Читать книгу Plays for Earth and Air - Edward 18th Baron of Dunsany Plunkett - Страница 7

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Scene: The bedroom of a dying man.

Time: Late 19th century.

Nurse (in door): Good-bye, Doctor.

Sir John: Is he gone?

Nurse: Yes, Sir John.

Sir John: That’s good. What’s the time?

Nurse: Five to twelve.

Sir John: Nurse, how long have I got?

Nurse: Oh, come, come.

Sir John: How long have I got?

Nurse: But you mustn’t take that gloomy view.

Sir John: Have I got twenty minutes?

Nurse: Of course you have, if only you won’t worry yourself.

Sir John: A man can’t help doing that, if his mind’s not at ease.

Nurse: Now you mustn’t be thinking of little worries.

Sir John: It’s no trifle.

Nurse: Isn’t it? I was speaking to the vicar yesterday, and he promised to come round at one o’clock. Will you have a talk with him? He’s very understanding.

Sir John: The vicar? No, no. He’s not a man of the world. He’d never understand.

Nurse: A talk with him might ease your mind.

Sir John: No, no. He’d never understand. It’s a delicate point, and few men whose opinion I’d ask. But isn’t it twelve yet?

Nurse: No, not yet, Sir John.

Sir John: Look out of the window, would you, Nurse? And tell me if you see two men coming.

She goes.

Nurse: Not yet, Sir John.

Sir John: There is no one more punctilious than Griggs. He promised to come at twelve. Your watch must be wrong.

Nurse: It’s not twelve yet, Sir John.

Sir John: But you should see them coming by now. They’d never be late, either of them. Griggs’ word, small things or great, he never broke it. You see him?

Nurse: Not yet, Sir John. Yes, yes, I do. Two gentlemen walking.

Sir John: I told you so, Nurse. I had his word for it.

Nurse: Yes, they’re both coming up to the door.

Sir John: Nurse, never mind my poor body. There’s a weight on my mind. We must try and get that off first. So leave me, will you, for a little while when they come.

Nurse: I’ll be in the next room, Sir John.

Sir John: Thank you, nurse, thank you.

Nurse: And he’ll put your mind at ease.

Sir John: I hope so, nurse. He’ll tell me one way or the other. But he’s so straight himself, that if it’s the other, he’ll say it; even now.

Nurse: How nice to have a friend like that.

Sir John: Straight as a die.

Nurse: Is he really?

Sir John: Both of them.

Nurse: But you will see the vicar afterwards, won’t you?

Sir John: Well, we’ll see. We’ll see what Sir Algernon can do for me.

Enter Sir Algernon Griggs and Mr. Smew.

Sir John (to Sir Algernon): My dear old boy. (To Smew.) My dear Arthur.

Sir Algernon: Well, well.

Sir John: Algy old boy, I asked you to come. And you, Arthur.

Sir Algernon: And glad to come, my dear boy. But sorry to see you like this.

Smew: Yes, yes indeed.

Sir John: Well never mind that. One has to go. Never mind that, so long as one’s lived straight.

Sir Algernon: None straighter, old boy, none straighter.

Smew: None straighter.

Sir John: That’s the point.

Sir Algernon: Eh?

Sir John: That’s why I sent for you. I want to ask you, old man.

Sir Algernon: Eh?

Sir John: You remember that Bishop’s wife?

Sir Algernon: He-he-he. Yes, indeed. She beat you old boy. (To Smew.) It was his only defeat wasn’t it? But she beat you. Even the greatest conquerors you know....

Sir John: You remember how you bet me two hundred and fifty each, that she would defeat me.

Sir Algernon: Yes, yes. And we had a dinner on your five hundred.

Smew: Yes, it was a dinner.

Sir Algernon: That was in the summer of the year, let me see.

Sir John: And you remember that if I won I was to give my word of honour that it was so, to you two alone.

Sir Algernon: Yes, yes, of course. The only way to decide it.

Sir John: Of course; it was the only way.

Sir Algernon: Well you lost your bet, old man, and you paid up at once. What’s the matter?

Sir John: I gave my word of honour to tell you if I won.

Sir Algernon: Yes, yes. But you didn’t.

Smew: My dear old boy, it was your only defeat.

Sir John: She was so horrified, so downcast, so sad; that I somehow got the idea that no-one should know of it.

Sir Algernon: My dear old boy, what are you talking of? You lost your bet, you paid up and we had that dinner.

Sir John: No, I won it really.

Sir Algernon: You won it?

Sir John: Yes, she’s dead now, I read that she died three years ago; and I won it really.

Sir Algernon: You won it?

Smew: Won it really?

Sir John: Now I was bound in honour to tell you, for the purpose of winning your money. If I gave up the money was I still bound? I fear I was. I can’t work it out; my mind’s not clear enough, and there’s this great weight on it.

Smew: Of course not, old boy.

Sir Algernon (to Smew): It’s a knotty question.

Sir John: I know you will tell me the truth; fully and not just....

Sir Algernon: As it is a point of honour I must. (To Smew.) I’d like to talk it over with you for a moment. You see I never met a case quite like....

Sir Algernon and Smew walk to window, stand close and talk low. And so some moments pass.

Sir John: Don’t be too long, old boy. There isn’t so much time as all that.

Sir Algernon: No, we won’t be a moment.

A little more time elapses. Sir Algernon and Smew return smiling from the window.

Well, old boy, I’m glad to tell you the case is like this.

Sir John: It’s all right is it, Algy?

Sir Algernon: In my opinion it’s like this.

Sir John: There’s no-one in the world whose opinion I’d take before yours.

Smew: No, no indeed.

Sir Algernon: Well, it’s like this. In the matter of a bet one must go by the strict letter. There’s no other way. And this was a bet. But then your word of honour was definitely brought into it. And as a matter of honour is more important than a bet, we must treat it as a matter of honour. Now in such a matter the spirit counts before everything.

Sir John: Yes, that’s so.

Sir Algernon: Well the spirit of the arrangement was that you should tell us what really happened in order to get the money. When you let the money slide you were free of your obligation.

Sir John: Are you certain sure, Algy?

Sir Algernon: Absolutely.

Smew: Both of us.

Sir John: Then I die a man of honour.

Sir Algernon: As you have always lived, old man.

Smew: As you have always lived.

Handshakes and silent farewells. Exeunt. Sir John lies still.

Sir John (feebly): Nurse. (She hurries in.) Nurse.

Nurse: Yes.

Sir John: Tell (she bends anxiously nearer to get the message)—Tell that vicar——

Nurse: Yes? Yes?

Sir John: He can go to hell. (Dies.)

Curtain