The Complete Plays of J. M. Barrie - 30 Titles in One Edition. Джеймс Барри

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СКАЧАТЬ Kate!

      LADY JANET (WITH EMOTION). It is true, it is true.

      (EXIT LADY JANET, SORROWFULLY.)

      MRS. OMMANEY. She said, ‘Is it arranged?’ Paul, you broke your promise — what are you to do?

      PAUL. Anything, anything! Kate, you and our child shall be well provided for.

      (mrs ommaney turns away.) You must take it. Oh, it is so pitifully little I can do.

      MRS. OMMANEY (EAGERLY, BUT HALF AFRAID). It need not be pitifully little, Paul, if — (HESITATES) — I shall do whatever you ask of me, live where you please, go into the country far from her, be so patient. Paul, I need never again be as you have seen me to-day. Only my wild craving for you brought it on. It turned my brain. There shall be no more of that. I will be so contented; so happy; you will say I am my old self again — when you come to see me.

      PAUL (STARTLED). But I can’t do that! Everything else.

      MRS. OMMANEY. Only now and again — she will never know.

      PAUL. Kate, do you know what you are proposing to me?

      MRS. OMMANEY. You will do it — speak! PAUL. No!

      MRS. OMMANEY (CHANGING FROM ENTREATY TO PASSION). But you shall! It is the price of my silence!

      PAUL. You say this — you who have done so much for me.

      MRS. OMMANEY. The conditions have changed. I would never have troubled you again had you not married, I swore it. But you have broken your promise.

      PAUL. I have broken it, but — surely that is a little thing to you now.

      MRS. OMMANEY. A little thing! It was everything to me, it gave me a kind of self-respect as I sat dressmaking once more, it was an excuse to my conscience for calling myself a married woman. I could exult in your growing fame, because of it; it made me a part of that fame, for in leaving you I had done something to make you ambitious again. Often I have stood outside your studio with my child in my arms and I have whispered to her proudly, ‘But he never took up with another woman.’ She was to be your only child. Was there nothing to me in that?

      PAUL. I deserve no mercy — but Margaret?

      MRS OMMANEY. How much pity had she for me? (LOVINGLY)

      Paul, it is not much to ask. Give me something to live for.

      PAUL. It can’t be.

      (SHE RISES, LOOKING DETERMINED. ENTER LADY JANET.)

      LADY JANET. Mr. Digby, Margaret is coming back! I saw her carriage in the bend of the road.

      MRS. OMMANEY (EXULTINGLY). Coming back! She is coming back to be told all. Innocent little Margaret! Thinks her spotless husband is staying too long! Sisterly little Margaret, who was so anxious to be my friend; merciless little Margaret!

      (TURNING TO PAUL) Do you still refuse?

      PAUL. Yes.

      LADY JANET. Mr. Digby, you can refuse nothing! What did she ask?

      PAUL. That I should — it amounts to this, that I should have two homes.

      LADY JANET. Woman! She was good to you — kind —

      MRS. OMMANEY. Till she knew what I was, till she knew I needed kindness, and then she ran from me — did she not?

      PAUL. She was appalled; it seemed too awful to her; she could say nothing, do nothing.

      MRS. OMMANEY. She has found the words now, and is coming back to cast them at me.

      LADY JANET. There must be some other way. Mrs. Ommaney, I am wealthier than he. I will give you thousands; I will beggar myself.

      MRS. OMMANEY. No, no, no.

      PAUL. Kate!

      MRS. OMMANEY. Choose!

      LADY JANET. She is here!

      MRS. OMMANEY. Which is it to be. (TO PAUL.)

      PAUL (PASSIONATELY). Leave it to me to tell her.

      MRS. OMMANEY. No.

      LADY JANET (BROKEN). She is here!

      MRS. OMMANEY. She has come back for my wedding gift. It is at hand, and ready I (EXIT MRS. OMMANEY INTO BEDROOM, WHICH IS IN DARKNESS.)

      PAUL (to LADY JANET, whose face asks question). She means the child.

      (THERE IS A KNOCK AT THE DOOR.)

      LADY JANET. God forgive me, but — can you not temporise? In time she —

      PAUL. No.

      LADY JANET. For Margaret’s sake — yes!

      PAUL. For Margaret’s honour — no!

      (Enter MARGARET.)

      MARGARET (speaking eagerly as she enters). Is she better?

      PAUL. Yes.

      MARGARET (LOOKING ABOUT HER). Auntie, she has not gone?

      LADY JANET. No.

      MARGARET. I am so glad I am in time.

      LADY JANET. Margaret, come away! This is no place for you.

      MARGARET. Auntie, she is a woman, and so am I. She is in distress and I can help her. This is the place for me.

      PAUL. Why did you come back?

      MARGARET. Because of that; because I saw how cruel, how unwomanly I had been. How sweet she was when she sat on the sofa telling us her pitiful story, what a baby I was to run from her! Aunt Janet, if I had been in her place — if I had loved a villain, oh, I don’t know what I might have fallen to. If she had been in mine, if she had loved a man like Paul —

      LADY JANET. There are only good women and bad.

      MARGARET. I had always thought so, but her story has lifted a veil from the eyes of an ignorant girl. Good women and bad! I became a woman when I saw how much they have in common. Where is she?

      (mrs ommaney COMES OUT; HER face is UNFATHOMABLE.)

      MRS OMMANEY. I am here.

      MARGARET. Mrs. Ommaney, can you forgive me?

      MRS. OMMANEY. I have heard every word you said.

      MARGARET. Were they driving you away? — they shan’t. Auntie, how dare you! Paul, Mrs. Ommaney is my friend.

      (SHE PUTS HER ARM ROUND MRS. OMMANEY, AND STANDS LIKE ONE DEFENDING HER.)

      LADY JANET. Margaret, you must not —

      MARGARET. Auntie, СКАЧАТЬ