Complete Poems and Plays (37 page)

That was just about a year ago, wasn’t it?

Do you think that I ought to mention it now?

It seems to me too late.

A
MY
.
                                 Much too late.

If he wants to talk about it, that’s another matter;

But I don’t believe he will. He will wish to forget it.

I do not mince matters in front of the family:

You can call it nothing but a blessed relief.

V
IOLET
,
I
call it providential.

I
VY
.
                                         Yet it must have been shocking,

Especially to lose anybody in
that
way —

Swept off the deck in the middle of a storm,

And never even to recover the body.

C
HARLES
.
‘Well-known Peeress Vanishes from Liner’.

G
ERALD
.
Yes, it’s odd to think of her as permanently
missing.

V
IOLET.
Had she been drinking?

A
MY
.
                                            I would never ask him.

I
VY
.
These things are much better not enquired into.

She may have done it in a fit of temper.

G
ERALD
.
I never met her.

A
MY
.
                                  I am very glad you did not.

I am very glad that none of you ever met her.

It will make the situation very much easier

And is why I was so anxious you should all be here.

She never would have been one of the family,

She never wished to be one of the family,

She only wanted to keep him to herself

To satisfy her vanity. That’s why she dragged him

All over Europe and half round the world

To expensive hotels and undesirable society

Which she could choose herself. She never wanted

Harry’s relations or Harry’s old friends;

She never wanted to fit herself to Harry,

But only to bring Harry down to her own level.

A restless shivering painted shadow

In life, she is less than a shadow in death.

You might as well all of you know the truth

For the sake of the future. There can be no grief

And no regret and no remorse.

I would have prevented it if I could. For the sake of the future:

Harry is to take command at Wishwood

And I hope we can contrive his future happiness.

Do not discuss his absence. Please behave only

As if nothing had happened in the last eight years.

G
ERALD
.
That will be a little difficult.

V
IOLET
.
                                                  Nonsense, Gerald!

You must see for yourself it’s the only thing to do.

A
GATHA
.
Thus with most careful devotion

Thus with precise attention

To detail, interfering preparation

Of that which is already prepared

Men tighten the knot of confusion

Into perfect misunderstanding,

Reflecting a pocket-torch of observation

Upon each other’s opacity

Neglecting all the admonitions

From the world around the corner

The wind’s talk in the dry holly-tree

The inclination of the moon

The attraction of the dark passage

The paw under the door.

C
HORUS
(I
VY
, V
IOLET
, G
ERALD
and
C
HARLES
).
Why do we feel embarrassed, impatient, fretful, ill at ease,

Assembled like amateur actors who have not been assigned their parts?

Like amateur actors in a dream when the curtain rises, to find themselves dressed for a different play, or having rehearsed the wrong parts,

Waiting for the rustling in the stalls, the titter in the dress circle, the laughter and catcalls in the gallery?

C
HARLES
.
I might have been in St. James’s Street, in a comfortable chair rather nearer the fire.

I
VY
.
I might have been visiting Cousin Lily at Sidmouth, if I had not had to come to this party.

G
ERALD
.
I might have been staying with Compton-Smith, down at his place in Dorset.

V
IOLET
.
I should have been helping Lady Bumpus, at the Vicar’s American Tea.

C
HORUS
.
Yet we are here at Amy’s command, to play an unread part in some monstrous farce, ridiculous in some nightmare pantomime.

A
MY
.
What’s that? I thought I saw someone pass the window.

What time is it?

C
HARLES
.
              Nearly twenty to seven.

A
MY
.
John should be here now, he has the shortest way to come.

John at least, if not Arthur. Hark, there is someone coming:

Yes, it must be John.

[
Enter
H
ARRY
]

Harry!

[H
ARRY
stops
suddenly
at
the
door
and
stares
at
the
window
]

I
VY
.
Welcome, Harry!

G
ERALD
.
Well done!

V
IOLET
.
Welcome home to Wishwood!

C
HARLES
.
Why, what’s the matter?

A
MY
.
Harry, if you want the curtains drawn you should let me ring for Denman.

H
ARRY
.
How can you sit in this blaze of light for all the world to look at?

If you knew how you looked, when I saw you through the window!

Do you like to be stared at by eyes through a window?

A
MY
.
You forget, Harry, that you are at Wishwood,

Not in town, where you have to close the blinds.

There is no one to see you but our servants who belong here.

And who all want to see you back, Harry.

H
ARRY
.
Look there, look there: do you see them?

G
ERALD
.
No, I don’t see anyone about.

H
ARRY
.
                                                   No, no, not there. Look there!

Can’t you see them?
You
don’t see them, but I see them,

And they see me. This is the first time that I have seen them.

In the Java Straits, in the Sunda Sea,

In the sweet sickly tropical night, I knew they were coming.

In Italy, from behind the nightingale’s thicket,

The eyes stared at me, and corrupted that song.

Behind the palm trees in the Grand Hotel

They were always there. But I did not
see
them.

Why should they wait until I came back to Wishwood?

There were a thousand places where I might have met them!

Why here? why here?

Many happy returns of the day, mother.

Aunt Ivy, Aunt Violet, Uncle Gerald, Uncle Charles. Agatha.

A
MY
.
We are very glad to have you back, Harry.

Now we shall all be together for dinner.

The servants have been looking forward to your coming:

Would you like to have them in after dinner

Or wait till tomorrow? I am sure you must be tired.

You will find everybody here, and everything the same.

Mr. Bevan — you remember — wants to call tomorrow

On some legal business, a question about taxes —

But I think you would rather wait till you are rested.

Your room is all ready for you. Nothing has been changed.

H
ARRY
.
Changed? nothing changed? how can you say that nothing is changed?

You all look so withered and young.

G
ERALD
.
                                                 We must have a ride tomorrow.

You’ll find you know the country as well as ever.

There wasn’t an inch of it you didn’t know.

But you’ll have to see about a couple of new hunters.

C
HARLES
.
And I’ve a new wine merchant to recommend you;

Your cellar could do with a little attention.

I
VY
.
And you’ll really have to find a successor to old Hawkins.

It’s really high time the old man was pensioned.

He’s let the rock garden go to rack and ruin,

And he’s nearly half blind. I’ve spoken to your mother

Time and time again: she’s done nothing about it

Because she preferred to wait for your coming.

V
IOLET
.
And time and time again I have spoken to your mother

About the waste that goes on in the kitchen.

Mrs. Packell is too old to know what she is doing.

It really needs a man in charge of things at Wishwood.

A
MY
.
You see your aunts and uncles are very helpful, Harry.

I have always found them forthcoming with advice

Which I have never taken. Now it is your business.

I have only struggled to keep Wishwood going

And to make no changes before your return.

Now it’s for you to manage. I am an old woman.

They can give me no further advice when I’m dead.

I
VY
.
Oh, dear Amy!

No one wants you to die, I’m sure!

Now that Harry’s back, is the time to think of living.

H
ARRY
.
Time and time and time, and change, no change!

You all of you try to talk as if nothing had happened,

And yet you are talking of nothing else. Why not get to the point

Or if you want to pretend that I am another person —

A person that you have conspired to invent, please do so