Man and Superman and Three Other Plays (70 page)

OCTAVIUS [
jumping down from the garden to the lawn and running to HECTOR's left hand]
I hope you'll shake hands with me before you go, Hector. I admire and respect you more than I can say. [He
is Greeted almost to tears as they shake hands
]
.

VIOLET
[also almost in tears, but of vexation]
Oh don't be an idiot, Tavy. Hector's about as fit to become a workman as you are.

TANNER [
rising from his chair on the other side of HECTOR
] Never fear: there's no question of his becoming a navvy, Mrs. Malone.
[To HECTOR]
There's really no difficulty about capital to start with. Treat me as a friend: draw on me.

OCTAVIUS [
impulsively
] Or on me.

MALONE [
with fierce jealousy
] Who wants your durty money? Who should he draw on but his own father? [
TANNER and OCTAVIUS recoil, OCTAVIUS rather hurt, TANNER consoled by the solution of the money difficulty. VIOLET looks up hopefully].
Hector: don't be rash, my boy. I'm sorry for what I said: I never meant to insult Violet: I take it all back. She's just the wife you want: there!

HECTOR
[patting him on the shoulder]
Well, that's all right, dad. Say no more: we're friends again. Only, I take no money from anybody.

MALONE [
pleading abjectly
] Don't be hard on me, Hector. I'd rather you quarrelled and took the money than made friends and starved. You don't know what the world is: I do.

HECTOR No, n o, NO. That's fixed: that's not going to change.
[He passes his father inexorably by, and goes to VIOLET].
Come, Mrs. Malone: you've got to move to the hotel with me, and take your proper place before the world.

VIOLET But I must go in, dear, and tell Davis to pack. Won't you go on and make them give you a room overlooking the garden for me? I'll join you in half an hour.

HECTOR Very well. You'll dine with us, Dad, won't you?

MALONE
[eager to conciliate him
] Yes, yes.

HECTOR See you all later.
[He waves his hand to ANN, who has now been joined by TANNER, OCTAVIUS, and RAMSDEN in the garden, and goes out through the little gate, leaving his father and VIOLET together on the lawn].

MALONE You'll try to bring him to his senses, Violet: I know you will.

VIOLET I had no idea he could be so headstrong. If he goes on like that, what can I do?

MALONE Don't be discurridged: domestic pressure may be slow; but it's sure. You'll wear him down. Promise me you will.

VIOLET I will do my best. Of course I think it's the greatest nonsense deliberately making us poor like that.

MALONE Of course it is.

VIOLET [
after a moment's reflection
] You had better give me the remittance. He will want it for his hotel bill. I'll see whether I can induce him to accept it. Not now, of course, but presently.

MALONE [
eagerly
] Yes, yes, yes: that's just the thing [he hands her
the thousand dollar bill, and adds cunningly]
Yunderstand that this is only a
bachelor
allowance.

VIOLET [
coolly
] Oh, quite. [
She takes it
]. Thank you. By the way, Mr. Malone, those two houses you mentioned—the abbeys.

MALONE Yes?

VIOLET Don't take one of them until I've seen it. One never knows what may be wrong with these places.

MALONE I won't. I'll do nothing without consulting you, never fear.

VIOLET
[politely, but without a ray of gratitude]
Thanks: that will be much the best way. [
She goes calmly back to the villa, escorted obsequiously by MALONE to the upper end of the garden
]
.

TANNER [
drawing RAMSDEN's attention
to
MALONE's cringing attitude as he takes leave of VIOLET]
And that poor devil is a billionaire! one of the master spirits of the age! Led in a string like a pug dog by the first girl who takes the trouble to despise him. I wonder will it ever come to that with me.
[He comes down to the lawn].

RAMSDEN [
following him
] The sooner the better for you.

MALONE
[slapping his hands as he returns through the garden]
That'll be a grand woman for Hector. I wouldn't exchange her for ten duchesses. [
He descends to the lawn and comes between TANNER and RAMSDEN
]
.

RAMSDEN [
very civil to the billionaire]
It's an unexpected pleasure to find you in this corner of the world, Mr. Malone. Have you come to buy up the Alhambra?

