Man and Superman and Three Other Plays (15 page)

FRANK The babes in the wood:
⁷
Vivie and little Frank. [
He slips his arm round her waist and nestles against her like a weary child.
] Let's go and get covered up with leaves.

VIVIE [
rhythmically
,
rocking him like a nurse
] Fast asleep, hand in hand, under the trees.

FRANK The wise little girl with her silly little boy.

VIVIE The dear little boy with his dowdy
^q
little girl.

FRANK Ever so peaceful, and relieved from the imbecility of the little boy's father and the questionableness of the little girl‘s—

VIVIE [
smothering the word against her breast
] Sh-sh-sh-sh! little girl wants to forget all about her mother. [
They are silent for some moments, rocking one another. Then VIVIE wakes up with a shock, exclaiming
] What a pair of fools we are! Come: sit up. Gracious! your hair. [
She smooths it
.] I wonder do all grown up people play in that childish way when nobody is looking. I never did it when I was a child.

FRANK Neither did I. You are my first playmate.
[He catches her hand to kiss it, but checks himself to look round first. Very unexpectedly he sees CROFTS emerging from the box hedge.
] Oh, damn!

VIVIE Why damn, dear?

FRANK [
whispering
] Sh! Here's this brute Crofts. [
He sits farther away from her with an unconcerned air
.]

VIVIE Don't be rude to him, Frank. I particularly wish to be polite to him. It will please my mother. [
FRANK makes a wry face.
]

CROFTS Could I have a few words with you, Miss Vivie?

VIVIE Certainly.

CROFTS [
to FRANK
] You'll excuse me, Gardner. They're waiting for you in the church, if you don't mind.

FRANK [
rising
] Anything to oblige you, Crofts—except church. If you want anything, Vivie, ring the gate bell, and a domestic will appear. [
He goes into the house with unruffled suavity.
]

CROFTS [
watching him with a crafty air as he disappears, and speaking to VIVIE with an assumption of being on privileged terms with her
] Pleasant young fellow that, Miss Vivie. Pity he has no money, isn't it?

VIVIE Do you think so?

CROFTS Well, what's he to do? No profession, no property. What's he good for?

VIVIE I realize his disadvantages, Sir George.

CROFTS [
a little taken aback at being so precisely interpreted
] Oh, it's not that. But while we're in this world we're in it; and money's money. [
VIVIE does not answer.
] Nice day, isn't it?

VIVIE [
with scarcely veiled contempt for this effort at conversation
] Very.

CROFTS [
with brutal good humor, as if he liked her pluck
] Well, that's not what I came to say. [
Affecting frankness.
] Now listen, Miss Vivie. I'm quite aware that I'm not a young lady's man.

VIVIE Indeed, Sir George?

CROFTS No; and to tell you the honest truth, I don't want to be either. But when I say a thing I mean it; when I feel sentiment I feel it in earnest; and what I value I pay hard money for. That's the sort of man I am.

VIVIE It does you great credit, I'm sure.

CROFTS Oh, I don't mean to praise myself. I have my faults, Heaven knows: no man is more sensible of that than I am. I know I'm not perfect: that's one of the advantages of being a middle aged man; for I'm not a young man, and I know it. But my code is a simple one, and, I think, a good one. Honor between man and man; fidelity between man and woman; and no cant about this religion, or that religion, but an honest belief that things are making for good on the whole.

VIVIE [
with biting irony
] “A power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness,” eh?

CROFTS [
taking her seriously
] Oh, certainly, not ourselves, of course. You understand what I mean. [
He sits down beside her, as one who has found a kindred spirit.
] Well, now as to practical matters. You may have an idea that I've flung my money about; but I haven't: I'm richer to-day than when I first came into the property. I've used my knowledge of the world to invest my money in ways that other men have overlooked; and whatever else I may be, I'm a safe man from the money point of view.

VIVIE It's very kind of you to tell me all this.

CROFTS Oh, well, come, Miss Vivie: you needn't pretend you don't see what I'm driving at. I want to settle down with a Lady Crofts. I suppose you think me very blunt, eh?

VIVIE Not at all: I am much obliged to you for being so definite and business-like. I quite appreciate the offer: the money, the position, Lady Crofts, and so on. But I think I will say no, if you don't mind. I'd rather not. [
She rises, and strolls across to the sundial to get out of his immediate neighborhood.
]

CROFTS [
not at all discouraged, and taking advantage of the additional room left him on the seat to spread himself comfortably, as, if a few preliminary refusals were part of the inevitable routine of courtship
] I'm in no hurry. It was only just to let you know in case young Gardner should try to trap you. Leave the question open.

VIVIE [
sharply
] My no is final. I won't go back from it. [
She looks authoritatively at him. He grins; leans forward with his elbows on his knees to prod with his stick at some unfortunate insect in the grass; and looks cunningly at her. She turns away impatiently
.]

