Belinda | Page 3

being sent away to school, did you? It is the usual thing, you know.
DELIA. Silly mother! of course it is.
BELINDA (relieved, and sitting on deck-chair). I'm so glad you think so too.
DELIA. Have you been very lonely without me?
BELINDA (with a sly look at DELIA). Very.
DELIA (turning to BELINDA and holding up a finger). The truth, mummy!
BELINDA. I've missed you horribly, Delia. (Primly.) The absence of female companionship of the requisite--
DELIA. Are you really all alone?
BELINDA (smiling mysteriously and coyly). Well, not always, of course.
DELIA (excitedly, at she slips off the table, and backing to L. a little). Mummy, I believe you're being bad again.
BELINDA. Really, darling, you forget that I'm old enough to be--in fact, am--your mother.
DELIA (nodding her head). You are being bad.
BELINDA (rising with dignity and drawing herself up to her full height, moving L.). My child, that is not the way to--Oh, I say, what a lot taller I am than you! (Turning her back to DELIA and comparing sizes.)
DELIA. And prettier.
BELINDA (playfully rubbing noses with DELIA). Oh, do you think so? (Firmly, but pleased.) Don't be silly, child.
DELIA (holding up a finger). Now tell me all that's been happening here at once.
BELINDA (with a sigh). And I was just going to ask you how you were getting on with your French. (Sits in deck-chair.)
DELIA. Bother French! You've been having a much more interesting time than I have, so you've got to tell.
BELINDA (with a happy sigh). O-oh! (She sinks back into her chair.)
DELIA (taking off her coat). Is it like the Count at Scarborough?
BELINDA (surprised and pained). My darling, what do you mean?
DELIA. Don't you remember the Count who kept proposing to you at Scarborough? I do. (Places coat on hammock.)
BELINDA (reproachfully). Dear one, you were the merest child, paddling about on the beach and digging castles.
DELIA (smiling to herself). I was old enough to notice the Count.
BELINDA (sadly). And I'd bought her a perfectly new spade! How one deceives oneself!
DELIA (at table and leaning across, with hands on table). And then there was the M.P. who proposed at Windermere.
BELINDA. Yes, dear, but it wasn't seconded--I mean he never got very far with it.
DELIA. And the artist in Wales.
BELINDA. Darling child, what a memory you have. No wonder your teachers are pleased with you.
DELIA (settling herself comfortably in deck-chair L. of BELINDA and lying in her arms). Now tell me all about this one.
BELINDA (meekly). Which one?
DELIA (excitedly). Oh, are there lots?
BELINDA (severely). Only two.
DELIA. Two! You abandoned woman!
BELINDA. It's something in the air, darling. I've never been in Devonshire in April before.
DELIA. Is it really serious this time?
BELINDA (pained). I wish you wouldn't say this time, Delia. It sounds so unromantic. If you'd only put it into French--cette fois--it sounds so much better. Cette fois. (Parentally.) When one's daughter has just returned from an expensive schooling in Paris, one likes to feel-----
DELIA. What I meant, dear, was, am I to have a stepfather at last?
BELINDA. Now you're being too French, darling.
DELIA. Why, do you still think father may be alive?
BELINDA. Why not? It's only eighteen years since he left us, and he was quite a young man then.
DELIA. Yes, but surely, surely you'd have heard from him in all those years, if he'd been alive?
BELINDA. Well, he hasn't heard from me, and I'm still alive.
DELIA (looking earnestly at her mother, rises and moves L.C.). I shall never understand it.
BELINDA. Understand what?
DELIA. Were you as heavenly when you were young as you are now?
BELINDA (rapturously). Oh, I was sweet!
DELIA. And yet he left you after only six months.
BELINDA (rather crossly, sitting up). I wish you wouldn't keep on saying he left me. I left him too.
DELIA (running to and kneeling in front of BELINDA and looking anxiously into her face). Why?
BELINDA (smiling to herself). Well, you see, he was quite certain he knew how to manage women, and I was quite certain I knew how to manage men. (Thoughtfully.) If only one of us had been certain, it would have been all right.
DELIA (seriously). What really happened, mummy? I'm grown up now, so I think you ought to tell me.
BELINDA (thoughtfully). That was about all, you know ... except for his beard.
DELIA. Had he a beard? (Laughing.) How funny!
BELINDA (roaring with laughter, in which DELIA joins). Yes, dear, it was; but he never would see it. He took it quite seriously.
DELIA. And did you say dramatically, "If you really loved me, you'd take it off"?
BELINDA (apologetically). I'm afraid I did, darling.
DELIA. And what did he say?
BELINDA. He said--very rudely--that, if I loved him, I'd do my hair in a different way.
DELIA (sinks down on her haunches, facing the audience). How ridiculous!
BELINDA (touching her hair). Of course, I didn't do it like this then. I suppose we never ought to have married, really.
DELIA. Why did you?
BELINDA.