Dear Brutus | Page 8

never-to-be-forgotten day when we first met,
you and I!
JOANNA (fluttering nearer to him.) That tragic, lovely day by the weir.
Oh, Jack!
PURDIE. Do you know how in gratitude I spent the rest of that day?
JOANNA (crooning). Tell me.
PURDIE. I read to Mabel aloud for an hour. I did it out of kindness to
her, because I had met you.
JOANNA. It was dear of you.
PURDIE. Do you remember that first time my arms--your waist--you
are so fluid, Joanna. (Passionately.) Why are you so fluid?
JOANNA (downcast). I can't help it, Jack.
PURDIE. I gave her a ruby bracelet for that.
JOANNA. It is a gem. You have given that lucky woman many lovely
things.
PURDIE. It is my invariable custom to go straight off and buy Mabel
something whenever you have been sympathetic to me. Those new
earrings of hers--they are in memory of the first day you called me Jack.
Her Paquin gown--the one with the beads--was because you let me kiss
you.

JOANNA. I didn't exactly let you.
PURDIE. No, but you have such a dear way of giving in.
JOANNA. Jack, she hasn't worn that gown of late.
PURDIE. No, nor the jewels. I think she has some sort of idea now that
when I give her anything nice it means that you have been nice to me.
She has rather a suspicious nature, Mabel; she never used to have it, but
it seems to be growing on her. I wonder why, I wonder why?
(In this wonder which is shared by JOANNA their lips meet, and
MABEL, who has been about to enter from the garden quietly retires.)
JOANNA. Was that any one in the garden?
PURDIE (returning from a quest). There is no one there now.
JOANNA. I am sure I heard some one. If it was Mabel! (With a
perspicacity that comes of knowledge of her sex.) Jack, if she saw us
she will think you were kissing me.
(These fears are confirmed by the rather odd bearing of MABEL, who
now joins their select party.)
MABEL (apologetically). I am so sorry to interrupt you, Jack; but
please wait a moment before you kiss her again. Excuse me, Joanna.
(She quietly draws the curtains, thus shutting out the garden and any
possible onlooker.) I did not want the others to see you; they might not
understand how noble you are, Jack. You can go on now.
(Having thus passed the time of day with them she withdraws by the
door, leaving JACK bewildered and JOANNA knowing all about it.)
JOANNA. How extraordinary! Of all the--! Oh, but how contemptible!
(She sweeps to the door and calls to MABEL by name.)
MABEL (returning with promptitude). Did you call me, Joanna?

JOANNA (guardedly). I insist on an explanation. (With creditable
hauteur.) What were you doing in the garden, Mabel?
MABEL (who has not been so quiet all day). I was looking for
something I have lost.
PURDIE (hope springing eternal). Anything important?
MABEL. I used to fancy it, Jack. It is my husband's love. You don't
happen to have picked it up, Joanna? If so and you don't set great store
by it I should like it back--the pieces, I mean.
(MR. PURDIE is about lo reply to this, when JOANNA rather wisely
fills the breach.)
JOANNA. Mabel, I--I will not be talked to in that way. To imply that
I--that your husband--oh, shame!
PURDIE (finely). I must say, Mabel, that I am a little disappointed in
you. I certainly understood that you had gone upstairs to put on your
boots.
MABEL. Poor old Jack. (She muses.) A woman like that!
JOANNA (changing her comment in the moment of utterance), I
forgive you Mabel, you will be sorry for this afterwards.
PURDIE (warningly, but still reluctant to think less well of his wife).
Not a word against Joanna, Mabel. If you knew how nobly she has
spoken of you.
JOANNA (imprudently). She does know. She has been listening.
(There is a moment's danger of the scene degenerating into something
mid-Victorian. Fortunately a chivalrous man is present to lift it to a
higher plane. JOHN PURDIE is one to whom subterfuge of any kind is
abhorrent; if he has not spoken out before it is because of his reluctance
to give MABEL pain. He speaks out now, and seldom probably has he
proved himself more worthy.)

PURDIE. This is a man's business. I must be open with you now,
Mabel: it is the manlier way. If you wish it I shall always be true to you
in word and deed; it is your right. But I cannot pretend that Joanna is
not the one woman in the world for me. If I had met her before you--it's
Kismet, I suppose. (He swells.)
JOANNA (from a