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

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ (nodding also and drinking in the gossip). Oh, ho! ho! Oh, ho! ho!

      BABBIE. Oh, ho! ho! (NODDING.)

      (THEY ARE PUTTING HEADS OVER TABLE AS THEY CACKLE.)

      GAVIN. But she lives chiefly in England and has never even been in Thrums; so how can we expect her to have an interest in its minister? (LEANS BACK IN CHAIR.)

      BABBIE. Oh, no!

      NANNY. I have heard a droll thing about her.

      (They become gossipy over table again.)

      They say she has a French servant woman that has nothing to do except wait on HER alone!

      BABBIE (INCREDULOUS). No!

      — GAVIN (WITH A MAN-OF-THE-WORLD AIR). It is quite possible. They are called lady’s-maids.

      BABBIE. What a lot you know, sir!

      NANNY (GURGLING WITH LAUGHTER). It’s said — that she dresses her leddyship — and undresses her — like an infant — and brushes her hair! I’ve even heard she washes her! (BIG LAUGH.)

      (BABBIE JOINS IN NANNY’S LAUGHTER.)

      BABBIE. Excuse me, sir. It sounds so queer!

      GAVIN. I can’t help laughing myself!

      (They laugh together.)

      Small chance, you see, of the like of her drinking tea with the like of me. (HANDS CUP FOR MORE TEA.)

      BABBIE. HOW much those English ladies miss! (AN IDEA.)

      Maybe she’s kept busy drinking tea with the Captain.

      GAVIN. Very likely.

      NANNY. There’s a song his sojers sing about him nowadays.

      GAVIN (SHOCKED). That offensive Johnny Cope song. Even my congregation sing it.

      NANNY. I’ve heard it maddens him.

      BABBIE. It will need a lot of tea, Nanny, to wash that song out of him! I know it.

      (She sings a verse without accompaniment, hut with gay gestures and waving tea-cup.)

      Our Halliwell to Caddam came To catch the wicked weaver men, But deil a weaver had he when He counted them in the morning!

      (Chorus sung by babbie and nanny.)

      Hey, gallant captain, have you catched her yet? Or has the gipsy beat ye yet? She led you a dance till you were gyte And your sojers laughed in the morning.

      GAVIN. Enough! Enough!

      NANNY. The Lord forgie me, but fine would I like to join in the second verse myself!

      BABBIE. Do, Nanny, do.

      (babbie signs encouragement and she and nanny sing.)

      For days the English captain proud Kept glowering watch on Caddam Wood, For her that didna as she should, By nicht, nor yet by morning!

      (They both sing chorus, and gavin himself, like one bewitched, joins in it babbie artfully stops, so that gavin sings the last two lines alone, nanny also stops, astonished at hearing him, rises and stands with arms round BABBIE. When finished he realises with horror what he has done.)

      NANNY. Lassie, we forget that he is the Captain’s friend now. (Sits again.)

      (gavin takes up tea-cup.)

      BABBIE. He almost forgot himself, didn’t he? (With sudden thought) Nanny, I can guess why the little ladyship has no interest in Mr. Dishart. It is because he is a married man!

      (gavin’s cup rattles in saucer.)

      NANNY (laughing). A — married man! Mr. Dishart, she takes you for a married man! (Big laugh.)

      (gavin tries to carry it off with awkward laugh.)

      BABBIE. Is he not? I thought the lady you introduced to the soldiers that night —

      (He tries to stop her by shaking a spoon at her.)

      (TAKING THE SPOON.) Thank you. I hope I have said nothing unpleasant.

      NANNY. Him married! But every single leddy in this countryside would jump at him like a bird at a berry. (Chuckling) Ay, and it’s the talk o’ the town that one o’ them has got him at last.

      BABBIE (sharply). Oh?

      NANNY. We dinna ken who she is yet, but we ‘re doing our best to find out.

      GAVIN (turning away, with a groan). I am sure of that.

      (babbie doesn’t like it.)

      NANNY. What’s the matter wi’ the lassie?

      BABBIE. Nothing! (To gavin) Is this true?

      GAVIN (stoutly). It is the first I have heard of it. So you have permission to tell the tale, Mrs. Webster.

      NANNY (eagerly). You’ll no be angry? (With enjoyment of the gossip.) It was about a week since — he came home wi’ a flower in his coat, a thing he was never known to do till that night. It was a red rose!

      BABBIE (understanding). A red rose!

      GAVIN (wanting to stop nanny). Mrs. Webster, I’d rather you didn’t —

      BABBIE (turning round again). You gave her permission.

      (Her manner has changed to geniality.)

      NANNY. You said I could tell! For days he kept it in a glass of water on his study table — and there he would sit looking fond like at it.

      GAVIN (half turning away in his chair). Nonsense! Not at all.

      NANNY. Jean saw you — that’s the Manse servant. She chanced to be near the door.

      GAVIN (hugging his knee). Hoots! I remember I flung the thing out of the window.

      BABBIE. You did?

      NANNY. Ay! he did, as if it maddened him. Andrew Soutar was sitting on the Manse dyke.

      GAVIN (to babbie). There! You see!

      NANNY. And then you ran out and picked it up again.

      GAVIN (turning to her). How could you — ?

      NANNY. Jemima Tosh was peeping through the gate.

      GAVIN. Oh! It was she, was it! Mrs. Webster, I swear to you I took so little care of that rose that I don’t even know what became of it.

      NANNY. But I ken.

      GAVIN СКАЧАТЬ