Mr Pim Passes By | Page 8

I've been rude to you about this--lost my temper a bit perhaps, what?--I'll say I'm sorry. May I have a kiss?
OLIVIA (holding up her face). George, darling! (He kisses her.) Do you love me?
GEORGE. You know I do, old girl.
OLIVIA. As much as Brian loves Dinah?
GEORGE (stiffly, taking her hands from his shoulders). I've said all I want to say about that. (He goes away from her to L.)
OLIVIA. Oh, but there must be lots you want to say and perhaps don't like to. (Sits on settee R.) Do tell me, darling.
GEORGE (coming back to C.). What it comes to is this. I consider that Dinah is too young to choose a husband for herself, and that Strange isn't the husband I should choose for her.
OLIVIA. You were calling him Brian yesterday.
GEORGE. Yesterday I regarded him as a boy, now he wants me to look upon him as a man.
OLIVIA. He's twenty-four.
GEORGE. Yes, and Dinah's nineteen. Ridiculous. (_Crossing up to smoking- table up R., and filling his pipe which he finds on table_.)
OLIVIA. If he'd been a Conservative, and thought that clouds were round, I suppose he'd have seemed older, somehow.
GEORGE. That's a different point altogether. That has nothing to do with his age.
OLIVIA (innocently). Oh, I thought it had.
GEORGE (crossing down C. stuffing tobacco into his pipe). What I am objecting to is these ridiculously early marriages before either party knows its own mind, much less the mind of the other party. (_Moving to fireplace looking for a match_.) Such marriages invariably lead to unhappiness.
OLIVIA. Of course, my first marriage wasn't a happy one.
GEORGE. As you know, Olivia, I dislike speaking about your first marriage at all--(takes a match from table down L. OLIVIA _rises slowly and goes up to R. of writing-table_)--and I had no intention of bringing it up now, but since you mention it--well, there's a case in point. (_Sits on settee L., lighting his pipe_.)
OLIVIA (looking back at it). When I was eighteen, I was in love.
GEORGE (turning to her). What?
OLIVIA. Or perhaps I only thought I was, and I don't know if I should have been happy or not if I had married him. But my father made me marry Mr. Jacob Telworthy. (GEORGE looks up at her, annoyed.) And when things were too hot for him in England--"too hot for him"--I think that was the expression we used in those days--then we went to Australia, and I left him there. (Goes slowly down to back of settee L.) And the only happy moment I had in all my married life was on the morning when I saw in the papers that he was dead. (Leans with her arms over back of settee.)
GEORGE (_very uncomfortable yet lovingly taking her hands with his left hand_). Yes, yes, my dear, I know, I know. You must have had a terrible time. I can hardly bear to think about it. My only hope is that I have made up to you for it in some degree. (_She places her left cheek lovingly on his head.) (Dropping her hands_.) But I don't see what bearing it has upon Dinah's case.
OLIVIA. Oh, none, except that my father liked Jacob's political opinions and his views on art. (Moving slowly round L.C. _table to below stool at foot_.) I expect that that was why he chose him for me.
GEORGE. You seem to think that I wish to choose a husband for Dinah. I don't at all. Let her choose whom she likes as long as he can support her and there's a chance of their being happy together. Now, with regard to this fellow--
OLIVIA. You mean Brian?
GEORGE. Well, he's got no money, and he's been brought up in quite a different way from Dinah. Dinah may be prepared to believe that--er--all cows are blue, and that--er--waves are square, but she won't go on believing it for ever.
OLIVIA. Neither will Brian.
GEORGE (moving to R. end of settee). Well, that's what I keep telling him, only he won't see it. Just as I keep telling you about those ridiculous curtains. (_Points to cupboard with pipe in right hand over his left shoulder_.) It seems to me that I am the only person in the house with any eyesight left.
OLIVIA. Perhaps you are, darling; but you must let us find out our own mistakes for ourselves. (Sits on stool L.C.) At any rate, Brian is a gentleman; he loves Dinah, Dinah loves him; he's earning enough to support himself, and you are earning enough to support Dinah.
GEORGE (amazed). What?
OLIVIA. I think it's worth risking, George.
GEORGE (stiffly). I can only say the whole question demands much more anxious thought than you seem to have given it. You say that he is a gentleman. He knows how to behave, I admit; but if his morals are