Complete Poems and Plays (95 page)

But if they see you’re shamming they’ll have to take the hint.

[
Exit
]

A
moment
later.
L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
spreads
his
newspaper
over
his
face.
Enter
M
RS
. C
ARGHILL
.
She
sits
in
a
deckchair
nearby,
composes
herself
and
takes
out
her
knitting.

M
RS
. C
ARGHILL
[
after
a
pause
].
I hope I’m not disturbing you. I always sit here.

It’s the sunniest and most sheltered corner,

And none of the other guests have discovered it.

It was clever of you to find it so quickly.

What made you choose it?

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
[
throwing
down
newspaper
]
.
My daughter chose it.

She noticed that it seemed to offer the advantages

Which you have just mentioned. I am glad you can confirm them.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Oh, so that
is
your daughter — that very charming girl?

And obviously devoted to her father.

I was watching you both in the dining-room last night.

You are the great Lord Claverton, aren’t you?

Somebody said you were coming here —

It’s been the topic of conversation.

But I couldn’t believe that it would really happen!

And now I’m sitting here talking to you.

Dear me, it’s astonishing, after all these years;

And you don’t even recognise me! I’d know you anywhere.

But then, we’ve all seen your portrait in the papers

So often. And everybody knows
you.
But still,

I wish you could have paid
me
that compliment, Richard.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
What!

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
                Don’t you know me yet?

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
                                                    I’m afraid not.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
There were the three of us — Effie‚ Maudie and me.

That day we spent on the river — I’ve never forgotten it —

The turning point of all my life!

Now whatever were the names of those friends of yours

And which one was it invited us to lunch?

I declare, I’ve utterly forgotten their names.

And you gave us lunch — I’ve forgotten what hotel —

But such a good lunch — and we all went in a punt

On the river — and we had a tea basket

With some lovely little cakes — I’ve forgotten what you called them,

And you made me try to punt, and I got soaking wet

And nearly dropped the punt pole, and you all laughed at me.

Don’t you remember?

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
           Pray continue.

The more you remind me of, the better I’ll remember.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
And the three of us talked you over afterwards —

Effie and Maud and I. What a time ago it seems!

It’s surprising I remember it all so clearly.

You attracted me, you know, at the very first meeting —

I can’t think why, but it’s the way things happen.

I said ‘there’s a man I could follow round the world!’

But Effie it was — you know, Effie was very shrewd —

Effie it was said ‘you’d be throwing yourself away.

Mark my words’ Effie said, ‘if you chose to follow
that
man

He’d give you the slip: he’s not to be trusted.

That man is hollow’. That’s what she said.

Or did she say ‘yellow’? I’m not quite sure.

You do remember now, don’t you, Richard?

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Not the conversation you have just repeated.

That is new to me. But I do remember you.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Time has wrought sad changes in me, Richard.

I was very lovely once. So
you
thought,

And others thought so too. But as you remember,

Please, Richard, just repeat my name — just once:

The name by which you knew me. It would give me such a thrill

To hear you speak my name once more.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
                                      Your name was Maisie Batterson.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Oh, Richard, you’re only saying that to tease me.

You know I meant my stage name. The name by which you knew me.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Well, then, Maisie Montjoy.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
                                                   Yes. Maisie Montjoy.

I was Maisie Montjoy once. And you didn’t recognise me.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
You’ve changed your name, no doubt. And I’ve changed mine.

Your name now and here …

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
                           Is Mrs. John Carghill.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
You married, I suppose, many years ago?

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Many years ago, the first time. That didn’t last long.

People sometimes say: ‘Make one mistake in love,

You’re more than likely to make another’.

How true that is! Algy was a weakling,

But simple he was — not sly and slippery.

Then I married Mr. Carghill. Twenty years older

Than me, he was. Just what I needed.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Is he still living?

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
                                 He had a weak heart.

And he worked too hard. Have you never heard

Of Carghill Equipments? They make office furniture.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
I’ve never had to deal with questions of equipment.

I trust that the business was very successful …

I mean, that he left you comfortably provided for?

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Well, Richard, my doctor could hardly have sent me
here

If I wasn’t well off. Yes, I’m provided for.

But isn’t it strange that you and I

Should meet here at last? Here, of all places!

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
Why not, of all places? What I don’t understand

Is why you should take the first opportunity,

Finding me here, to revive old memories

Which I should have thought we both preferred to leave buried.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
There you’re wrong, Richard. Effie always said —

What a clever girl she was! — ‘he doesn’t understand women.

Any woman who trusted
him
would soon find that out’.

A man may prefer to forget all the women

He has loved. But a woman doesn’t want to forget

A single one of her admirers. Why, even a faithless lover

Is still, in her memory, a kind of testimonial.

Men live by forgetting — women live on memories.

Besides a woman has nothing to be ashamed of:

A man is always trying to forget

His own shabby behaviour.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
                    But we’d settled our account.

What harm was done? I learned my lesson

And you learned yours, if you needed the lesson.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
You refuse to believe that I was really in love with you!

Well, it’s natural that you shouldn’t want to believe it.

But you think, or try to think, that if I’d really suffered

I shouldn’t want to let you know who I am,

I shouldn’t want to come and talk about the past.

You’re wrong, you know. It’s both pain and pleasure

To talk about the past — about you and me.

These memories are painful — but I cherish them.

L
ORD
C
LAVERTON
.
If you had really been broken-hearted

I can’t see how you could have acted as you did.

M
RS.
C
ARGHILL
.
Who can say whether a heart’s been broken

Once it’s been repaired? But I know what you mean.

You mean that I would never have started an action

For breach of promise, if I’d really cared for you.

What sentimental nonsense! One starts an action

Simply because one must do
something.

Well, perhaps I shouldn’t have settled out of court.

My lawyer said: ‘I advise you to accept’,

‘Because Mr. Ferry will be standing for Parliament:

His father has political ambitions for him.

If he’s lost a breach of promise suit

Some people won’t want to appear as his supporters.’

He said: ‘What his lawyers are offering in settlement

Is twice as much as I think you’d be awarded.’

Effie was against it — she wanted you exposed.

But I gave way. I didn’t want to ruin you.

If I’d carried on, it might have ended your career,

And then you wouldn’t have become Lord Claverton.