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

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СКАЧАТЬ nurse, Goody Lindsay, Jenny, and she told me. When does Mrs. Ommaney come back?

      JENNY. I canna say. She just said she was going out to see a friend.

      MARGARET. I did not know she had friends here.

      JENNY. Nor I. (PROUDLY) And it’s no just a woman, it’s a man.

      MARGARET. But I am glad. Well, Jenny, you must put up with my company until Mr. Digby comes for me.

      JENNY. Is HE coming?

      MARGARET. I dropped him at the station and the arrangement was that he should pick me up at Goody’s; but he was sure to know her house by the carriage at the door, so when he sees it at your door —

      JENNY. He’ll think this is Goody’s. That grand man coming here! (GOING HURRIEDLY.)

      MARGARET. Where are you going, Jenny?

      JENNY. To put on my diamond necklace!

      MARGARET. Come back. He will prefer you as you are.

      JENNY. Not him, ma’am. I ken men better than that.

      MARGARET. Come, I want to talk to you. How is your mother?

      JENNY (VERY OLD-FASHIONED). She’s just about the same, ma’am, there about it, off and on, nothing to boast of, ma’am, and nothing to complain of. She’s helping at the postoffice. The postmistress has the neuralgy again so mother’s there helping.

      MARGARET. And you are left in charge?

      (JENNY nods.)

      You like your lodger?

      JENNY (CARELESSLY). Yes. (ECSTATICALLY) But the baby! Oh, oh!

      MARGARET. Baby? Has Mrs. Ommaney a baby?

      JENNY. Oh, ma’am, of all the babies! (RUNS TO BEDROOM DOOR AND CALLS IN) Eat you, I’ll eat you! She’s sound, miss — I mean, ma’am. Sometimes she sleeps and sometimes she wakes up — I never see such a baby!

      MARGARET. Poor fatherless child. Was Mrs. Ommaney unwell when she came home yesterday?

      JENNY. She was terrible excited, but she locked herself up in her room and I never saw her. But I heard her — even after I was in my bed I heard her walking up and down, up and down, and I was feared in case in the morning she would be like — like she was that other time. (SHUDDERS.)

      MARGARET. What other time?

      JENNY (STILL QUAKING). Dinna ask, ma’am! And she was quiet this morning and telled me she was going out to call on a friend, a gentleman. Oh, ma’am, when she comes back I hope she winna be like — like she was that once. (QUAKES.)

      MARGARET. Jenny, what WAS that other time? You are shaking.

      JENNY. So did she! Oh, if you had seen how she shook!

      MARGARET. Tell me — I insist.

      JENNY. You winna tell my mother? I promised Mrs. Ommaney no to tell her.

      MARGARET. But why?

      JENNY. Because mother would be feared and send her away, and then I should lose baby.

      MARGARET. Very well.

      JENNY. It was a week ago, ma’am — the third night after she came here. She had been out wandering all day on the cliffs and round by the Lover’s Seat.

      MARGARET. Ah, I know why she goes there.

      JENNY. And she came in at dusk terrible excited. Then about an hour after — ah!

      MARGARET. Go on.

      JENNY. She was sitting in the bedroom before her lookingglass and I was brushing out her hair. But by-and-by I noticed she was shaking and I said, ‘What makes you shake?’ But she never spoke and I looked up — and saw her face in the lookingglass. Oh, ma’am, it wasna the face of a sane woman!

      MARGARET. Jenny!

      JENNY. She spoke to hersel’, ma’am, first wi’ a wild, suspicious face and then so sweet and pretty and she said kind things to me — but she didna ken me nor where she was.

      MARGARET. How did it end?

      JENNY. She lay doun on the bed saying words like ‘Love’ and ‘Darling.’ MARGARET. Ah, her husband!

      JENNY. And then she fell asleep for an hour and when she woke she was just as sane as you or me. She said, ‘Why did I lie down, Jenny?’ MARGARET. You told her?

      JENNY. Yes, and it made her cry and wring her hands. She said she had just twice in her life been like that before and it never lasted above an hour.

      MARGARET. Poor woman.

      JENNY. If she should be like that again!

      MARGARET (SOOTHING HER). No, no, we must look on the bright side. We must hope for the best. Don’t tremble — what can I do to make you happy again?

      JENNY. Maybe, if I was to put on my diamond necklace?

      MARGARET (SHAKING HEAD AT HER). Well, off you go.

      JENNY. And if baby cries, will you call me? (LOOKS IN AT BEDROOM DOOR.) Well, I never, if she hasna woke up again. Oh, the wonder!

      MARGARET. You little mother! Jenny, the best I can wish you is that when you are married you may have as many children as the little old woman who lived in a shoe.

      JENNY (IN A TRANSPORT OF DELIGHT). Oh, ma’am!

      (Exit JENNY, MARGARET, left alone, is very conscious of her wedding ring. She kisses it gleefully. Then stretches out arm and gazes at ring, then tries to avert her head; then peeps at ring over her shoulder, then determinedly covers left hand with right, then can’t resist another peep, then kisses ring again and runs to bedroom door.)

      MARGARET (peeping in at bedroom). be! baby! I am coming in to see you. Mrs. Paul Digby presents her compliments to Miss Ommaney and may she come in and hug her?

      (She enters bedroom, leaving door partly open, jenny reappears wearing necklace of glass of which she is very proud, and listens.)

      Poor little spinster. There, I was a spinster once myself, baby; but it is so long, long ago, that I have quite forgotten what it was like.

      JENNY. And it was only yesterday!

      MARGARET (CALLING). Jenny, you are listening! Go away!

      (EXIT jenny HURRIEDLY.)

      (TO BABY) She was listening, the naughty Jenny! My watch? Oh, yes, you can eat my watch. No, let me put it to your ear. Now listen. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

      (Enter MRS. ommaney in cloak and bonnet; she looks sullen and disappointed; lets cloak drop on table, hangs bonnet up in cupboard; coming back to table, sees her cloak on it and flings it to back of stage, sits down by fire wearily.) I hear Jennie again. I shall shut the door, baby, СКАЧАТЬ