Mr Pim Passes By | Page 8

that I
will not have them hanging in my house. (Going up R.C.)
OLIVIA. Very well, George. (But she goes on working.)
GEORGE (seeing her continuing to sew, stops). That being so, I don't
see the necessity of going on with them.
OLIVIA. Well, I must do something with them now I've got the
material.
(GEORGE goes up to writing-table, sits and writes.)
I thought perhaps I could sell them when they're finished--as we're so
poor.
GEORGE (turns to her with surprised look). What do you mean--so
poor?
OLIVIA. Well, you said just now that you couldn't give Dinah an
allowance because rents had gone down.
GEORGE (annoyed). Confound it, Olivia! Keep to the point! We'll talk
about Dinah's affairs directly. We're discussing our own affairs at the
moment.
OLIVIA. But what is there to discuss, dear?
GEORGE. Well, those ridiculous things.
OLIVIA. But we've finished that. You've said you wouldn't have them
hanging in your house, and I've said, "Very well, George."--(GEORGE
_is again annoyed_.)--Now we can go on to Dinah, and Brian.
GEORGE (shouting). But put these beastly things away.
OLIVIA (rising and gathering up the curtains). Very well, George.

(Going up L. she places the curtains on the cabinet.)
GEORGE (_waits impatiently until she has put them away on top of
cabinet_). Ah! That's better.
(OLIVIA comes to table L.C., _closes her workbox and then crosses
down to settee_ R.)
GEORGE (rising and crossing down to OLIVIA _and placing arms
lovingly on her shoulder_). Now look here, Olivia, old girl, you've been
a jolly good wife to me--(takes his arms from her shoulder)--and we
don't often have rows, and if 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