Complete Poems and Plays (68 page)

He thought I should see the original Boltwell;

And besides, he thought that as I’m English

I ought to know the best way to handle a duke.

Besides that, we’ve got the casting director:

He’s looking for some typical English faces —

Of course, only for minor parts —

And I’ll help him decide what faces are typical.

J
ULIA
.
Peter, I’ve thought of a wonderful idea!

I’ve always wanted to go to California:

Couldn’t you persuade your casting director

To take us all over? We’re all very typical.

P
ETER.
No, I’m afraid …

C
ATERER’S
M
AN
.
               Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly!

J
ULIA
.
Oh, I forgot! I’d another surprise for you.

[
Enter
R
EILLY
]

I want you to meet Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly —

E
DWARD
.
We’re delighted to see him. But we
have
met before.

J
ULIA
.
Then if you know him already, you won’t be afraid of him.

You know, I was afraid of him at first:

He looks so forbidding …

R
EILLY
.
                                  My dear Julia,

You are giving me a very bad introduction —

Supposing that an introduction was necessary.

J
ULIA
.
My dear Henry, you are interrupting me.

L
AVINIA
.
If you can interrupt Julia, Sir Henry,

You are the perfect guest we’ve been waiting for.

R
EILLY
.
I should not dream of trying to interrupt Julia …

J
ULIA
.
But you’re both interrupting!

R
EILLY
.
                                                Who is interrupting now?

J
ULIA
.
Well, you shouldn’t interrupt my interruptions:

That’s really worse than interrupting.

Now my head’s fairly spinning. I must have a cocktail.

E
DWARD
.
[
To
R
EILLY
].
And will you have a cocktail?

R
EILLY
.
                                                                  Might I have a glass of water?

E
DWARD
.
Anything with it?

R
EILLY
.
                                   Nothing, thank you.

L
AVINIA
.
May I introduce Mr. Peter Quilpe?

Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly. Peter’s an old friend

Of my husband and myself. Oh, I forgot —

[
Turning
to
A
LEX
]

I rather assumed that you knew each other —

I don’t know why I should. Mr. MacColgie Gibbs.

A
LEX
.
Indeed, yes, we have met.

R
EILLY
.
                                          On several commissions.

J
ULIA
.
We’ve been having such an interesting conversation.

Peter’s just over from California

Where he’s something very important in films.

He’s making a film of English life

And he’s going to find parts for all of us. Think of it!

P
ETER
.
But, Julia, I was just about to explain —

I’m afraid I can’t find parts for anybody

In
this
film — it’s not my business;

And that’s not the way we do it.

J
ULIA
.
                                              But, Peter;

If you’re taking Boltwell to California

Why can’t you take me?

P
ETER
.
                                 We’re not taking Boltwell.

We reconstruct a Boltwell.

J
ULIA
.
                                      Very well, then:

Why not reconstruct
me
? It’s very much cheaper.

Oh, dear, I can see you’re determined not to have me:

So good-bye to my hopes of seeing California.

P
ETER
.
You know you’d never come if we invited you.

But there’s someone I wanted to ask about,

Who did really want to get into films,

And I always thought she could make a success of it

If she only got the chance. It’s Celia Coplestone.

She always wanted to. And now I could help her.

I’ve already spoken to Bela about her,

And I want to introduce her to our casting director.

I’ve got an idea for another film.

Can you tell me where she is? I couldn’t find her

In the telephone directory.

J
ULIA
.
                                     Not in the directory,

Or in any directory. You can tell them now, Alex.

L
AVINIA
.
What does Julia mean?

A
LEX
.
                                            I was about to speak of her

When you came in, Peter. I’m afraid you can’t have Celia.

P
ETER
.
Oh … Is she married?

A
LEX
.
                                       Not married, but dead.

L
AVINIA
.
Celia?

A
LEX
.
                 Dead.

P
ETER
.
                          Dead. That knocks the bottom out of it.

E
DWARD
.
Celia dead.

J
ULIA
.
                         You had better tell them, Alex,

The news that you bring back from Kinkanja.

L
AVINIA
.
Kinkanja? What was Celia doing in Kinkanja?

We heard that she had joined some nursing order …

A
LEX
.
She had joined an order. A very austere one.

And as she already had experience of nursing …

L
AVINIA
.
Yes, she had been a V.A.D. I remember.

A
LEX.
She was directed to Kinkanja,

Where there are various endemic diseases

Besides, of course, those brought by Europeans,

And where the conditions are favourable to plague.

E
DWARD
.
Go on.

A
LEX
.
                  It seems that there were three of them —

Three sisters at this station, in a Christian village;

And half the natives were dying of pestilence.

They must have been overworked for weeks.

E
DWARD
.
And then?

A
LEX
.
                        And then, the insurrection broke out

Among the heathen, of which I was telling you.

They knew of it, but would not leave the dying natives.

Eventually, two of them escaped:

One died in the jungle, and the other

Will never be fit for normal life again.

But Celia Coplestone, she was taken.

When our people got there, they questioned the villagers —

Those who survived. And then they found her body,

Or at least, they found the traces of it.

E
DWARD
.
But before that …

A
LEX
.
                                     It was difficult to tell.

But from what we know of local practices

It would seem that she must have been crucified

Very near an ant-hill.

L
AVINIA
.
                         But Celia! … Of all people …

E
DWARD
.
And just for a handful of plague-stricken natives

Who would have died anyway.

A
LEX
.
                                             Yes, the patients died anyway;

Being tainted with the plague, they were not eaten.

L
AVINIA
.
Oh, Edward, I’m so sorry — what a feeble thing to say!

But you know what I mean.

E
DWARD
.
                                  And you know what I’m thinking.

P
ETER
.
I don’t understand at all. But then I’ve been away

For two years, and I don’t know what happened

To Celia, during those two years.

Two years! Thinking about Celia.

E
DWARD
.
It’s the waste that I resent.

P
ETER
.
                                                   You know more than I do:

For
me
,
it’s everything else that’s a waste.

Two years! And it was all a mistake.

Julia! Why don’t
you
say anything?

J
ULIA
.
You gave her those two years, as best you could.

P
ETER
.
When did she … take up this career?

J
ULIA
.
                                                               Two years ago.

P
ETER
.
Two years ago! I tried to forget about her,

Until I began to think myself a success

And got a little more self-confidence;

And then I thought about her again. More and more.

At first I did not want to know about Celia

And so I never asked. Then I wanted to know

And did not dare to ask. It took all my courage

To ask you about her just now; but I never thought

Of anything like this. I suppose I didn’t know her,

I didn’t understand her. I understand nothing.

R
EILLY
.
You understand your
métier,
Mr. Quilpe —

Which is the most that any of us can ask for.