The Essential G. B. Shaw: Celebrated Plays, Novels, Personal Letters, Essays & Articles. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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СКАЧАТЬ Gower Street.”

      “It is mine, Polly. I owe Mr Jack four guineas; and I must pay him today. Don’t stare: I will tell you all about it afterwards. I have to thank him too, for getting me out of a great scrape. Mary: do you wish to see him?”

      “Well, I would rather not, “ said Mary slowly: “at least, I think it would be better not. But after all it can do no harm; and I suppose it would not be right for you to see him alone.”

      “Oh, never mind that,” said Magdalen suspiciously. “I can have Polly with me.”

      “If you had rather not have me present, I will go.”

      “Oh, I don’t care. Only you seemed to make some difficulty about it yourself.”

      “There can be no real difficulty, now that I come to consider it. Yet — I hardly know what I ought to do.”

      “You had better make up your mind,” said Magdalen impatiently.

      “Well, Madge, I have made up my mind,” said Mary, perching her spectacles and looking composedly at her friend. “I will stay.”

      “Very well.” Said Madge, not with a very good grace: “I suppose we must not go to Mr. Jack, so he had better come to us. Polly go and tell him that two ladies wish to see him.”

      “You had better say on business.” added Mary.

      “And don’t mention our names I want to see whether he will know me again.” said Magdalen. Mary looked hard at her.

      “D’ye really mean it, Miss Madge?”

      “Good gracious, yes!” replied Magdalen angrily.

      The landlady, after lingering a moment in doubt and wonder went out. Silence ensued. Magdalen’s color brightened; and she moved her chair to a place whence she could see herself in the mirror. Mary closed her lips, and sat motionless and rather pale. Not a word passed between them until the door opened abruptly and Jack, with his coat buttoned up to his chin, made a short step into the room. Recognizing Mary, he stopped and frowned.

      “How do you do, Mr Jack?* she said, bowing steadily to him. He bowed slightly, and looked around the room. Seeing Magdalen, he was amazed. She bowed too, and he gave her a scared nod.

      “Won’t you sit down, Mr Jack?” said the landlady, assuming the manner in which she was used to receive company.

      “Have you pawned that ring yet?” he said, turning suddenly to her.

      “No,” she retorted, scandalized.

      “Then give it back to me.” She did so; and he looked at Magdalen, saying, “You have come just in time.”

      “I came to thank you.”

      “You need not thank me. I was sorry afterwards for having helped a young woman to run away from her father. If I were not the most hotheaded fool in England, I should have stopped you. I hope no harm came of it.”

      “I am sorry to have caused you any uneasiness,” said Magdalen, coloring. “The young woman drove straight home after transacting some business that she wished to conceal from her father. That was all.”

      “So much the better. If I had known you were at home, I should have sent you your ring.”

      “My father expected you to write.”

      “I told him I would; but I thought better of it. I had nothing to tell him.”

      “You must allow me to repay you the sum you so kindly lent me that day, Mr. Jack,” said Magdalen in a lower voice, confusing herself by an unskilled effort to express gratitude by her tone and manner.

      “It will be welcome, he replied moodily. Magdalen slowly took out a new purse. “Give it to Mrs. Simpson,” he added, turning away. The movement brought him face to face with Mary, before whom his brow gathered portentously. She bore his gaze steadily, but could not trust herself to speak.

      “I have some further business, Mr Jack,” said Magdalen.

      “I beg your pardon,” said he, turning again towards her.

      “ Mrs. Simpson told me—”

      “Ah!” said he, interrupting her, and casting a threatening look at the landlady. “It was she who told you where I was located, was it?”

      “Well, I don’t see the harm if I did,” said Mrs. Simpson. “If you look on it as a liberty on my part to recommend you, Mr. Jack, I can easily stop doing it.”

      “Recommend me! What does she mean, Miss Brailsford — you are Miss Brailsford, are you not?”

      “Yes, I was about to say that Mrs Simpson told me that you gave — that is — I should perhaps explain first that I intend to go on the stage.”

      “What do you want to go on the stage for?”

      “The same as anybody else, I suppose,” said Mrs Simpson indignantly.

      “I wish to make it my profession,” said Magdalen.

      “Do you mean make your living by it?”

      “I hope so.”

      “Humph!”

      “Do you think I should have any chance of success?”

      “I suppose, if you have intelligence and perseverance, and can drudge and be compliant, and make stepping stones of your friends — but there! I know nothing about success. What have I got to do with it? Do you think, as your father did, that I am a theatrical agent?”

      “Well I must say, Mr. Jack,” exclaimed the landlady, “that those who try to befriend you get very little encouragement. I am right sorry, so I am, that I brought Miss Madge to ask you for lessons.”

      “Lessons!” said Jack. “Oh! I did not understand. Lessons in what? Music?”

      “No,” said Magdalen. “I wanted lessons in elocution and so forth. At least, I was told the other day that I did not know how to speak.”

      “Neither do you. That is true enough,” said Jack thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t profess to prepare people for the stage; but I can teach you to speak, if you have anything to say or any feeling for what better people put into your mouth.”

      “You are not very sanguine as to the result, I fear.”

      “The result, as far as it goes, is certain, if you practice. If not, I shall give you up. After all, there is no reason why you should not do something better than be a fine lady. Your appearance is good: all the rest can be acquired — except a genius for tomfoolery, which you must take your chance of. The public want actresses, because they think all actresses bad. They don’t want music or poetry because they know that both are good. So actors and actresses thrive, as I hope you will; and poets and composers starve, as I do. When do you wish to begin?”

      It was soon arranged that Magdalen should take lessons in Mrs Simpson’s sitting room, СКАЧАТЬ