How He Lied to Her Husband | Page 9

love to her. She was
just preparing Teddy's mind to poison it about me.
HE. Let us be just to Georgina, dearest
SHE. Let her deserve it first. Just to Georgina, indeed!
HE. She really sees the world in that way. That is her punishment.
SHE. How can it be her punishment when she likes it? It'll be my
punishment when she brings that budget of poems to Teddy. I wish
you'd have some sense, and sympathize with my position a little.

HE. [going away from the piano and beginning to walk about rather
testily] My dear: I really don't care about Georgina or about Teddy. All
these squabbles belong to a plane on which I am, as you say, no use. I
have counted the cost; and I do not fear the consequences. After all,
what is there to fear? Where is the difficulty? What can Georgina do?
What can your husband do? What can anybody do?
SHE. Do you mean to say that you propose that we should walk right
bang up to Teddy and tell him we're going away together?
HE. Yes. What can be simpler?
SHE. And do you think for a moment he'd stand it, like that half-baked
clergyman in the play? He'd just kill you.
HE [coming to a sudden stop and speaking with considerable
confidence] You don't understand these things, my darling, how could
you? In one respect I am unlike the poet in the play. I have followed the
Greek ideal and not neglected the culture of my body. Your husband
would make a tolerable second-rate heavy weight if he were in training
and ten years younger. As it is, he could, if strung up to a great effort
by a burst of passion, give a good account of himself for perhaps fifteen
seconds. But I am active enough to keep out of his reach for fifteen
seconds; and after that I should be simply all over him.
SHE [rising and coming to him in consternation] What do you mean by
all over him?
HE [gently] Don't ask me, dearest. At all events, I swear to you that
you need not be anxious about me.
SHE. And what about Teddy? Do you mean to tell me that you are
going to beat Teddy before my face like a brutal prizefighter?
HE. All this alarm is needless, dearest. Believe me, nothing will happen.
Your husband knows that I am capable of defending myself. Under
such circumstances nothing ever does happen. And of course I shall do
nothing. The man who once loved you is sacred to me.
SHE [suspiciously] Doesn't he love me still? Has he told you anything?
HE. No, no. [He takes her tenderly in his arms]. Dearest, dearest: how
agitated you are! how unlike yourself! All these worries belong to the
lower plane. Come up with me to the higher one. The heights, the
solitudes, the soul world!
SHE [avoiding his gaze] No: stop: it's no use, Mr Apjohn.
HE [recoiling] Mr Apjohn!!!

SHE. Excuse me: I meant Henry, of course.
HE. How could you even think of me as Mr Apjohn? I never think of
you as Mrs Bompas: it is always Cand-- I mean Aurora, Aurora, Auro--
SHE. Yes, yes: that's all very well, Mr Apjohn [He is about to interrupt
again: but she won't have it] no: it's no use: I've suddenly begun to
think of you as Mr Apjohn; and it's ridiculous to go on calling you
Henry. I thought you were only a boy, a child, a dreamer. I thought you
would be too much afraid to do anything. And now you want to beat
Teddy and to break up my home and disgrace me and make a horrible
scandal in the papers. It's cruel, unmanly, cowardly.
HE [with grave wonder] Are you afraid?
SHE. Oh, of course I'm afraid. So would you be if you had any
common sense. [She goes to the hearth, turning her back to him, and
puts one tapping foot on the fender].
HE [watching her with great gravity] Perfect love casteth out fear. That
is why I am not afraid. Mrs Bompas: you do not love me.
SHE [turning to him with a gasp of relief] Oh, thank you, thank you!
You really can be very nice, Henry.
HE. Why do you thank me?
SHE [coming prettily to him from the fireplace] For calling me Mrs
Bompas again. I feel now that you are going to be reasonable and
behave like a gentleman. [He drops on the stool; covers his face with
his hand; and groans]. What's the matter?
HE. Once or twice in my life I have dreamed that I was exquisitely
happy and blessed. But oh! the misgiving at the first stir of
consciousness! the stab of reality! the