Three Plays by Granville-Barker Part 96

_Then_ HORSHAM _opens the library door and sees him safely through. He pa.s.ses_ TREBELL _without any salutation, nor does_ TREBELL _turn after him; but when_ HORSHAM _also is in the library and the door is closed, comments viciously_.

TREBELL. The man's a sentimentalist . . like all men who live alone or shut away. [_Then surveying his three glum companions, bursts out._]

Well . . ? We can stop thinking of this dead woman, can't we? It's a waste of time.

FARRANT. Trebell, what did you want to come here for?

TREBELL. Because you thought I wouldn't. I knew you'd be sitting round, incompetent with distress, calculating to a nicety the force of a scandal. . .

BLACKBOROUGH. [_With the firmest of touches._] Horsham has called some of us here to discuss the situation. I am considering my opinion.

TREBELL. You are not, Blackborough. You haven't recovered yet from the shock of your manly feelings. Oh, cheer up. You know we're an adulterous and sterile generation. Why should you cry out at a proof now and then of what's always in the hearts of most of us?

FARRANT. [_Plaintively._] Now, for G.o.d's sake, Trebell . . O'Connell has been going on like that.

TREBELL. Well then . . think of what matters.

BLACKBOROUGH. Of you and your reputation in fact.

FARRANT. [_Kindly._] Why do you pretend to be callous?

_He strokes_ TREBELL'S _shoulder, who shakes him off impatiently_.

TREBELL. Do you all mean to out-face the British Lion with me after to-morrow . . dare to be Daniels?

BLACKBOROUGH. Bravado won't carry this off.

TREBELL. Blackborough . . it would immortalize you. I'll stand up in my place in the House of Commons and tell everything that has befallen soberly and seriously. Why should I flinch?

FARRANT. My dear Trebell, if your name comes out at the inquest--

TREBELL. If it does! . . whose has been the real offence against Society . . hers or mine? It's I who am most offended . . if I choose to think so.

BLACKBOROUGH. You seem to forget the adultery.

TREBELL. Isn't Death divorce enough for her? And . . oh, wasn't I right?

. . What do you start thinking of once the shock's over? Punishment . .

revenge . . uselessness . . waste of me.

FARRANT. [_With finality._] If your name comes out at the inquest, to talk of anything but retirement from public life is perfect lunacy . .

and you know it.

HORSHAM _comes back from the pa.s.sage. He is a little distracted; then the more so at finding himself again in a highly-charged atmosphere._

HORSHAM. He's gone off with Wedgecroft.

TREBELL. [_Including_ HORSHAM _now in his appeal._] Does anyone think he knows me now to be a worse man . . less fit, less able . . than he did a week ago?

_From the piano-stool comes_ CANTELUPE'S _quiet voice_.

CANTELUPE. Yes, Trebell . . I do.

TREBELL _wheels round at this and ceases all bl.u.s.ter_.

TREBELL. On what grounds?

CANTELUPE. Unarguable ones.

HORSHAM. [_Finding refuge again in his mantelpiece._] You know, he has gone off without giving me his promise.

FARRANT. That's your own fault, Trebell.

HORSHAM. The fool says I didn't give him explicit instructions.

FARRANT. What fool?

HORSHAM. That man . . [_The name fails him._] . . my new man. One of those touches of Fate's little finger, really.

_He begins to consult the ceiling and the carpet once more._ TREBELL _tackles_ CANTELUPE _with gravity_.

TREBELL. I have only a logical mind, Cantelupe. I know that to make myself a capable man I've purged myself of all the sins . . I never was idle enough to commit. I know that if your G.o.d didn't make use of men, sins and all . . what would ever be done in the world? That one natural action, which the slight shifting of a social law could have made as negligible as eating a meal, can make me incapable . . takes the linch-pin out of one's brain, doesn't it?

HORSHAM. Trebell, we've been doing our best to get you out of this mess.

Your remarks to O'Connell weren't of any a.s.sistance, and . .

CANTELUPE _stands up, so momentously that_ HORSHAM'S _gentle flow of speech dries up_.

CANTELUPE. Perhaps I had better say at once that, whatever hushing up you may succeed in, it will be impossible for me to sit in a cabinet with Mr. Trebell.

_It takes even_ FARRANT _a good half minute to recover his power of speech on this new issue_.

FARRANT. What perfect nonsense, Cantelupe! I hope you don't mean that.

BLACKBOROUGH. Complication number one, Horsham.

FARRANT. [_Working up his protest._] Why on earth not? You really mustn't drag your personal feelings and prejudices into important matters like this . . matters of state.

CANTELUPE. I think I have no choice, when Trebell stands convicted of a mortal sin, of which he has not even repented.

TREBELL. [_With bitterest cynicism._] Dictate any form of repentance you like . . my signature is yours.

CANTELUPE. Is this a matter for intellectual jugglery?

TREBELL. [_His defence failing at last._] I offered to face the scandal from my place in the House. That was mad, wasn't it . .

BLACKBOROUGH--_his course mapped out--changes the tone of the discussion_.

BLACKBOROUGH. Horsham, I hope Trebell will believe I have no personal feelings in this matter, but we may as well face the fact even now that O'Connell holding his tongue to-morrow won't stop gossip in the House, club gossip, gossip in drawing rooms. What do the Radicals really care so long as a scandal doesn't get into the papers! There's an inner circle with its eye on us.

FARRANT. Well, what does that care as long as scandal's its own copyright? Do you know, my dear father refused a peerage because he felt it meant putting blinkers on his best newspaper.