MALONE Well, I don't say I mightn't. I think I could do better with it than the Spanish government. But that's not what I came about. To tell you the truth, about a month ago I overheard a deal between two men over a bundle of shares. They differed about the price: they were young and greedy, and didn't know that if the shares were worth what was bid for them they must be worth what was asked, the margin being too small to be of any account, you see. To amuse meself, I cut in and bought the shares. Well, to this day I havn't found out what the business is. The office is in this town; and the name is Mendoza, Limited. Now whether Mendoza's a mine, or a steamboat line, or a bank or a patent article—

TANNER He's a man. I know him: his principles are thoroughly commercial. Let us take you round the town in our motor, Mr. Malone, and call on him on the way.

MALONE If you'll be so kind, yes. And may I ask who—

TANNER Mr. Roebuck Ramsden, a very old friend of your daughter-in-law.

MALONE Happy to meet you, Mr. Ramsden.

RAMSDEN Thank you. Mr. Tanner is also one of our circle.

MALONE Glad to know you also, Mr. Tanner.

TANNER Thanks. [
MALONE and RAMSDEN go out very amicably through the little gate. TANNER calls to OCTAVIUS, who is wandering in the garden with ANN]
Tavy!
[TAVY comes to the steps, TANNER whispers loudly to him
] Violet has married a financier of brigands. [
TANNER hurries away to overtake MALONE and RAMSDEN. ANN strolls to the steps with an idle impulse to torment OCTAVIUS
]
.

ANN Won't you go with them, Tavy?

OCTAVIUS
[tears suddenly flushing his eyes]
You cut me to the heart, Ann, by wanting me to go
[he comes down on the lawn to hide his face from her. She follows him caressingly].

ANN Poor Ricky Ticky Tavy! Poor heart!

OCTAVIUS It belongs to you, Ann. Forgive me: I must speak of it. I love you. You know I love you.

ANN What's the good, Tavy? You know that my mother is determined that I shall marry Jack.

OCTAVIUS [
amazed
] Jack!

ANN It seems absurd, doesn't it?

OCTAVIUS
[with growing resentment]
Do you mean to say that Jack has been playing with me all this time? That he has been urging me not to marry you because he intends to marry you himself?

ANN [
alarmed
] No no: you mustn't lead him to believe that I said that: I don't for a moment think that Jack knows his own mind. But it's clear from my father's will that he wished me to marry Jack. And my mother is set on it.

OCTAVIUS But you are not bound to sacrifice yourself always to the wishes of your parents.

ANN My father loved me. My mother loves me. Surely their wishes are a better guide than my own selfishness.

OCTAVIUS Oh, I know how unselfish you are, Ann. But believe me—though I know I am speaking in my own interest—there is another side to this question. Is it fair to Jack to marry him if you do not love him? Is it fair to destroy my happiness as well as your own if you can bring yourself to love me?

ANN [
looking at him with a faint impulse of pity
] Tavy, my dear, you are a nice creature—a good boy.

OCTAVIUS [
humiliated
] Is that all?

ANN [
mischievously in spite of her pity]
That's a great deal, I assure you. You would always worship the ground I trod on, wouldn't you?

OCTAVIUS I do. It sounds ridiculous; but it's no exaggeration. I do; and I always shall.

ANN Always is a long word, Tavy. You see, I shall have to live up always to your idea of my divinity; and I don't think I could do that if we were married. But if I marry Jack, you'll never be disillusioned—at least not until I grow too old.

OCTAVIUS I too shall grow old, Ann. And when I am eighty, one white hair of the woman I love will make me tremble more than the thickest gold tress from the most beautiful young head.

ANN [
quite touched
] Oh, that's poetry, Tavy, real poetry. It gives me that strange sudden sense of an echo from a former existence which always seems to me such a striking proof that we have immortal souls.

OCTAVIUS Do you believe that it is true?

ANN Tavy: if it is to come true, you must lose me as well as love me.

OCTAVIUS Oh!
[As hastily sits down at the little table and covers his face with his hands].

