One-Act Plays Part 40

RICHARD [_reverently_]. Mr. Robert Wurzel-Flummery, M.P., one of the most prominent of our younger Parliamentarians. Oh, you ... oh!... oh, how too heavenly! [_He goes back to his seat, looks up and catches CRAWSHAW's eye, and breaks down altogether._]

CRAWSHAW [_rising with dignity_]. Shall we discuss it seriously, or shall we leave it?

RICHARD. How can we discuss a name like Wurzel-Flummery seriously?

"Mr. Wurzel-Flummery in a few well-chosen words seconded the motion."

... "'Sir,' went on Mr. Wurzel-Flummery"--Oh, poor Robert!

CRAWSHAW [_sitting down sulkily_]. You seem quite certain that I shall take the money.

RICHARD. I am quite certain.

CRAWSHAW. Would _you_ take it?

RICHARD [_hesitating_]. Well--I wonder.

CRAWSHAW. After all, as William Shakespeare says, "What's in a name?"

RICHARD. I can tell you something else that Shakespeare--_William_ Shakespeare--said. [_Dramatically rising._] Who steals my purse with fifty thousand in it--steals trash. [_In his natural voice._] Trash, Robert. [_Dramatically again._] But he who filches from me my good name of Crawshaw [_lightly_] and subst.i.tutes the rotten one of Wurzel--

CRAWSHAW [_annoyed_]. As a matter of fact, Wurzel-Flummery is a very good old name. I seem to remember some--ah--Hampshire Wurzel-Flummeries.

It is a very laudable spirit on the part of a dying man to wish to--ah--perpetuate these old English names. It all seems to me quite natural and straightforward. If I take this money I shall have nothing to be ashamed of.

RICHARD. I see.... Look here, may I ask you a few questions? I should like to know just how you feel about the whole business?

CRAWSHAW [_complacently folding his hands_]. Go ahead.

RICHARD. Suppose a stranger came up in the street to you and said, "My poor man, here's five pounds for you," what would you do? Tell him to go to the devil, I suppose, wouldn't you?

CRAWSHAW [_humorously_]. In more parliamentary language, perhaps, Richard. I should tell him I never took money from strangers.

RICHARD. Quite so; but that if it were ten thousand pounds, you would take it?

CRAWSHAW. I most certainly shouldn't.

RICHARD. But if he died and left it to you, _then_ you would?

CRAWSHAW [_blandly_]. Ah, I thought you were leading up to that. That, of course, is entirely different.

RICHARD. Why?

CRAWSHAW. Well--ah--wouldn't _you_ take ten thousand pounds if it were left to you by a stranger?

RICHARD. I daresay I should. But I should like to know why it would seem different.

CRAWSHAW [_professionally_]. Ha--hum! Well--in the first place, when a man is dead he wants his money no longer. You can therefore be certain that you are not taking anything from him which he cannot spare. And in the next place, it is the man's dying wish that you should have the money. To refuse would be to refuse the dead. To accept becomes almost a sacred duty.

RICHARD. It really comes to this, doesn't it? You won't take it from him when he's alive, because if you did, you couldn't decently refuse him a little grat.i.tude; but you know that it doesn't matter a d.a.m.n to him what happens to his money after he's dead, and therefore you can take it without feeling any grat.i.tude at all.

CRAWSHAW. No, I shouldn't put it like that.

RICHARD [_smiling_]. I'm sure you wouldn't, Robert.

CRAWSHAW. No doubt you can twist it about so that--

RICHARD. All right, we'll leave that and go on to the next point.

Suppose a perfect stranger offered you five pounds to part your hair down the middle, shave off your mustache, and wear only one whisker--if he met you suddenly in the street, seemed to dislike your appearance, took out a fiver and begged you to hurry off and alter yourself--of course you'd pocket the money and go straight to your barber's?

CRAWSHAW. Now you are merely being offensive.

RICHARD. I beg your pardon. I should have said that if he had left you five pounds in his will?--well, then twenty pounds?--a hundred pounds?--a thousand pounds?--fifty thousand pounds?--[_Jumping up excitedly._] It's only a question of price--fifty thousand pounds, Robert--a pink tie with purple spots, hair parted across the back, trousers with a patch in the seat, call myself Wurzel-Flummery--any old thing you like, you can't insult me--anything you like, gentlemen, for fifty thousand pounds. [_Lowering his voice._] Only you must leave it in your will, and then I can feel that it is a sacred duty--a sacred duty, my lords and gentlemen. [_He sinks back into the sofa and relights his pipe._]

CRAWSHAW [_rising with dignity_]. It is evidently useless to prolong this conversation.

RICHARD [_waving him down again_]. No, no, Robert; I've finished. I just took the other side--and I got carried away. I ought to have been at the Bar.

CRAWSHAW. You take such extraordinary views of things. You must look facts in the face, Richard. This is a modern world, and we are modern people living in it. Take the matter-of-fact view. You may like or dislike the name of--ah--Wurzel-Flummery, but you can't get away from the fact that fifty thousand pounds is not to be sneezed at.

RICHARD [_wistfully_]. I don't know why people shouldn't sneeze at money sometimes. I should like to start a society for sneezing at fifty thousand pounds. We'd have to begin in a small way, of course; we'd begin by sneezing at five pounds--and work up.... The trouble is that we're all inoculated in our cradles against that kind of cold.

CRAWSHAW [_pleasantly_]. You will have your little joke. But you know as well as I do that it is only a joke. There can be no serious reason why I should not take this money. And I--ah--gather that you don't think it will affect my career?

RICHARD [_carelessly_]. Not a bit. It'll help it. It'll get you into all the comic papers.

MARGARET _comes in at this moment, to the relief of CRAWSHAW, who is not quite certain if he is being flattered or insulted again._

MARGARET. Well, have you told him?

RICHARD [_making way for her on the sofa_]. I have heard the news, Mrs. Crawshaw. And I have told Robert my opinion that he should have no difficulty in making the name of Wurzel-Flummery as famous as he has already made that of Crawshaw. At any rate I hope he will.

MARGARET. How nice of you!

CRAWSHAW. Well, it's settled then. [_Looking at his watch._] This solicitor fellow should be here soon. Perhaps, after all, we can manage something about--Ah, Viola, did you want your mother?

_Enter VIOLA._

VIOLA. Sorry, do I interrupt a family meeting? There's Richard, so it can't be very serious.

RICHARD. What a reputation!

CRAWSHAW. Well, it's over now.

MARGARET. Viola had better know, hadn't she?

CRAWSHAW. She'll have to know some time, of course.

VIOLA [_sitting down firmly on the sofa_]. Of course she will. So you'd better tell her now. I knew there was something exciting going on this morning.

CRAWSHAW [_embarra.s.sed_]. Hum--ha--[_To MARGARET._] Perhaps you'd better tell her, dear.