Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2052 page)

MID. (
taking up his letters at the table
).

Are you for a walk to the post-office, Allan?

ALLAN.

I am afraid I must go back to the yacht.

MID. (
stopping on his way out.
)

The yacht? What did you tell me just now about this new vessel of yours?

ALLAN.

I told you I had picked up a crew and got the vessel ready for sea.

MID.

An English crew?

ALLAN.

No. The English crew were all paid off before I got to Naples.

MID.

You don’t mean that you have engaged a Neapolitan crew?

ALLAN.

I had no other choice. There were no Englishmen to be got. Don’t you be afraid! They are dirty, but they will do. I have had the help of a most invaluable fellow in picking them out.

MID.

A foreigner?

ALLAN.

Yes.

MID.

And a stranger?

ALLAN.

Yes. He was standing by, and he saw the trouble I had in making the men understand me. He offered to interpret. Of course I accepted the offer. “You seem to know a sailor when you see him,” I said. “Are you used to the sea?” “I have been used to the sea half my life,” says he. One thing led to another, and when he came on board the next day he brought his testimonials with him. What do you think? It turned out that he had been a naval officer in his time!

MID.

A naval officer reduced to offer his services to you as interpreter?

ALLAN.

Oh, the poor devil has had all sorts of misfortunes! But poverty isn’t a crime, you know, and testimonials speak for themselves. I am going to try him as my sailing-master.

MID.

You are going to put a perfect stranger in command of your yacht?

ALLAN.

Only on approval. I have been cautious, I can tell you! I am going to try the yacht about the bay for a couple of days, just to get her trim before the cruise. If we suit each other, it is understood that I only engage the new sailing-master after that.

MID. (
with sudden resolution
).

You said you were going to the yacht. I will go with you.

ALLAN.

That’s right! But I thought you had business of your own?

MID. (
gravely
).

My business can wait. I want to satisfy myself that you are running no unnecessary risks.

ALLAN (
amused by his anxiety
).

Hadn’t you better wrap me up in cotton wool, and put a glass case over me at once?

MID. (
seriously
).

Allan! do you remember the old times at Thorpe-Ambrose?

ALLAN.

Of course I do!

MID.

When you persuaded me to stay with you, and when I accepted all that your kindness offered, I had but one advantage to offer you in return — the devotion of my life. New interests have sprung up, new duties have claimed me, since that time. But what I promised my friend then I promised him for life. Come to the yacht!

ALLAN.

What a good fellow you are!

MID.

Shall we find the sailing-master on board?

ALLAN.

Yes, unless we miss him in the street. I told him to call here if he wanted to see me before I got back to the vessel.

MID.

You told him to call here!

ALLAN.

My dear fellow, he is presentable anywhere, though he
is
rather poorly dressed. He was at the Opera last night, and he saw you and your wife in your box. He did nothing all the evening but look at Mrs. Midwinter. Even
you
must admit that he is a man of taste after that!

MID. (
a little impatiently
).

Did you appoint a time with him?

ALLAN.

No.

MID.

Let us take our chance then of finding him on board.

(
Enter
MISS G.
from her room. She stands for a moment at her own door observing
MID.
and
ALLAN.)

ALLAN (
whispering to
MID.)

Your wife is jealous of me already. Don’t tell her you are coming on board the yacht.

MISS G. (
aside, looking at
ALLAN).

Whispering to my husband! (
Advancing and addressing
MID.) I thought, love, you were going to ask about the conveyances to Capua?

MID.

I am going, my dear, I am going.

MISS G.

Does Mr. Armadale accompany you?

ALLAN.

I am going on board my yacht.

MISS G. (
to
MID.)

You will come back soon?

MID.

In half an hour — in less, if I can manage it. (
He kisses her.
) Now, Allan! (
They go out together on the left.
)

MISS G. (
alone
).

