The Unforseen Return | Page 5

last three weeks I've obtained a half year's rent on the farm in advance. In return you've given Farmer Small a quittance for the entire year.
Edward: Excellent!
Roger: Last week I received 1,800 pounds for those two paintings your father refused to sell for thirty thousand.
Edward: Fine!
Roger: Fine! Also, I got 200 pounds for that tapestry your father purchased for five thousand two years ago.
Edward: Better!
Roger: Yes, yes, we've had a real white sale during his absence haven't we?
Edward: It's a little nourishment that we must take sometimes; and we will work together on more nourishment in the future.
Roger: Work by yourself because I have a bad conscience about being the instrument of your ruin. It's with my help you've been able to dissipate 10,000 pounds, not to mention another ten thousand you owe here and there to usurers and money lenders, who are just waiting to fall on us and gobble everything up when the day comes to pay them back.
Edward: The one who disturbs me the most and causes me the most embarrassment is this Mr. Andre. He persecutes me and I only owe him a hundred pounds!
Roger: He isn't only after that. You also gave him a promissory note for 500 pounds. Four days ago he took out a judgement on the note. And it won't be pleasant if you spend your wedding night in jail.
Edward: (calmly) We will find a way to deal with him.
Roger: What way? We have no cash at all. All your income is taken in advance and spent as received. The townhouse furniture has been sold for a song--we've cut down the timber at the country house under the pretext of using it for fuel. As for me, I swear to you that I see no way out.
Edward: If my father can be kept from returning another five or six months I will have plenty of time to repair by my economy the expensive disorders of my youth.
Roger: Assuredly. And your esteemed father, for his part--hasn't he worked hard to amass all this wealth?
Edward: Without a doubt.
Roger: It's better that you practice this foolishness while he's still alive. After he's dead he won't be in a position to straighten things out.
Edward; You're right, Roger.
Roger: Sir, you're not so bad that you can't, at least, speak well. Your father will have made a huge profit from his trip--and you will have made a huge expenditure in his absence. Of what can he complain when he returns? It will be as if he had never gone, and at worst it will be his fault for having been so foolish as to make the trip.
Edward: You're really talking some sense today, Roger.
Roger: Between you and me, your father is not very bright. I've led him by the nose and you know it. I can make him believe anything I want to. And when he comes back this time I think I still have power enough to pull you out of this sorry mess. Let's go sir. Good cheer and a warm fire. Courage returns to me. How many for dinner tonight?
Edward: Five or six.
Roger: And your dear friend the self styled Squire who has helped you to gobble up so much of your wealth so stylishly--will he be here?
Edward: He promised me he would, but here is the charming Belinda and her cousin--
(Enter Belinda, Clarissa and Lucy)
Belinda: The precautions you make me take, Edward, can only be justified by the success they are having--and I will be entirely lost in worldliness if our marriage doesn't end all the pleasure parties I'm used to.
Edward: I have never had any other sentiments, pretty Belinda--and here is your friend who can bear witness to it.
Clarissa: I guarantee the goodness of your heart if you must take this moment to justify yourself; but I, who never get mixed up in anything adventurous and who haven't seen the conclusion of this affair--what kind of role must I play--and what will people say of it, I pray?
Roger: They'll say that people are known by the company they keep--and that the company made you get married. My master has so many friends--you have only to pick.
Lucy: Take one, madame. The crazier things are--the more fun. Come on--make a choice!
Clarissa: I'll marry the devil. Now that you mention it, I think I'll marry off Lucy--because of the company. It's a very contagious example.
Edward: I wish you'd follow our example. I have a young friend who is alienated from his family. That's the way to recommend him. Has he told you of his feelings?
Clarissa: No. This sort of marriage doesn't interest me. I don't follow anyone's lead. I want to take a husband as independent as I am.
Edward: Well said. My friend isn't the type to let you put a bridle on him.
Roger: But here