Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2013 page)

Anne.
To the railway. I must travel northward tonight. I have a friend who will meet me at the station. Which is the nearest way out of the park?

Wal. (aside).
Ought I to let her go?
(To
ANNE.) I am here on my way to the station. The evening is closing in. You had better let me show you the way.

Anne (aside).
Let him show me the way? That’s an excuse not to lose sight of me!
(To
WALTER.) No! You mustn’t come with me. I mustn’t be seen with you by my friend. Tell me the way, and let me go first. Quick! quick! I am running a dreadful risk for Miss Fairlie’s sake. The way out! the way out!

Wal. (aside).
I shall find her again at the station.
(To
ANNE.) Turn to the left on leaving this. Pass through the wicket-gate, turn to the right, and you will reach the high road. (ANNE
makes for the door.)
Are you sure you can find your way?

Anne.
Give Miss Fairlie my letter.
(She hurries out.)

Wal. (alone, looking at the letter. The sunset light
begins to fade.)
Suppose there should really be an obstacle to the marriage? Suppose the engagement should be broken off?
(With sudden resolution.)
Miss Fairlie shall have the letter this evening! I will leave it at the lodge as I go by. (COUNT FOSCO
appears at the window in the fading light.
WALTER
continues, having his back turned on the window.)
Shall I one day see these familiar walls again? What mad hopes has that woman raised in me! It’s time I followed her. I must go! I must go!

(He turns to go out, and sees
FOSCO
at the window.)

Fosco (taking off his hat).
Good evening, sir.

Wal. (to himself).
Who can this be?

Fosco (appearing at the door).
Which is the right way, if you please, to Limmeridge House?
(A momentary pause.
WALTER
looks at him, impressed — not favourably — by his personal appearance.
FOSCO
proceeds.)
I ask you the question, sir, as an expected guest. I am Count Fosco.

Wal. (aside).
The friend of Sir Percival Glyde!

Fosco (hearing him).
Exactly! I arrived at the lodge-gate with Sir Percival and Madame Fosco. They drove on in the carriage to the house. I got out, seduced by the beauty of the park, to wander, and look about me.

Wal. (aside, absorbed in his own thoughts).
Sir Percival has arrived!

Fosco (in a tone of good-humoured sarcasm).
Strange, such enthusiasm at my age, is it not? Bah! Old as I am, and fat as I am, there is poetry in my soul. Nature has imperishable charms, inextinguishable tendernesses, for me. I wander in this noble park — I bathe myself in the glorious light — the sublime lines of Dante, on the evening (you know them, of course?), burst in fervent declamation from my lips. Little by little, your modest English twilight steals over the scene. I start; I look round; I find myself lost like a Babe in the Wood. Pity a poor foreign baby, sir!

Wal.
You are on the right road here.
(He points out through the door towards the left.)
Follow the path through the shrubbery, and you will find yourself at the house.

Fosco.
A thousand thanks! You are going yourself to the house?

Wal.
On the contrary. I am on my way out of the park.

Fosco.
You have a letter in your hand. If it is for the house, can I take it?

Wal. (coldly).
I won’t trouble you. I have waited here too long already. Good evening.
(Aside, looking at
FOSCO.) If Count Fosco were to save my life, I couldn’t make a friend of him!

(He goes out, turning to the right.)

Fosco (alone, looking after
WALTER). A man who can resist the magnetic personal influence which I exercise over my fellow-creatures, is a man who piques my curiosity. That young gentleman is a problem that challenges me. I shall make it my business to solve him.

(ANNE CATHERICK
reappears at the door, approaching it from the left. She starts at the sight of
FOSCO,
and utters a fatal cry of alarm.)

Fosco (taking off his hat).
Enter, madam, I entreat you. There is nothing to be afraid of here.

Anne (looking round her timidly).
Where is he?

Fosco.
The young gentleman who was here just now? He is gone. Can I be of any use in his place?

Anne (confusedly).
I wanted to speak to him again. My head is sadly confused. I mistook the directions he gave me. I took the turning that leads to the house. Nobody saw me. If I could but get out of the park! Do you know the way, sir?

Fosco (eyeing her attentively).
I can easily find it out for you from one of the servants.

Anne.
No, no! don’t speak of me to anybody at the house. Ah!

(She puts her hand to her heart, with a cry of pain.)

Fosco (placing a chair for her).
Don’t agitate yourself. Have you a pain at the heart? Pardon me; I am something of a doctor; you look very ill.
(He lays his hand on her pulse, and continues, aside.)
The heart is worn out already. The woman is doomed!

