The Second Mrs. Tanqueray Part 39

PAULA.

[_Suspiciously._] Oh! [_Letting_ ELLEAN'S _hand fall._] Is this lady going to take you up in place of Mrs. Cortelyon?

ELLEAN.

No, no. Her brother is staying with her--_was_ staying with her. Her brother----

[_Breaking off in confusion._

PAULA.

Well?

ELLEAN.

[_Almost inaudibly._] Paula----

[_She rises and walks away,_ PAULA _following her._

PAULA.

Ellean! [_Taking hold of her._] You're not in love!

[ELLEAN _looks at_ PAULA _appealingly._

PAULA.

Oh! _You_ in love! You! Oh, this is why you've come home! Of course, you can make friends with me now! You'll leave us for good soon, I suppose; so it doesn't much matter being civil to me for a little while!

ELLEAN.

Oh, Paula!

PAULA.

Why, how you have deceived us--all of us! We've taken you for a cold-blooded little saint. The fools you've made of us! Saint Ellean! Saint Ellean!

ELLEAN.

Ah, I might have known you'd only mock me!

PAULA.

[_Her tone changing._] Eh?

ELLEAN.

I--I can't talk to you. [_Sitting on the settee._] You do nothing else but mock and sneer, nothing else.

PAULA.

Ellean dear! Ellean! I didn't mean it. I'm so horribly jealous, it's a sort of curse on me. [_Kneeling beside_ ELLEAN _and embracing her._] My tongue runs away with me. I'm going to alter, I swear I am. I've made some good resolutions, and, as G.o.d's above me, I'll keep them! If you are in love, if you do ever marry, that's no reason why we shouldn't be fond of each other. Come, you've kissed me of your own accord--you can't take it back. Now we're friends again, aren't we? Ellean dear! I want to know everything, everything. Ellean dear, Ellean!

ELLEAN.

Paula, Hugh has done something that makes me very angry. He came with us from Paris to-day, to see papa. He is staying with Mrs.

Cortelyon and--I ought to tell you----

PAULA.

Yes, yes. What?

ELLEAN.

He has found his way by The Warren meadow through the plantation up to this house. He is waiting to bid me good-night. [_Glancing towards the garden._] He is--out there.

PAULA.

Oh!

ELLEAN.

What shall I do?

PAULA.

Bring him in to see me! Will you?

ELLEAN.

No, no.

PAULA.

But I'm dying to know him. Oh, yes, you must. I shall meet him before Aubrey does. [_Excitedly running her hands over her hair._]

I'm so glad. [ELLEAN _goes out by the window._] The mirror--mirror.

What a fright I must look! [_Not finding the hand-gla.s.s on the table, she jumps on to the settee, and surveys herself in the mirror over the mantelpiece, then sits quietly down and waits._] Ellean!

Just fancy! Ellean!

_After a pause_ ELLEAN _enters by the window with_ HUGH.

ELLEAN.

Paula, this is Captain Ardale--Mrs. Tanqueray.

[PAULA _risen and turns, and she and_ HUGH _stand staring blankly at each other for a moment or two; then_ PAULA _advances and gives him her hand._

PAULA.