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

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СКАЧАТЬ GOODWILLIE. I need tell him nothing. It will be sufficient if you simply say to him that you don’t love him.

      LUCY. Don’t love him! How could he look at me and believe the words?

      MISS GOODWILLIE. It would be best for him, Miss White.

      LUCY. Very well.

      (Enter professor.)

      PROFESSOR. Agnes, you have not seen Miss Lucy?

      MISS GOODWILLIE. Yes. (Indicating her.)

      PROFESSOR. Miss Lucy? I see Agnes has been speaking to you about me. There is no hope for me, Agnes?

      MISS GOODWILLIE. It is for her to say, Tom. Is there any hope for him, Miss White?

      LUCY. No!

      PROFESSOR. You could not — perhaps — in time —

      MISS GOODWILLIE. Could you, Miss White?

      LUCY. No!

      (agnes goes to tom to console him.)

      PROFESSOR. Not now, dear. (To lucy) I — I — how could I have been so presumptuous? Forgive me, Miss Lucy.

      (professor goes into house.)

      MISS GOODWILLIE. You have done well. (Rather hard still)

      And now there is nothing further to keep you here.

      LUCY (looking round sadly). No, it’s all over — (Pathetically) I did not tell him I was going away.

      MISS GOODWILLIE. It is not necessary now. I will tell him and he will understand. Goodbye.

      (lucy hesitates.)

      LUCY. I have hurt him so. Why shouldn’t I tell him what I did and let him decide. Perhaps he — (She makes a movement after him and hesitates.)

      MISS GOODWILLIE (coldly, though knowing this may ruin her plans). Very well, go in and tell him — but I should have thought it was best to leave him thinking well of you.

      LUCY. I will go. You are very hard.

      MISS GOODWILLIE. Yes, I am hard. Goodbye, Miss White. I wish you well.

      (miss goodwillie goes into house, lucy meets henders, who enters with a letter, a lantern, and a wheelbarrow.)

      LUCY. Henders, I am going to London by tonight’s mail. Will you take my box to the station?

      HENDERS. I will — I’ll take it on my barrow. Are you leaving for good, Miss?

      LUCY. Yes — for good.

      HENDERS. Miss Lucy, bide a wee — here’s a queer sort of a letter. I wonder if you could make head or tail of it?

      LUCY. You want me to read it?

      HENDERS. Ay.

      (lucy sits down at gate and reads letter, puzzled.)

      LUCY. I don’t understand. Whose letter is this?

      HENDERS. That’s the query. I found it.

      LUCY. In this envelope?

      HENDERS. No! That’s a clean envelope I put it in; the real envelope was all tattered.

      LUCY. But there was an address on it?

      HENDERS. No, the writing was faded off it.

      LUCY. I can’t guess who it is for. Have you read it?

      HENDERS. Just the little words.

      LUCY. It begins: ‘My beloved one,’ and ends ‘Yours till death, Bob.’ HENDERS. Ay, ay — that sounds like swearing.

      LUCY. Listen! (Reads) ‘My Beloved One! At last, at last I am able to ask you the question I had no right to ask while I was a penniless man. But you always knew that you were all the world to me, and that I came out here to try to make a home that you could share. It has been a long struggle, but I have conquered, and so I can ask you: will you be my wife?’ HENDERS. Can it be somebody after Effie?

      LUCY. There is a good deal more, and then it ends: ‘It may be that I am too late. If so, dear Agnes, do not answer this and I will understand. But God grant that I am in time. Yours till death, Bob.’ HENDERS. Agnes — Bob! (Heavily) It sounds to me as if it was some man, name of Bob, writing to a woman, name of Agnes.

      LUCY. ‘P.S. — Address me to 41 Fourth Street, Melbourne.’ henders. That’s Australia.

      LUCY. I can’t make out the date.

      HENDERS. But it maun be many years old, for the letterbox hasna been used for ages.

      LUCY. What letterbox?

      HENDERS. The Professor’s old letterbox, whaur I found it.

      LUCY. You found it in — Ah, it must be her letter!

      HENDERS. You ken wha it’s to?

      LUCY. I believe I do. But how could it have lain unseen in the letterbox all these years?

      HENDERS. The letterbox was lined wi’ zinc, and the letter had slipped between the zinc and the wood. It never would have been found but for my cleverness in breaking the box. Wha is she, Miss?

      LUCY. I have no right to tell you.

      HENDERS. But I give you the right.

      LUCY. No, no, Henders!

      HENDERS. What are you to do with it?

      LUCY. I am to hand it on to its rightful owner. There shall be one woman happy tonight, at any rate. She has waited a very long time for it. No, that seems a harsh way of doing it. I’ll give it to the Professor and then he can break the dear news to her.

      HENDERS. TO her? Is it someone he kens?

      LUCY. Henders, you’ll need all your time to take my box to the station.

      (Exit henders lucy writes something on letter. At same time miss goodwillie appears in the room, lighting lamp, lucy goes to side and calls ‘effie’ two or three times, miss goodwillie hears and comes to window suspiciously, effie comes out.)

      EFFIE. It’s you, Miss White?

      LUCY. Give this letter to the Professor.

      EFFIE (eagerly). A secret letter.

      LUCY. It is very important.

      EFFIE. Oh, Miss White, I’ve been guessing that you and him is fond o’ one another. Is it a loveletter?

      LUCY. Yes — it is — a loveletter.

      (miss goodwillie nods significantly, retires from window.)

      EFFIE. СКАЧАТЬ