Complete Plays of John Galsworthy Part 84

BILL. If you think she's trapped me into this----

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. I do not. Neither do I think she has been trapped.

I think nothing. I understand nothing.

BILL. [Grimly] Good!

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. How long has this-engagement lasted?

BILL. [After a silence] Two months.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [Suddenly] This is-this is quite impossible.

BILL. You'll find it isn't.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. It's simple misery.

BILL. [Pointing to the workroom] Go and wait in there, Freda.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [Quickly] And are you still in love with her?

FREDA, moving towards the workroom, smothers a sob.

BILL. Of course I am.

FREDA has gone, and as she goes, LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE rises suddenly, forced by the intense feeling she has been keeping in hand.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. Bill! Oh, Bill! What does it all mean? [BILL, looking from side to aide, only shrugs his shoulders] You are not in love with her now. It's no good telling me you are.

BILL. I am.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. That's not exactly how you would speak if you were.

BILL. She's in love with me.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [Bitterly] I suppose so.

BILL. I mean to see that n.o.body runs her down.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [With difficulty] Bill! Am I a hard, or mean woman?

BILL. Mother!

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. It's all your life--and--your father's--and--all of us. I want to understand--I must understand. Have you realised what an awful thins this would be for us all? It's quite impossible that it should go on.

BILL. I'm always in hot water with the Governor, as it is. She and I'll take good care not to be in the way.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. Tell me everything!

BILL. I have.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. I'm your mother, Bill.

BILL. What's the good of these questions?

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. You won't give her away--I see!

BILL. I've told you all there is to tell. We're engaged, we shall be married quietly, and--and--go to Canada.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. If there weren't more than that to tell you'd be in love with her now.

BILL. I've told you that I am.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. You are not. [Almost fiercely] I know--I know there's more behind.

BILL. There--is--nothing.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [Baffled, but unconvinced] Do you mean that your love for her has been just what it might have been for a lady?

BILL. [Bitterly] Why not?

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [With painful irony] It is not so as a rule.

BILL. Up to now I've never heard you or the girls say a word against Freda. This isn't the moment to begin, please.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [Solemnly] All such marriages end in wretchedness.

You haven't a taste or tradition in common. You don't know what marriage is. Day after day, year after year. It's no use being sentimental--for people brought up as we are to have different manners is worse than to have different souls. Besides, it's poverty. Your father will never forgive you, and I've practically nothing. What can you do? You have no profession. How are you going to stand it; with a woman who--? It's the little things.

BILL. I know all that, thanks.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. n.o.body does till they've been through it. Marriage is hard enough when people are of the same cla.s.s. [With a sudden movement towards him] Oh! my dear-before it's too late!

BILL. [After a struggle] It's no good.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. It's not fair to her. It can only end in her misery.

BILL. Leave that to me, please.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. [With an almost angry vehemence] Only the very finest can do such things. And you don't even know what trouble's like.

BILL. Drop it, please, mother.

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. Bill, on your word of honour, are you acting of your own free will?

BILL. [Breaking away from her] I can't stand any more.

[He goes out into the workroom.]

LADY CHEs.h.i.+RE. What in G.o.d's name shall I do?