Night Must Fall : a Play in Three Acts Part 22

MRS. BRAMSON: Can't be done? What d'you mean, can't be done? It's a scandal. What are you paid for?

MRS. TERENCE (_coming back, furious_): I'm not paid! And 'aven't been for two weeks! And I'm not coming to-morrow unless I am! Put that in your copybook and blot it.

_She goes back into the kitchen, banging the door._

MRS. BRAMSON: Isn't paid? Is she mad? (_To_ OLIVIA) Are you mad?

Why don't you pay her?

OLIVIA (_coming down_): Because you don't give me the money to do it with.

MRS. BRAMSON: I--(_fumbling at her bodice_)--wheel me over to that cupboard.

OLIVIA _is about to do so, when she catches_ DAN'S _eye._

OLIVIA (_to_ DAN, _pointedly_): Perhaps you'd go into the kitchen and get the paper from Mrs. Terence?

DAN (_after a second's pause, with a laugh_): Of course I will, madam! Anythin' you say! Anythin' you say!

_He careers into the kitchen, still carrying the Bible._ MRS.

BRAMSON _has fished up two keys on the end of a long black tape._ OLIVIA _wheels her over to the cupboard above the fireplace._

OLIVIA: If you give me the key, I'll get it for you.

MRS. BRAMSON: No fear! _She unlocks the cupboard; it turns out to be a small but very substantial safe.

(Unlocking the safe, muttering to herself_)

Won't go into Shepperley, indeed ... never heard of such impertinence....

_She takes out a cash-box from among some deeds, unlocks it with the smaller key, and takes out a ma.s.s of five-pound and pound notes._

The way these servants--what are you staring at? OLIVIA: Isn't it rather a lot of money to have in the house?

MRS. BRAMSON: "Put not your trust in banks" is my motto, and always will be.

OLIVIA: But that's hundreds of pounds! It----

MRS. BRAMSON (_handing her two notes_): D'you wonder I wouldn't let you have the key?

OLIVIA: Has ... anybody else asked you for it?

MRS. BRAMSON (_locking the cash-box and putting it back in the safe_): I wouldn't let a soul touch it. Not a soul. Not even Danny.

_She snaps the safe, locks it, and slips the keys back into her bosom._

OLIVIA: Has _he_ asked you for it?

MRS. BRAMSON: It's enough to have those policemen prying, you forward girl, without----

OLIVIA (_urgently_): Please! Has he?

MRS. BRAMSON: Well, he did offer to fetch some money yesterday for the dairy. But I wouldn't give him the key! Oh, no!

OLIVIA: Why?

MRS. BRAMSON: Do I want to see him waylaid and attacked, and my key stolen? Oh, no, I told him, that key stays on me--

OLIVIA: Did he--know how much money there is in there?

MRS. BRAMSON: I told him! Do you wonder I stick to the key, I said-- what _is_ the matter with you, all these questions?

OLIVIA: Oh, it's no use--

_She goes to the armchair below the fireplace and sits in it._ DAN _returns from the kitchen, with a copy of the "News of the World," the Bible tucked under his arm, a cigarette stub between his lips._

DAN: He says they're sellin' like hot cakes! (_Handing the paper to_ MRS. BRAMSON) There you are, I've found the place for you--whole page, headlines an' all....

MRS. BRAMSON: Oh, yes....

DAN _stands with one knee on the sofa, and turns over the pages of his Bible.

(Reading breathlessly, her back to the fireplace_)

"... The Victim's Past" ... with another picture of me underneath!

(_Looking closer, dashed_) Oh, taken at Tonbridge the year before the war; really it isn't right.... (_To_ OLIVIA, _savouring it_) "The Bungalow of Death!... Gruesome finds.... Fiendish murderer still at large.... The enigma of the missing head ... where is it buried?" ... Oh, yes! (_She goes on reading silently to herself._)

DAN (_suddenly, in a clear voice_): "... Blessed is the man ...

that walketh not in the counsel of the unG.o.dly ... nor standeth in the way of sinners ... nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful...."

MRS. BRAMSON (_impatiently_): Oh, the print's too small....

DAN (_firmly_): Shall I read it to you?

MRS. BRAMSON: Yes, dear, do....

_He shuts the Bible with a bang, throws it on the sofa, and takes the paper from her._ OLIVIA _watches him intently; he smiles at her slowly and brazenly as he shakes out the paper._

DAN (_reading laboriously_): "... The murderer committed the crime in the forest most--in the forest, most likely strippin' beforehand---"

_DORA comes in from the kitchen, and stands at the door, arrested by his reading. She is dressed, in Sunday best.

(reading_) "... and cleansin' himself afterwards in the forest lake----"

MRS. BRAMSON: Tch! tch!

DAN (_reading_): "... He buried the body shallow in the open pit, cunnin'ly chancin' it bein' filled, which it was next day, the eleventh----" (_Nodding at_ OLIVIA) That was the day 'fore I come here....

MRS. BRAMSON: So it was ...