The Second Series Plays | Page 8

be
afraid I'll say anything when--it comes. That's what I had to tell you.
BILL. What!
FREDA. I can keep a secret.
BILL. Do you mean this? [She bows her head.]
BILL. Good God!
FREDA. Father brought me up not to whine. Like the puppies when
they hold them up by their tails. [With a sudden break in her voice] Oh!
Bill!
BILL. [With his head down, seizing her hands] Freda! [He breaks away
from her towards the fire] Good God!
She stands looking at him, then quietly slips away by the door under
the staircase. BILL turns to speak to her, and sees that she has gone. He
walks up to the fireplace, and grips the mantelpiece.
BILL. By Jove! This is----!
The curtain falls.

ACT II

The scene is LADY CHESHIRE's morning room, at ten o'clock on the
following day. It is a pretty room, with white panelled walls; and
chrysanthemums and carmine lilies in bowls. A large bow window
overlooks the park under a sou'-westerly sky. A piano stands open; a
fire is burning; and the morning's correspondence is scattered on a
writing-table. Doors opposite each other lead to the maid's workroom,
and to a corridor. LADY CHESHIRE is standing in the middle of the
room, looking at an opera cloak, which FREDA is holding out.
LADY CHESHIRE. Well, Freda, suppose you just give it up!
FREDA. I don't like to be beaten.
LADY CHESHIRE. You're not to worry over your work. And by the
way, I promised your father to make you eat more. [FREDA smiles.]
LADY CHESHIRE. It's all very well to smile. You want bracing up.
Now don't be naughty. I shall give you a tonic. And I think you had
better put that cloak away.
FREDA. I'd rather have one more try, my lady.
LADY CHESHIRE. [Sitting doom at her writing-table] Very well.
FREDA goes out into her workroom, as JACKSON comes in from the
corridor.
JACKSON. Excuse me, my lady. There's a young woman from the
village, says you wanted to see her.
LADY CHESHIRE. Rose Taylor? Ask her to come in. Oh! and
Jackson the car for the meet please at half-past ten.
JACKSON having bowed and withdrawn, LADY CHESHIRE rises
with worked signs of nervousness, which she has only just suppressed,
when ROSE TAYLOR, a stolid country girl, comes in and stands
waiting by the door.
LADY CHESHIRE. Well, Rose. Do come in! [ROSE advances perhaps
a couple of steps.]
LADY CHESHIRE. I just wondered whether you'd like to ask my
advice. Your engagement with Dunning's broken off, isn't it?
ROSE. Yes--but I've told him he's got to marry me.
LADY CHESHIRE. I see! And you think that'll be the wisest thing?
ROSE. [Stolidly] I don't know, my lady. He's got to.
LADY CHESHIRE. I do hope you're a little fond of him still.
ROSE. I'm not. He don't deserve it.
LADY CHESHIRE: And--do you think he's quite lost his affection for

you?
ROSE. I suppose so, else he wouldn't treat me as he's done. He's after
that--that--He didn't ought to treat me as if I was dead.
LADY CHESHIRE. No, no--of course. But you will think it all well
over, won't you?
ROSE. I've a--got nothing to think over, except what I know of.
LADY CHESHIRE. But for you both t0 marry in that spirit! You know
it's for life, Rose. [Looking into her face] I'm always ready to help you.
ROSE. [Dropping a very slight curtsey] Thank you, my lady, but I
think he ought to marry me. I've told him he ought.
LADY CHESHIRE. [Sighing] Well, that's all I wanted to say. It's a
question of your self-respect; I can't give you any real advice. But just
remember that if you want a friend----
ROSE. [With a gulp] I'm not so 'ard, really. I only want him to do
what's right by me.
LADY CHESHIRE. [With a little lift of her eyebrow--gently] Yes,
yes--I see.
ROSE. [Glancing back at the door] I don't like meeting the servants.
LADY CHESHIRE. Come along, I'll take you out another way. [As
they reach the door, DOT comes in.]
DOT. [With a glance at ROSE] Can we have this room for the mouldy
rehearsal, Mother?
LADY CHESHIRE. Yes, dear, you can air it here.
Holding the door open for ROSE she follows her out. And DOT, with a
book of "Caste" in her hand, arranges the room according to a diagram.
DOT. Chair--chair--table--chair--Dash! Table--piano--fire--window!
[Producing a pocket comb] Comb for Eccles. Cradle?--Cradle--[She
viciously dumps a waste-paper basket down, and drops a footstool into
it] Brat! [Then reading from the book gloomily] "Enter Eccles
breathless. Esther and Polly rise-Esther puts on lid of bandbox."
Bandbox!
Searching for something to represent a bandbox, she opens the
workroom door.
DOT. Freda?
FREDA comes in.
DOT.