Complete Poems and Plays (101 page)

And he’s offered me a job which is just what I wanted.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Yes, I see the advantage of a job created for you

By Señor Gomez …

M
ICHAEL
.
                     It’s not created for me.

Señor Gomez came to London to find a man to fill it,

And he thinks I’m just the man.

G
OMEZ
.
                                              Yes, wasn’t it extraordinary.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Of course you’re just the man that Señor Gomez wants,

But in a different sense, and for different reasons

From what you think. Let me tell you about Gomez.

He’s unlikely to try to be custodian of your morals;

His real name is Culverwell …

G
OMEZ
.
                                           My dear Dick,

You’re wasting your time, rehearsing ancient history.

Michael knows it already. I’ve told him myself.

I thought he’d better learn the facts from me

Before he heard your distorted version.

But, Dick, I was nettled by that insinuation

About my not being custodian of Michael’s morals.

That is just what I should be! And most appropriate,

Isn’t it, Dick, when we recall

That you were once custodian of
my
morals:

Though of course you went a little
f
aster
than I did.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
On that point, Fred, you’re wasting
your
time:

My daughter and my future son-in-law

Understand that allusion. I have told them the story

In explanation of our … intimacy

Which they found puzzling.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
                       Oh,Richard!

Have you explained to them our intimacy too?

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
I have indeed.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
                           The romance of my life.

Your father was simply
irresistible

In those days. I melted the first time he looked at me!

Some day, Monica, I’ll tell you all about it.

M
ONICA.
I am satisfied with what I know already, Mrs. Carghill,

About you.

M
RS
. C
ARGHILL
.
But I was very lovely then.

G
OMEZ
.
We are sure of that! You’re so lovely now

That we can well imagine you at … what age were you?

M
RS
. C
ARGHILL
.
Just eighteen.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
                    Now, Michael,

Señior Gomez says he has told you his story.

Did he include the fact that he served a term in prison?

M
ICHAEL
.
He told me everything. It was his experience

With you, that made him so understanding

Of my predicament.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
         And made him invent

The position which he’d come to find the man for.

M
ICHAEL
.
I don’t care about that. He’s offered me the job

With a jolly good screw, and some pickings in commissions.

He’s made a fortune there. San Marco for me!

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
And what are your duties to be? Do you know?

M
ICHAEL
.
We didn’t go into details. There’s time for that later.

G
OMEZ
.
Much better to wait until we get there.

The nature of business in San Marco

Is easier explained in San Marco than in England.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Perhaps you intend to change your name to Gomez?

G
OMEZ
.
Oh no, Dick, there are plenty of other good names.

M
ONICA
.
Michael, Michael, you can’t abandon your family

And your very self — it’s a kind of suicide.

C
HARLES
.
Michael, you think Señor Gomez is inspired by benevolence —

M
ICHAEL
.
I told you he’d come to London looking for a man

For an important post on his staff —

C
HARLES
.
A post the nature of which is left very vague

M
ICHAEL
.
It’s confidential, I tell you.

C
HARLES
.
                                                So I can imagine:

Highly confidential …

G
OMEZ
.
                             Be careful, Mr. Barrister.

You ought to know something about the law of slander.

Here’s Mrs. Carghill, a reliable witness.

C
HARLES
.
I know enough about the law of libel and slander

To know that you are hardly likely to invoke it.

And, Michael, here’s another point to think of:

Señor Gomez has offered you a post in San Marco,

Señor Gomez pays your passage …

M
ICHAEL
.
                                                And an advance of salary.

C
HARLES
.
Señor Gomez pays your passage …

G
OMEZ
.
                                                                 Just as many years ago

His father paid mine.

C
HARLES
.
                        This return of past kindness

No doubt gives you pleasure?

G
OMEZ
.
                                           Yes, it’s always pleasant

To repay an old debt. And better late than never.

C
HARLES
.
I see your point of view. Can you really feel confidence,

Michael, in a man who aims to gratify, through you,

His lifelong grievance against your father?

Remember, you put yourself completely in the power

Of a man you don’t know, of the nature of whose business

You know nothing. All you can be sure of

Is that he served a prison sentence for forgery.

G
OMEZ
.
Well, Michael, what do you say to all this?

M
ICHAEL
.
I’ll say that Hemington has plenty of cheek.

Señor Gomez and I have talked things over, Hemington …

G
OMEZ
.
As two men of the world, we discussed things very frankly;

And I can tell you, Michael’s head is well screwed on.

He’s got brains, he’s got flair. When he does come back

He’ll be able to buy you out many times over.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Richard, I think it’s time
I
joined the conversation.

My late husband, Mr. Carghill, was a business man —

I wish you could have known him, Señor Gomez!

You’re very much alike in some ways —

So I understand business. Mr. Carghill told me so.

Now, Michael has great abilities for business.

I saw that, and so does Señor Gomez.

He’s simply been suffering, poor boy, from frustration.

He’s been waiting all this time for opportunity

To make use of his gifts; and now, opportunity —

Opportunity has come knocking at the door.

Richard, you must not bar his way. That would be shameful.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
I cannot bar his way, as you know very well.

Michael’s a free agent. So if he chooses

To place himself in your power, Fred Culverwell,

Of his own volition to contract his enslavement,

I cannot prevent him. I have something to say to you,

Michael, before you go. I shall never repudiate you

Though you repudiate me. I see now clearly

The many many mistakes I have made

My whole life through, mistake upon mistake,

The mistaken attempts to correct mistakes

By methods which proved to be equally mistaken.

I see that your mother and I, in our failure

To understand each other, both misunderstood you

In our divergent ways. When I think of your childhood,

When I think of the happy little boy who was Michael,

When I think of your boyhood and adolescence,

And see how all the efforts aimed at your good

Only succeeded in defeating each other,

How can I feel anything but sorrow and compunction?

M
ONICA
.
Oh Michael, remember, you’re my only brother

And I’m your only sister. You never took much notice of me.

When we were growing up we seldom had the same friends.

I took all that for granted. So I didn’t know till now

How much it means to me to have a brother.

M
ICHAEL
.
Why of course, Monica. You know I’m very fond of you

Though we never really seemed to have much in common.

I remember, when I came home for the holidays

How it used to get on my nerves, when I saw you

Always sitting there with your nose in a book.

And once, Mother snatched a book away from you

And tossed it into the fire. How I laughed!

You never seemed even to want a flirtation,

And my friends used to chaff me about my highbrow sister.

But all the same, I was fond of you, and always shall be.

We don’t meet often, but if we’re fond of each other,

That needn’t interfere with your life or mine.

M
ONICA
.
Oh Michael, you haven’t understood a single word