One Day More | Page 5

women.
Bessie (Bewildered). Oh! It's so difficult... What had I better do?...
Harry (Good-humoured). Make a clean breast of it.
Bessie (Wildly to herself). Impossible! (Starts.) You don't understand. I must think--see--try to--I, I must have time. Plenty of time.
Harry. What for? Come. Two words. And don't be afraid for yourself. I ain't going to make it a police job. But it's the other fellow that'll get upset when he least expects it. There'll be some fun when he shows his mug here to-morrow. (Snaps fingers.) I don't care that for the old man's dollars, but right is right. You shall see me put a head on that coon, whoever he is.
Bessie (Wrings hands slightly). What had I better do? (_Suddenly to Harry_.) It's you--you yourself that we--that he's waiting for. It's you who are to come to-morrow.
Harry (Slowly). Oh! it's me! (Perplexed.) There's something there I can't understand. I haven't written ahead or anything. It was my chum who showed me the advertisement with the old boy's address, this very morning--in London.
Bessie (Anxious). How can I make it plain to you without... (_Bites her lip, embarrassed_.) Sometimes he talks so strangely.
Harry (Expectant). Does he? What about?
Bessie. Only you. And he will stand no contradicting.
Harry. Stubborn. Eh? The old man hasn't changed much from what I can remember. (They stand looking at each other helplessly.)
Bessie. He's made up his mind you would come back . . . to-morrow.
Harry. I can't hang about here till morning. Got no money to get a bed. Not a cent. But why won't to-day do?
Bessie. Because you've been too long away.
Harry (With force). Look here, they fairly drove me out. Poor mother nagged at me for being idle, and the old man said he would cut my soul out of my body rather than let me go to sea.
Bessie (Murmurs). He can bear no contradicting.
Harry (Continuing). Well, it looked as tho' he would do it too. So I went. (Moody.) It seems to me sometimes I was born to them by a mistake... in that other rabbit hutch of a house.
Bessie (A little mocking). And where do you think you ought to have been born by rights?
Harry. In the open--upon a beach--on a windy night.
Bessie (Faintly). Ah!
Harry. They were characters, both of them, by George! Shall I try the door?
Bessie. Wait. I must explain to you why it is to-morrow.
Harry. Aye. That you must, or...
(Window in H.'s cottage runs up.)
Capt. H.'s Voice (Above). A--grinning--information--fellow coming to worry me in my own garden! What next?
(Window rumbles down.)
Bessie. Yes. I must. (Lays hand on Harry's sleeve.) Let's get further off. Nobody ever comes this way after dark.
Harry (Careless laugh). Aye. A good road for a walk with a girl.
(_They turn their backs on audience and move up the stage slowly. Close together. Harry bends his head over Bessie_).
Bessie's Voice (Beginning eagerly). People here somehow did not take kindly to him.
Harry's Voice. Aye. Aye. I understand that.
(They walk slowly back towards the front.)
Bessie. He was almost ready to starve himself for your sake.
Harry. And I had to starve more than once for his whim.
Bessie. I'm afraid you've a hard heart. (Remains thoughtful.)
Harry. What for? For running away? (Indignant.) Why, he wanted to make a blamed lawyer's clerk of me.
(From here this scene goes on mainly near and about the street lamp.)
Bessie (Rousing herself). What are you? A sailor?
Harry. Anything you like. (Proudly.) Sailor enough to be worth my salt on board any craft that swims the seas.
Bessie. He will never, never believe it. He mustn't be contradicted.
Harry. Always liked to have his own way. And you've been encouraging him.
Bessie (Earnestly). No!--not in everything--not really!
Harry (Vexed laugh). What about that pretty tomorrow notion? I've a hungry chum in London--waiting for me.
Bessie (Defending herself). Why should I make the poor old friendless man miserable? I thought you were far away. I thought you were dead. I didn't know but you had never been born. I... I... (_Harry turns to her. She desperately.) It was easier to believe it myself. (Carried away_.) And after all it's true. It's come to pass. This is the to-morrow we've been waiting for.
Harry (Half perfunctorily). Aye. Anybody can see that your heart is as soft as your voice.
Bessie (As if unable to keep back the words). I didn't think you would have noticed my voice.
Harry (Already inattentive). H'm. Dashed scrape. This is a queer to-morrow, without any sort of today, as far as I can see. (Resolutely.) I must try the door.
Bessie. Well--try, then.
Harry (From gate looking over shoulder at Bessie). He ain't likely to fly out at me, is he? I would be afraid of laying my hands on him. The chaps are always telling me I don't know my own strength.
Bessie (In front). He's the most harmless creature that ever. ..
Harry. You wouldn't say so if