ANN [
with conviction
] Tavy: I wouldn't for worlds destroy your illusions. I can neither take you nor let you go. I can see exactly what will suit you. You must be a sentimental old bachelor for my sake.

OCTAVIUS [
desperately
] Ann: I'll kill myself.

ANN Oh no you won't: that wouldn't be kind. You won't have a bad time. You will be very nice to women; and you will go a good deal to the opera. A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

OCTAVIUS [
considerably cooled, but believing that he is only recovering his self-control
] I know you mean to be kind, Ann. Jack has persuaded you that cynicism is a good tonic for me. [He rises with
quiet dignity].

ANN
[studying him slyly
] You see, I'm disillusionizing you already. That's what I dread.

OCTAVIUS You do not dread disillusionizing Jack.

ANN
[her face lighting up with mischievous ecstasy—whispering
] I can't: he has no illusions about me. I shall surprise Jack the other way. Getting over an unfavorable impression is ever so much easier than living up to an ideal. Oh, I shall enrapture Jack sometimes!

OCTAVIUS
[resuming the calm phase of despair, and beginning to enjoy his broken heart and delicate attitude without knowing it]
I don't doubt that. You will enrapture him always. And he—the fool!—thinks you would make him wretched.

ANN Yes: that's the difficulty, so far.

OCTAVIUS [
heroically
] Shall
I
tell him that you love him?

ANN
[quickly]
Oh no: he'd run away again.

OCTAVIUS
[shocked]
Ann: would you marry an unwilling man?

ANN What a queer creature you are, Tavy! There's no such thing as a willing man when you really go for him. [
She laughs naughtily
]
.
I'm shocking you, I suppose. But you know you are really getting a sort of satisfaction already in being out of danger yourself.

OCTAVIUS [
startled
] Satisfaction! [
Reproachfully
] You say that to me!

ANN Well, if it were really agony, would you ask for more of it?

OCTAVIUS Have I asked for more of it?

ANN You have offered to tell Jack that I love him. That's self-sacrifice, I suppose; but there must be some satisfaction in it. Perhaps it's because you're a poet. You are like the bird that presses its breast against the sharp thorn to make itself sing.

OCTAVIUS It's quite simple. I love you; and I want you to be happy. You don't love me; so I can't make you happy myself; but I can help another man to do it.

ANN Yes: it seems quite simple. But I doubt if we ever know why we do things. The only really simple thing is to go straight for what you want and grab it. I suppose I don't love you, Tavy; but sometimes I feel as if I should like to make a man of you somehow. You are very foolish about women.

OCTAVILIS
[almost coldly
] I am content to be what I am in that respect.

ANN Then you must keep away from them, and only dream about them. I wouldn't marry you for worlds, Tavy.

OCTAVIUS I have no hope, Ann: I accept my ill luck. But I don't think you quite know how much it hurts.

ANN You are so softhearted! It's queer that you should be so different from Violet. Violet's as hard as nails.

OCTAVIUS Oh no. I am sure Violet is thoroughly womanly at heart.

ANN [
with some impatience]
Why do you say that? Is it unwomanly to be thoughtful and businesslike and sensible? Do you want Violet to be an idiot—or something worse, like me?

OCTAVIUS Something worse—like you! What do you mean, Ann?

ANN Oh well, I don't mean that, of course. But I have a great respect for Violet. She gets her own way always.

OCTAVIUS [
sighing
] So do you.

ANN Yes; but somehow she gets it without coaxing—without having to make people sentimental about her.

OCTAVIUS
[with brotherly callousness
] Nobody could get very sentimental about Violet, I think, pretty as she is.

ANN Oh yes they could, if she made them.

OCTAVIUS But surely no really nice woman would deliberately practise on men's instincts in that way.

ANN
[throwing up her hands
] Oh Tavy, Tavy, Ricky Ticky Tavy, heaven help the woman who marries you!

OCTAVIUS [
his passion reviving at the name
] Oh why, why, why do you say that? Don't torment me. I don't understand.

ANN Suppose she were to tell fibs, and lay snares for men?

OCTAVIUS Do you think
I
could marry such a woman—I, who have known and loved you?