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

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СКАЧАТЬ This. She is innocent of the charges brought against her. It was not she who prevented your arresting the rioters.

      HALLIWELL (scoffing). Indeed!

      GAVIN. It WAS I!

      LORD RINTOUL. What’s that? Come, come, Mr. Dishart, we know better. You forget that you were overheard denouncing the watchers as law-breakers and ordering them to their homes.

      HALLIWELL. We know also that you were seen trying to chase the gipsy from the wood immediately before she blew that infernal horn.

      GAVIN. She did not blow the horn — I blew it! It was I who alarmed the town!

      LORD RINTOUL (KINDLY). Be careful. Come, come, you must not say a thing like that.

      GAVIN. It is the truth.

      HALLIWELL. On your oath, sir.

      GAVIN. On my oath.

      HALLIWELL. Rintoul, you heard him!

      LORD RINTOUL (TO GIVE gavin ANOTHER CHANCE). I am not sure that I did.

      GAVIN (STOUTLY). I am prepared to repeat every word of it if necessary — I alone did it.

      LORD RINTOUL. Well, we must accept that and it is certainly bad enough — but why tell us?

      HALLIWELL. You WERE PLAYING WITH US!

      GAVIN. As YOU WILL.

      HALLIWELL. There is a heavy punishment, sir.

      GAVIN. I am prepared to meet it.

      LORD RINTOUL. May I ask you why you admit this to us?

      GAVIN. That the innocent may be set at liberty. Do as you choose with me.

      LORD RINTOUL (QUIZZICALLY). This is rather awkward, Halliwell.

      HALLIWELL. I don’t see it in that light. It means simply the issue of another warrant — for him.

      LORD RINTOUL. Perhaps that means simply the issue of more divots — for me.

      HALLIWELL. I must say, Rintoul, I think I have done this pretty neatly.

      LORD RINTOUL. A Machiavelli! Mr. Dishart, I am sorry for you.

      HALLIWELL. More than I am. Gad, sir, before you came here to make such a confession, you might have thought of Mrs. Dishart.

      (gavin GULPS.)

      GAVIN. There is no Mrs. Dishart.

      HALLIWELL (WHEELING ROUND). What do you mean now? There is your wife.

      GAVIN (with a salt taste in his mouth). I have NO wife.

      LORD RINTOUL (bewildered). Nowife? Thenwhowas — ?

      (He suddenly smells a rat.)

      HALLIWELL (stepping forward, suddenly suspicious). It was not —

      GAVIN. Yes, it was the gipsy.

      (They are bereft of speech, rintoul and halliwell exchange glances.)

      HALLIWELL. So that explains how she slipped through our fingers!

      GAVIN. That explains it.

      HALLIWELL (calling for action). Rintoul!

      GAVIN. You have me. Let the gipsy go.

      LORD RINTOUL (to halliwell, slyly). Are you to let the gipsy go — (Laughs) — Halliwell?

      (He and halliwell look at each other and are merry over the situation. Their laughter increases.)

      You don’t join with us, Mr. Dishart, in our homely mirth?

      HALLIWELL. It can’t be expected of him till he knows the reason of it. As you justly say, sir, we have you, but the cream of the situation is that you have put yourself into our hands for nothing. You have surprised us, Mr. Dishart, but we have also a surprise for you. (Bowing ironically) Allow me to tell you that the gipsy is not here; she has not been arrested, and we know where she is no more than yourself. (Laughs and rejoins rintoul.)

      GAVIN. This is idle, sir. She is in that room.

      LORD RINTOUL. In that room?

      (Neither of them credits him.)

      GAVIN.! KNOW IT.

      (FELICE has come in with lighted candle and is about to go upstairs, listening eagerly.)

      LORD RINTOUL (puzzled). Felice!

      (She comes forward in concealed trepidation.)

      YOU TOLD ME HER LADYSHIP WAS IN HER ROOM?

      FELICE. YES, MY LORD.

      GAVIN. It was this girl who —— —

      (He stops, seeing FELICE sign to him imploringly, LORD RINTOUL sees it also; he looks sternly from one to the other, FELICE would get between him and the door, but by a gesture he stops her. He opens door.)

      LORD RINTOUL. Babbie,! WANT YOU.

      (BABBIE, after pause, comes out, now dressed as befits her rank — not a full evening dress, but in striking contrast to the gipsy, GAVIN gets a great shock. She controls her emotion, FELICE is relieved.)

      You know this gentleman? He insists that there was a gipsy girl in your room.

      BABBIE (self-controlled). I was quite alone, father.

      LORD RINTOUL. You heard what Lady Barbara said, Mr. Dishart?

      GAVIN (manfully). I heard. I made — a strange mistake.

      HALLIWELL. We should all like to know how, sir?

      (gavin looks at FELICE.)

      FELICE. I think I can explain, my lord. This gentleman, he was shown in here, and he ask me if a gipsy girl here. He seem very excited — I think good jest to say, ‘Yes.’ He say, ‘Where, where?’ I point to her ladyship’s room and run away laughing.

      GAVIN. Yes, it was she who told me.

      (lord rintoul signs sternly to her to go babbie and felice exchange glances as felice exits, gavin pulls himself together.)

      HALLIWELL. Not so fast, sir. Rintoul, I must ask you to make out the warrant for this man’s arrest.

      BABBIE. What?

      LORD RINTOUL. I wonder.

      BABBIE. What has he done?

      HALLIWELL (expecting approval of himself). Listen to this, Lady Barbara. It was he who prevented my seizing those weavers. It was he who blew the horn and roused the town. The woman he passed off as his wife was the gipsy, and he did it so that she might СКАЧАТЬ