Anne.
You seem to be a kind-hearted gentleman, sir —
 
—

Fosco.
My poor girl, you suffer! I overflow with kindness for poor girls who suffer.

Anne.
Could you tell me —
(she pauses, shuddering)
— is — is Sir Percival Glyde at the house?

Fosco (starting).
Percival! What does Percival’s name mean on those pale lips?
(To
ANNE,
paternally.)
I believe Sir Percival Glyde has arrived.

Anne.
It
was
his voice I heard!
(She seizes
FOSCO
by the arm in a paroxysm of terror.)
Hide me from him! hide me from him!

Fosco (insinuatingly).
Hide you? Why does Sir Percival frighten you in this way? Come, my poor girl, compose yourself, and tell me.

Anne.
I daren’t tell you.
(She rises.)
Don’t keep me! I must find my way out of the park!
(She starts, and points towards the door.)
There’s somebody coming. I’m certain of it this time. Oh, sir, don’t let them take me away!

Fosco (looking at her in alarm, and speaking to himself).
If I don’t quiet her she will die on the spot!
(To
ANNE.) Nobody shall hurt you. I — your friend — promise it.
(He looks round, and sees the door on the left.)
This way!
(He opens the door, and looks in.)
An empty room. You will be safe there. Nobody shall pass the door. (ANNE
goes in. He closes the door on her, returns to the middle of the room, and listens.)
She was right. I hear voices. Two men coming this way.
(Enter from the right, by the door at the back, two men, attendants at a lunatic asylum.
FOSCO
quietly addresses them.)
What do you want here?

First Man.
I beg your pardon, sir, do you happen to have seen a young woman wandering about by herself in the park? Dressed strangely, all in white?

Fosco (gravely).
I have seen no woman in white.

First Man.
If you should meet with her, sir, will you please to stop her, and send me word at that address?

(He places a card on the table.)

Fosco.
Why am I to stop her? What has she done?

First Man.
Done? She has escaped from my master’s asylum. Please to remember, a woman in white. Good evening, sir.

(The two men touch their hats to
FOSCO,
and go out as they came in, on the right.

Fosco (alone).
She has escaped from a lunatic asylum, and she shudders with terror if Percival’s name passes her lips. Plain conclusion, Percival has shut her up. And Percival has kept this episode in his life a secret from Me! Bad! bad! bad! My friend’s interests are my interests. My friend’s secrets must be my secrets too.
(He produces a large scarlet porte-monnaie.)
Here is my empty purse! It is the symbol of Percival’s purse. Our prospects depend alike on his marrying Miss Fairlie. If I fail to find my way to the confidence of that woman in there — as certainly as the night is coming, she will be the ruin of us both!

(He approaches the door on the left. At the same moment,
MISS HALCOMBE
is heard, speaking in the park.)

Mar. (outside).
This way, Sir Percival. We will look in at the Swiss summer-house first.

Fosco.
Percival is coming!
(He opens the door, and speaks rapidly into the room.)
Courage! Stay where you are. Trust me!

(He closes the door again, locking it, and putting the key in his pocket, and gains the middle of the room just as
SIR PERCIVAL GLIDE
and
MISS HALCOMBE
enter from the left, by the door at the back.)

Sir P.
Here he is! Fosco, your wife’s in a state of distraction at your absence Where have you been?

Fosco.
My good Percival, I have been losing my way in the park, nothing more.

(He bows to
MISS HALCOMBE.)

Mar. (to
FOSCO). Permit me, count, to introduce myself. I am Marian Halcombe, Miss Fairlie’s half-sister.
(She gives him her hand.)
Welcome to Limmeridge House.

Fosco (lifting her hand to his lips).
You are too good to me, Miss Halcombe!

Sir P. (roughly).
That’s more than I can say, Fosco. I am welcomed here by suspicion and mistrust. First, I find a hitch in the marriage settlements, a clause introduced by the family lawyer. Not a halfpenny of my wife’s money is to go to me if my wife dies first. I remark to Miss Halcombe, here, that it’s possible, in a matter of this kind, to be too hard on a man —
 
—

Mar. (to
FOSCO). And
I
remark to Sir Percival that it is
not
possible to be too hard on a man who marries for money.

Fosco.
Well answered, Miss Halcombe.
(Aside, looking at
SIR PERCIVAL.) The idiot is doing his best to break off his own marriage!