Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts. Maugham William Somerset

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ not much room for romance in the heart of the wife of one of the Agents of the foreign Powers when she thinks she hasn't been given her proper place at a dinner party.

Mrs. Appleby

      I remember wondering at the time whether you weren't a little overcome by all the excitement caused by your marriage.

Violet

      I was excited too, you know.

Mrs. Appleby

      Everyone had always looked upon Sir Arthur as a confirmed bachelor. It was thought he cared for nothing but his work. He's had a wonderful career, hasn't he?

Violet

      The Prime Minister told me he was the most competent man he'd ever met.

Anne

      I've always thought he must be a comfort to any Government. Whenever anyone has made a hash of things he's been sent to put them straight.

Violet

      Well, he always has.

Mrs. Appleby

      Mr. Appleby was saying only this morning he was the last man one would expect to marry in haste.

Violet

      Let's hope he won't repent at leisure.

Anne

      [Smiling.] Mrs. Appleby is dying to know all about it, Violet.

Mrs. Appleby

      I'm an old woman, Lady Little.

Violet

      [Gaily.] Well, I met Arthur at a week-end party. He'd come home on leave and all sorts of important people had been asked to meet him. I was frightened out of my life. The duchesses had strawberry leaves hanging all over them and they looked at me down their noses. And the Cabinet Ministers' wives had protruding teeth and they looked at me up their noses.

Anne

      What nonsense you talk, Violet!

Violet

      I was expecting to be terrified of Arthur. After all, I knew he was a great man. But you know, I wasn't a bit. He was inclined to be rather fatherly at first, so I cheeked him.

Anne

      I can imagine his surprise. No one had done that for twenty years.

Violet

      When you know Arthur at all well you discover that when he wants anything he doesn't hesitate to ask for it. He told our hostess that he wanted me to sit next to him at dinner. That didn't suit her at all, but she didn't like to say no. Somehow people don't say no to Arthur. The Cabinet Ministers' wives looked more like camels than ever, and by Sunday evening, my dear, the duchesses' strawberry leaves began to curl and crackle.

Anne

      Your poor hostess, I feel for her. To have got hold of a real lion for your party and then have him refuse to bother himself with anybody but a chit of a girl whom you'd asked just to make an even number!

Mrs. Appleby

      He just fell in love with you at first sight?

Violet

      That's what he says now.

Mrs. Appleby

      Did you know?

Violet

      I thought it looked very like it, you know, only it was so improbable. Then came an invitation from a woman I only just knew for the next week-end, and she said Arthur would be there. Then my heart really did begin to go pit-a-pat. I took the letter in to my sister and sat on her bed and we talked it over. "Does he mean to propose to me," I said, "or does he not?" And my sister said: "I can't imagine what he sees in you. Will you accept him if he does?" she asked. "Oh, no," I said. "Good heavens, why he's twenty years older than I am!" But of course I meant to all the time. I shouldn't have cared if he was a hundred, he was the most wonderful man I'd ever known.

Mrs. Appleby

      And did he propose to you that week-end, when he'd practically only seen you once before?

Violet

      I got down in the afternoon and he was there already. As soon as I swallowed a cup of tea he said: "Come out for a walk." Well, I'd have loved a second cup, but I didn't like to say so, so I went. But we had a second tea in a cottage half an hour later, and we were engaged then.

      [Appleby comes in with Osman Pasha. Mr. Appleby is a self-made man who has entered Parliament; he is about sixty, grey-bearded, rather short and stout, with some accent in his speech, shrewd, simple and good-natured. He wears a blue serge suit. Osman Pasha is a swarthy, bearded Oriental, obese, elderly but dignified; he wears the official frock-coat of the Khedivial service and a tarbush.]

Appleby

      Sir Arthur is coming in one moment. He is talking to one of his secretaries.

Violet

      Really, it's too bad of them not to leave him alone even when he's snatching a mouthful of food.

Osman Pasha

      Vous permettez que j'apporte ma cigarette, chère Madame.

Violet

      Of course. Come and sit here, Pasha.

Appleby

      I wanted to tell his Excellency how interested I am in his proposal to found a technical college in Cairo, but I can't speak French.

Violet

      Oh, but his Excellency understands English perfectly, and I believe really he talks it as well as I do, only he won't.

Osman Pasha

      Madame, je ne comprends l'anglais que quand vous le parlez, et tout galant homme sait ce que dit une jolie femme.

Anne

      [Translating for the Applebys.] He says he only understands English when Lady Little speaks it, and every nice man understands what a pretty woman says.

Violet

      No one pays me such charming compliments as you do. You know I'm learning Arabic.

Osman Pasha

      C'est une bien belle langue, et vous, madame, vous avez autant d'intelligence que de beauté.

Violet

      I have a Copt who comes to me every day. And I practise a little with your brother, Anne.

Anne

      [To Mrs. Appleby.] My brother is one of Sir Arthur's secretaries. I expect it was he that Mr. Appleby left with Sir Arthur.

Violet

      If it is I shall scold him. He knows quite well that he has no right to come and bother Arthur when he's in the bosom of his family. But they say he's a wonderful Arabic scholar.

Osman Pasha

      Vous parlez de M. Parry? Je n'ai jamais connu un Anglais qui avait une telle facilité.

Anne

      He says he's never known an Englishman who speaks so well as Ronny.

Violet

      It's a fearfully difficult language. Sometimes my head seems to get tied up in knots.

      [Two Saises come in, one with a salver on which are coffee cups and the other bearing a small tray on which is a silver vessel containing Turkish coffee. They go round giving coffee to the various people, then wait in silence. When Sir Arthur comes in they give him his coffee and go out.]

Anne

      It's wonderful of you to persevere.

Violet

      Oh, you know, Ronny's very encouraging. He says I'm really getting on. I want so badly to be able to talk. You can't think how enthusiastic I am about Egypt. I love it.

Osman Pasha

      Pas plus que l'Égypte vous СКАЧАТЬ