermott. (_Offers hand coldly._)

BOBBIE (L.C.). I say--you have been quick.

FAITH (C., _coldly_). I've been up for hours--what is it you want?

BOBBIE. I've had a perfectly miserable night--I couldn't sleep a wink. I want to know if you really meant what you said last night.

FAITH. Of course I really meant it, how silly you are.

BOBBIE. I'm not silly--I thought maybe it was only the heat of the moment that made you so utterly beastly.

FAITH. If you're going to be rude I shall go away. (_She sits down in chair by Chesterfield._)

BOBBIE. Do you really care for me so little that you can give me up at a moment's notice like that?

FAITH. You will not understand Bobbie--I had to.

BOBBIE. Why?

FAITH. Because mother made me promise.

BOBBIE (_up to her_). _What_ did she make you promise?

FAITH. She made me promise that--that----

BOBBIE. Well?

FAITH. Well, you see I'm an only child, and mother wants me to be happy above all things and----

BOBBIE. I could make you happy--wonderfully happy.

FAITH. Mother doesn't think so. You see I've always been used to having money and comforts and things.

BOBBIE. Do you imagine that I shouldn't have been able to give you all the comforts you wanted whether I had uncle's money or not? Why, in a year or so I shall be making hundreds and hundreds. I mean to be successful--nothing will stop me.

FAITH. Well, Bobbie, if you come to me again then, perhaps mother would----

BOBBIE. You mean that I'm to go on working for my happiness on the off chance of your being free to accept me? Neither you nor your mother have enough trust in me to believe that I shall make a big name for myself.

Good G.o.d, it was a pretty thought of your parents to call you "Faith." I suppose if you had a couple of sisters you'd call them Hope and Charity.

FAITH. It's no use being angry and beastly about it. One must use a little common sense.

BOBBIE. It isn't a question of common sense, but common decency.

FAITH. How dare you say that. (_She pulls him round by the leg of his trousers. He brushes her hand away. She repeats this business._) Why can't we just be friends?

BOBBIE. You know I'm much too fond of you to be just friends. Men can't switch their feelings on and off like bath-taps. If they mean a thing they mean it, and there's an end of it.

FAITH. I wish I'd never come down at all if all you mean to do is grumble at me.

BOBBIE. It's more than grumbling--it's genuine unhappiness. (_Sits on form below table._) I quite realize now that you never really cared for me a bit, in spite of what you said; but still I want to find out why--_why_ you've changed so suddenly, _why_ need you have hurt me so much. If you'd written breaking it off, it would have been different, but you've been so--so unnecessarily brutal.

FAITH. It was mother's fault.

BOBBIE. Is everything you do your mother's affair? Does she count every breath you take? Why, your life simply can't be worth living!

FAITH. I wish I could make you see....

BOBBIE (_in a lower register_). I'm afraid you've made me see too much.

I didn't know people could be so callous and cruel....

FAITH (_quickly_). I'm not callous and cruel.

BOBBIE. Oh yes, you are, and you've made me determine one thing, and that is that henceforth I honestly mean to cut women out of my life for ever. (_A move from_ FAITH.) I know it's a hackneyed thing to say, but I mean it. I ought to have taken a lesson from other fellows'

experiences, but of course I didn't.