The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith | Page 7

him, Mrs. Thorpe.
AGNES. [Standing before LUCAS, quietly] She knows, Lucas, dear.
LUCAS. Does she?
AGNES. She overheard some gossip at the Caffe Quadri yesterday, and began questioning me; so I told her.
LUCAS. [Taking off his coat.] Adieu to them, then--eh?
AGNES. [Assisting him.] Adieu.
LUCAS. I intended to write to the brother directly they had left Venice, to explain.
AGNES. Your describing me as "Mrs. Cleeve" at the hotel in Florence helped to lead us into this; after we move from here I must always be, frankly, "Mrs. Ebbsmith."
LUCAS. These were decent people. You and she had formed quite an attachment?
AGNES. Yes.
[She places his coat, &c. on a chair, then fetches her work-basket from the cabinet.]
LUCAS. There's something of the man in your nature, Agnes.
AGNES. I've anathematised my womanhood often enough. [She sits at the table, taking out her work composedly.]
LUCAS. Not that every man possesses the power you have acquired--the power of going through life with compressed lips.
AGNES. [Looking up, smiling.] A propos?
LUCAS. These people--this woman you've been so fond of. You see them shrink away with the utmost composure.
AGNES. [Threading a needle.] You forget, dear, that you and I have prepared ourselves for a good deal of this sort of thing.
LUCAS. Certainly, but at the moment--
AGNES. One must take care that the regret lasts no longer than a moment. Have you seen your uncle?
LUCAS. A glimpse. He hadn't long risen.
AGNES. He adds sluggishness to other vices, then?
LUCAS. [Lighting a cigarette.] He greeted me through six inches of open door. His toilet has its mysteries.
AGNES. A stormy interview?
LUCAS. The reverse. He grasped my hand warmly, declared I looked the picture of health, and said it was evident I had been most admirably nursed.
AGNES. [Frowning.] That's a strange utterance. But he's an eccentric, isn't he?
LUCAS. No man has ever been quite satisfied as to whether his oddities are ingrained or affected.
AGNES. No man. What about women?
LUCAS. Ho! They have had opportunities of closer observation.
AGNES. Hah! And they report--?
LUCAS. Nothing. They become curiously reticent.
AGNES. [Scornfully, as she is cutting a thread.] These noblemen!
LUCAS. [Taking a packet of letters from his pocket.] Finally, he presented me with these, expressed a hope that he'd see much of me during the week, and dismissed me with a fervent God bless you!
AGNES. [Surprised.] He remains here, then?
LUCAS. It seems so.
AGNES. What are those, dear?
LUCAS. The Duke has made himself the bearer of some letters, from friends. I've only glanced at them: reproaches--appeals--
AGNES. Yes, I understand.
[He sits looking through the letters impatiently, then tearing them up and throwing the pieces upon the table.]
LUCAS. Lord Warminster--my godfather: "My dear boy, for God's sake--!" [Tearing up the letter and reading another.] Sir Charles Littlecote: "Your brilliant future . . . blasted . . ." [Another letter.] Lord Froom: "Promise of a useful political career unfulfilled . . . cannot an old friend . . . ?" [Another letter.] Edith Heytesbury. I didn't notice a woman had honoured me. [In an undertone.] Edie--![Slipping the letter into his pocket and opening another.] Jack Brophy: "Your great career--" Major Leete: "Your career--" [Destroying the rest of the letters without reading them.] My career! my career! That's the chorus, evidently. Well, there goes my career! [She lays her work aside and goes to him.]
AGNES. Your career? [Pointing to the destroyed letters.] True that one is over. But there's the other, you know--ours.
LUCAS. [Touching her hand.] Yes, yes, Still, it's just a little saddening, the saying good-bye--[disturbing the scraps of paper]--to all this.
AGNES. Saddening, dear? Why, this political career of yours--think what it would have been at best? Accident of birth sent you to the wrong side of the House; influence of family would always have kept you there.
LUCAS. [Partly to himself.] But I made my mark. I did make my mark.
AGNES. Supporting the Party that retards; the Party that preserves for the rich, palters with the poor. [Pointing to the letters again.] Oh, there's not much to mourn for there!
LUCAS. Still, it was--success.
AGNES. Success!
LUCAS. I was talked about, written about, as a Coming Man--the Coming Man!
AGNES. How many "coming men" has one known? Where on earth do they all go to?
LUCAS. Ah, yes, but I allowed for the failure, and carefully set myself to discover the causes of them. And, as I put my fingers upon the causes and examined them, I congratulated myself and said "Well, I haven't that weak point in my armour, or that;" and Agnes, at last I was fool enough to imagine I had no weak point, none whatever.
AGNES. It was weak enough to believe that.
LUCAS. I couldn't foresee that I was doomed to pay the price all nervous men pay for success; that the greater my success became, the more cancer-like grew the fear of never being able to continue it, to excel it; that the triumph of today was always