What has Armadale been saying about me behind my back? Nothing, or I should have seen it in my husband’s face. And yet! and yet! (
She seats herself, and pauses, thinking.
) Oh, me! is the blessed peace of mind that some women know, never to be mine again? I have tried so hard to be worthy of my husband! I have loved, honoured, and obeyed him! I have done all but confess to him the miserable story of the past! (
She rises, and paces backwards and forwards impatiently.
) Why does the kiss he has left on my lips burn me with the guilty sense of my own deceit? One fault — committed when I was so innocent and so young; repented so bitterly and so truly — and it pursues me like the vengeance of heaven!
Any
words may tell my husband how he has been deceived.
No
words can tell him how he is loved! I mustn’t think of it! I mustn’t think of it! (
She approaches the sofa, and impatiently brushes away the ashes left by
ALLAN’S
cigar.
) Armadale’s filthy cigar. How I hate him! how I hate him! (
She looks round the room wearily.
) What can I do to take me out of myself? I’ll play. (
As she seats herself at the piano a man’s voice is heard from the street outside, singing the opening bars of the serenade in “Don Pasquale,” then pausing for a moment. MISS G. speaks during the pause.
) Music again in the street! The opera we heard last night! (
The voice resumes and pauses again. MISS G. rises in sudden terror.
) The voice sounds familiar to me! There is something in it I seem to know! (
With a gesture of horror.
) Oh, no, no — impossible! I’ll play — I’ll play. (
She goes back to the piano, stops, suddenly rushes to the window, looks out, and returns.
) My fancy is playing me strange tricks to-day. Some idle fellow singing as he went by; and I half thought it was —
 
— (
She stops, shuddering.
) His very name chokes me!

(
Enter
LOUISA
on the left.
)

LOUISA.

There is somebody below, ma’am, who wants to see you.

MISS G.

A lady or a gentleman?

LOUISA.

A gentleman, I suppose.

MISS G.

You suppose?

LOUISA.

A gentleman — not very well dressed.

MISS G.

Did he ask for me by name?

LOUISA.

He asked first for Mr. Armadale, and then he asked for the lady of the house.

MISS G. (
aside
).

Suspense is worse than the worst certainty. (
To
LOUISA.) Show him in.

(LOUISA
retires, holds the door open from within, and closes it after the visitor.
)

(
Enter
CAPTAIN MANUEL.)

MISS G. (
starting back with a cry
).

Manuel!

MANUEL (
coolly
).

Certainly. I announced myself to you, musically, in the street. What are you surprised at?

MISS G.

Here? In my husband’s house? (
She falls into a chair.
) Oh, this is too horrible!

MANUEL.

What reception is this for a man once dear to you? An officer in the Brazilian Navy! A patriot in exile! A gentleman under a cloud! Is this my welcome? After all I have suffered too? Shameful! shameful!

MISS G.

Suffered! He talks of what he has suffered, and talks of it before
me!

MANUEL.

Certainly before
you.
I invite the first person who passes in the street to look at me and to look at you, and then to say which has suffered most! You are handsomer than ever, you are beautifully dressed, you are living in superb apartments, you have got (
seating himself on a chair by the table on which the newspaper lies
) one of the most heavenly chairs I ever sat in. So much for
you.
Now look at
me!
I have got hollows in my cheeks, I have go tubercles on my lungs, I am without linen — do you hear that? an officer and a patriot with nothing under
this
(
striking his breast, and melting into tears
) but a morsel of flannel, an inflamed mucous membrane, and a broken heart. And there she sits, and doesn’t pity me!

MISS G.

What can I say? What can I do? Base even as I knew him to be, he is doubly degraded since I saw him last! (
To
MANUEL,
with a shudder of disgust.
) Why do you come here? I insist on knowing.

MANUEL.

I come here by appointment, to see Mr. Armadale.

MISS G. (
amazed and terrified
).

What! you and Armadale know each other?

MANUEL.

Know each other? I look on Mr. Armadale as my rich brother. I am already sailing-master of his yacht.

MISS G. (
starting to her feet in horror
).