The Red House Mystery and Other Novels. A. A. Milne
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу The Red House Mystery and Other Novels - A. A. Milne страница 38
Название: The Red House Mystery and Other Novels
Автор: A. A. Milne
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Контркультура
isbn: 9781456614010
isbn:
[Enter LADY FARRINGDON.]
LADY FARRINGDON. Oh, Gerald, I hoped you'd be here.
GERALD (kissing her). I've only just got away. I couldn't get round to the court. (Seeing her to the sofa) You're all right, dear? [Exit MASON.]
LADY FARRINGDON. Now you're here, Gerald. I telegraphed for Mason. She's such a comfort. How nicely she's done the flowers! (She sits down on the sofa.)
GERALD. I'm so glad you sent for her.
LADY FARRINGDON. I don't think your father--
[Enter SIR JAMES.]
SIR JAMES. Ah, Gerald, I had to take your mother out. She was--ah-- overcome. They have adjourned, I suppose?
GERALD. Yes. The judge is summing up directly after lunch. Bob will be round here when he's had something to eat.
SIR JAMES (looking at his watch). Well, I suppose we ought to try and eat something.
LADY FARRINGDON. I couldn't touch anything.
GERALD (going over to her). Poor mother!
LADY FARRINGDON. Oh, Gerald, couldn't _you_ do anything? I'm sure if you'd gone into the witness-box, or told the judge--Oh, why didn't you go to the Bar, and then you could have defended him. You would have been so much better than that stupid man.
SIR JAMES. I must say I didn't at all like his tone. He's practically making out my son to be an idiot.
GERALD. Well, it's really the only line he could take.
SIR JAMES. What do you mean? Bob is far from being an idiot.
LADY FARRINGDON. We always knew he wasn't as clever as Gerald, dear.
GERALD. You see, Bob either understood what was going on or he didn't. If he did, then he's in it as much as Marcus. If he didn't-- well, of course we know that he didn't. But no doubt the jury will think that he ought to have known.
SIR JAMES. The old story, a knave or a fool, eh?
GERALD. The folly was in sending him there.
SIR JAMES (angrily). That was Parkinson's fault. It was he who recommended Marcus to me. I shall never speak to that man again. (To his wife) Mary, if the Parkinsons call, you are out; remember that.
GERALD. He never ought to have gone into business at all. Why couldn't you have had him taught farming or estate agency or something?
SIR JAMES. We've got to move with the times, my boy. Land is played out as a living for gentlemen; they go into business nowadays. If he can't get on there, it's his own fault. He went to Eton and Oxford; what more does he want?
LADY FARRINGDON (to GERALD). You must remember he isn't clever like you, Gerald.
GERALD. Oh, well, it's no good talking about it now. Poor old Bob! Wentworth thinks--
SIR JAMES. Ah, now why couldn't Wentworth have defended him? That other man--why, to begin with, I don't even call him a gentleman.
GERALD. Wentworth recommended him. But I wish he had gone to Wentworth before, as soon as he knew what was coming.
SIR JAMES. Why didn't he come to _me_? Why didn't he come to _any_ of us? Then we might have done something.
LADY FARRINGDON. Didn't he even tell _you_, Gerald?
GERALD (awkwardly). Only just at the last. It was--it was too late to do anything then. It was the Saturday before he was--arrested. (To himself) "The Saturday before Bob was arrested"--what a way to remember anything by!
LADY FARRINGDON (to GERALD). Bob is coming round, dear?
GERALD. Yes. Wentworth's looking after him. Pamela will be here too.
SIR JAMES. We haven't seen much of Pamela lately. What does _she_ think about it?
GERALD (sharply). What do you mean?
SIR JAMES. The disgrace of it. I hope it's not going to affect your engagement.
GERALD. Disgrace? what disgrace?
SIR JAMES. Well, of course, he hasn't been found guilty yet.
GERALD. What's that got to do with it? What does it matter what a lot of rotten jurymen think of him? _We_ know that he has done nothing disgraceful.
LADY FARRINGDON. I'm sure Pamela wouldn't think anything like that of your brother, dear.
GERALD. Of course she wouldn't. She's been a perfect angel to Bob these last few weeks. What does it matter if he does go to prison?
SIR JAMES. I suppose you think I shall enjoy telling my neighbours, when they ask me what my elder boy is doing, that he's--ah--in prison.
GERALD. Of course you won't enjoy it, and I don't suppose Bob will enjoy it either, but that's no reason why we should make it worse for him by pretending that he's a disgrace to the family. (Half to himself) If anything we've done has helped to send him to prison then it's we who should be ashamed.
SIR JAMES. I don't profess to know anything about business, but I flatter myself that I understand my fellow men. If I had been in Bob's place, I should have pretty soon seen what that fellow Marcus was up to. I don't want to be unfair to Bob; I don't think that any son of mine would do a dishonourable action; but the Law is the Law, and if the Law sends Bob to prison I can't help feeling the disgrace of it.
GERALD. Yes, it's rough on you and mother.
LADY FARRINGDON. I don't mind about myself, dear. It's you I feel so sorry for--and Bob, of course.
GERALD. I don't see how it's going to affect _me_.
SIR JAMES. In the Foreign Office one has to be like Caesar's wife-- above suspicion.
GERALD. Yes, but in this case it's Caesar's brother-in-law's partner who's the wrong un. I don't suppose Caesar was so particular about _him_.
LADY FARRINGDON. I don't see how Caesar comes into it at all.
SIR JAMES (kindly). I spoke in metaphors, dear.
[The door opens and WENTWORTH appears.]
GERALD. СКАЧАТЬ