Three Plays by Granville-Barker Part 62

EDWARD. [_grim and patient._] How many more times am I to say that we have robbed you of nearly half your property?

MR. BOOTH. [_his senses failing him._] Say that again.

EDWARD. It's quite true.

MR. BOOTH. My money . . =gone=?

EDWARD. Yes.

MR. BOOTH. [_clutching at a straw of anger._] You've been the thief . .

you . . you . . ?

EDWARD. I wouldn't tell you if I could help it . . my father.

_That actually calls the old man back to something like dignity and self-possession. He thumps on_ EDWARD'S _table furiously_.

MR. BOOTH. I'll make you prove that.

_And now_ EDWARD _buries his face in his arms and just goes off into hysterics_.

EDWARD. Oh, you've fired a mine!

MR. BOOTH. [_scolding him well._] Slandering your dead father . . and lying to me, revenging yourself by frightening me . . because I detest you.

EDWARD. Why . . haven't I thanked you for putting an end to all my troubles? I do . . I promise you I do.

MR. BOOTH. [_shouting, and his sudden courage failing as he shouts._]

Prove this . . prove it to me! I'm not to be frightened so easily. One can't lose half of all one has and then be told of it in two minutes . .

sitting at a table. [_his voice tails off to a piteous whimper._]

EDWARD. [_quietly now and kindly._] If my father had told you this in plain words you'd have believed him.

MR. BOOTH. [_bowing his head._] Yes.

EDWARD _looks at the poor old thing with great pity_.

EDWARD. What on earth did you want to withdraw your account for? You need never have known . . you could have died happy. Settling with all those charities in your will would certainly have smashed us up. But proving your will is many years off yet we'll hope.

MR. BOOTH. [_pathetic and bewildered._] I don't understand. No, I don't understand . . because your father . . But I =must= understand, Edward.

EDWARD. Don't shock yourself trying to understand my father, for you never will. Pull yourself together, Mr. Booth. After all, this isn't a vital matter to you. It's not even as if you had a family to consider . .

like some of the others.

MR. BOOTH. [_vaguely._] What others?

EDWARD. Don't imagine your money has been specially selected for pilfering.

MR. BOOTH. [_with solemn incredulity._] One has read of this sort of thing but . . I thought people always got found out.

EDWARD. [_brutally humorous._] Well . . we are found out. You've found us out.

MR. BOOTH. [_rising to the full appreciation of his wrongs._] Oh . .

I've been foully cheated!

EDWARD. [_patiently._] I've told you so.

MR. BOOTH. [_his voice breaks, he appeals pitifully._] But by you, Edward . . say it's by you.

EDWARD. [_unable to resist his quiet revenge._] I've not the ability or the personality for such work, Mr. Booth . . nothing but principles, which forbid me even to lie to you.

_The old gentleman draws a long breath and then speaks with great awe, blending into grief._

MR. BOOTH. I think your father is in h.e.l.l . . I'd have gone there myself to save him from it. I loved him very truly. How he could have had the heart! We were friends for nearly fifty years. Am I to think now he only cared for me to cheat me?

EDWARD. [_venturing the comfort of an explanation._] No . . he didn't value money as you do.

MR. BOOTH. [_with sudden shrill logic._] But he took it. What d'you mean by that?

EDWARD _leans back in his chair and changes the tenor of their talk_.

EDWARD. Well, you're master of the situation now. What are you going to do?

MR. BOOTH. To get my money back?

EDWARD. No, that's gone.

MR. BOOTH. Then give me what's left and--

EDWARD. Are you going to prosecute?

MR. BOOTH. [_s.h.i.+fting uneasily in his chair._] Oh, dear . . is that necessary? Can't somebody else do that? I thought the Law--

EDWARD. You need not prosecute, you know.

MR. BOOTH. What'll happen if I don't.

EDWARD. What do you suppose I'm doing here now?

MR. BOOTH. [_as if he were being asked a riddle._] I don't know.

EDWARD. [_earnestly._] I'm trying to straighten things a little. I'm trying to undo what my father did . . to do again what he undid. It's a poor dull sort of work now . . throwing penny after penny hardly earned into the pit of our deficit. But I've been doing that for what it's worth in the time that was left to me . . till this should happen. I never thought you'd bring it to pa.s.s. I can continue to do that if you choose . . until the next smash comes. I'm pleased to call this my duty.

[_He searches_ MR. BOOTH'S _face and finds there only disbelief and fear. He bursts out._] Oh, why won't you believe me? It can't hurt you to believe it.

MR. BOOTH. You must admit, Edward, it isn't easy to believe anything in this office . . just for the moment.

EDWARD. [_bowing to the extreme reasonableness of this._] I suppose not.

I can prove it to you. I'll take you through the books . . you won't understand them . . but I could prove it.