The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith Part 21

AGNES. [After a moment's pause.] What did Lucas say to you when you--?

ST. OLPHERTS. He said he knew you'd never make that sacrifice for him.

[She pulls herself up rigidly.] So he declined to pain you by asking you to do it.

AGNES. [Crossing swiftly to the settee, and speaking straight into his face.] That's a lie!

ST. OLPHERTS. Keep your temper, my dear.

AGNES. [Pa.s.sionately.] His love may not last--it won't!--but at this moment he loves me better than that! He wouldn't make a mere light thing of me!

ST. OLPHERTS. Wouldn't he? You try him!

AGNES. What!

ST. OLPHERTS. You put him to the test!

AGNES. [With her hands to her brows.] Oh--!

ST. OLPHERTS. No, no--don't!

AGNES. [Faintly.] Why?

ST. OLPHERTS. I like you. d.a.m.n him--you deserve to live your hour!

[LUCAS enters with a letter in his hand. AGNES sits.]

LUCAS. [Giving ST. OLPHERTS the letter.] Thanks. [St. OLPHERTS pockets the letter and picks up his cloak, LUCAS a.s.sisting him.]

AGNES. [Outwardly calm.] Oh--Lucas--

LUCAS. Yes?

AGNES. The Duke has been--has been--telling me--

LUCAS. What, dear?

AGNES. The sort of arrangement proposed for your going back to London.

LUCAS. Oh, my brother's brilliant idea!

AGNES. Acquiesced in by your wife. [ST. OLPHERTS strolls away from them.]

LUCAS. Certainly; as I antic.i.p.ated, she has become intensely dissatisfied with her position.

AGNES. And it would be quite possible, it seems, for you to resume your old career?

LUCAS. Just barely possible--well, for the moment, quite possible.

AGNES. Quite possible.

LUCAS. I haven't, formally, made a sign to my political friends yet.

It's a task one leaves to the last. I shall do so now--at once. My people have been busying themselves, it appears, in reporting that I shall return to London directly my health is fully re-established.

AGNES. In the hope--? Oh, yes.

LUCAS. Hoping they'd be able to separate us before it was too--too late.

AGNES. Which hope they've now relinquished?

LUCAS. Apparently.

AGNES. They're prepared to accept a--a compromise, I hear?

LUCAS. Ha!--yes.

AGNES. A compromise in my favour?

LUCAS. [Hesitatingly.] They suggest--

AGNES. Yes, yes, I know. [Looking at him searchingly.] After all, your old career was--a success. You made your mark, as you were saying the other day. You did make your mark. [He walks up and down restlessly, abstractedly, her eyes following him.] You were generally spoken of, accepted, as a Coming Man. The Coming Man, often, wasn't it?

LUCAS. [With an impatient wave of the hand.] That doesn't matter!

AGNES. And now you are giving it up--giving it all up.

[He sits on the settee, resting his elbow on his knee, pushing his hand through his hair.]

LUCAS. But--but you believe I shall succeed equally well in this new career of mine?

AGNES. [Stonily.] There's the risk, you must remember.

LUCAS. Obviously, there's the risk. Why do you say all this to me now?

AGNES. Because now is the opportunity to--to go back.

LUCAS. [Scornfully.] Opportunity--?

AGNES. An excellent one. You're so strong and well now.

LUCAS. Thanks to you.

AGNES. [Staring before her.] Well--I did nurse you carefully, didn't I?

LUCAS. But I don't understand you. You are surely not proposing to--to --break with me?

AGNES. No--I--I--I was only thinking that you--you might see something in this suggestion of a compromise.

[LUCAS glances at ST. OLPHERTS, whose back is turned to them. ST.