CROFTS I'm a good deal older than you—twenty-five years—quarter of a century. I shan't live for ever; and I'll take care that you shall be well off when I'm gone.

VIVIE I am proof against even that inducement, Sir George. Don't you think you'd better take your answer? There is not the slightest chance of my altering it.

CROFTS [
rising, after a final slash at a daisy, and beginning to walk to and fro
] Well, no matter. I could tell you some things that would change your mind fast enough; but I won‘t, because I'd rather win you by honest affection. I was a good friend to your mother: ask her whether I wasn't. She'd never have made the money that paid for your education if it hadn't been for my advice and help, not to mention the money I advanced her. There are not many men would have stood by her as I have. I put not less than £40,000 into it, from first to last.

VIVIE [
staring at him
] Do you mean to say you were my mother's business partner?

CROFTS Yes. Now just think of all the trouble and the explanations it would save if we were to keep the whole thing in the family, so to speak. Ask your mother whether she'd like to have to explain all her affairs to a perfect stranger.

VIVIE I see no difficulty, since I understand that the business is wound up, and the money invested.

CROFTS [
stopping short, amazed
] Wound up! Wind up a business that's paying 35 per cent in the worst years! Not likely. Who told you that?

VIVIE [
her colour quite gone
] Do you mean that it is still—? [
She stops abruptly, and puts her hand on the sundial to support herself. Then she gets quickly to the iron chair and sits down.
] What business are you talking about?

CROFTS Well, the fact is, it's not what would be considered exactly a high-class business in my set—the county set, you know—ourset it will be if you think better of my offer. Not that there's any mystery about it: don't think that. Of course you know by your mother's being in it that it's perfectly straight and honest. I've known her for many years; and I can say of her that she'd cut off her hands sooner than touch anything that was not what it ought to be. I'll tell you all about it if you like. I don't know whether you've found in travelling how hard it is to find a really comfortable private hotel.

VIVIE [
sickened, averting her face
] Yes: go on.

CROFTS Well, that's all it is. Your mother has a genius for managing such things. We've got two in Brussels, one in Berlin, one in Vienna, and two in Buda-Pesth.
^r
Of course there are others besides ourselves in it; but we hold most of the capital; and your mother's indispensable as managing director. You've noticed, I daresay, that she travels a good deal. But you see you can't mention such things in society. Once let out the word hotel and everybody says you keep a public-house. You wouldn't like people to say that of your mother, would you? That's why we're so reserved about it. By the bye, you'll keep it to yourself, won't you? Since it's been a secret so long, it had better remain so.

VIVIE And this is the business you invite me to join you in?

CROFTS Oh, no. My wife shan't be troubled with business. You'll not be in it more than you've always been.

VIVIE
I
always been! What do you mean?

CROFTS Only that you've always lived on it. It paid for your education and the dress you have on your back. Don't turn up your nose at business, Miss Vivie: where would your Newnhams and Girtons be without it?

VIVIE [
rising, almost beside herself
] Take care. I know what this business is.

CROFTS [
starting
,
with a suppressed oath
] Who told you?

VIVIE Your partner—my mother.

CROFTS [
black with rage
] The old—[
VIVIE looks quickly at him. He swallows the epithet and stands swearing and raging foully to himself. But he knows that his cue is to be sympathetic. He takes refuge in generous indignation
.] She ought to have had more consideration for you.
I'd
never have told you.

VIVIE I think you would probably have told me when we were married: it would have been a convenient weapon to break me in with.

CROFTS [
quite sincerely
] I never intended that. On my word as a gentleman I didn't. [
VIVIE wonders at him. Her sense of the irony of his protest cools and braces her. She replies with contemptuous self-possession
.]

VIVIE It does not matter. I suppose you understand that when we leave here to-day our acquaintance ceases.

CROFTS Why? Is it for helping your mother?

VIVIE My mother was a very poor woman who had no reasonable choice but to do as she did. You were a rich gentleman; and you did the same for the sake of 35 per cent. You are a pretty common sort of scoundrel, I think. That is my opinion of you.

CROFTS [
after a stare
—
not at all displeased, and much more at his ease on thesefrank terms than on their former ceremonious ones
] Ha, ha, ha, ha! Go it, little missie, go it: it doesn't hurt me and it amuses you. Why the devil shouldn't I invest my money that way? I take the interest on my capital like other people: I hope you don't think I dirty my own hands with the work. Come: you wouldn't refuse the acquaintance of my mother's cousin, the Duke of Bel gravia, because some of the rents he gets are earned in queer ways. You wouldn't cut the Archbishop of Canterbury, I suppose, because the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have a few publicans and sinners among their tenants? Do you remember your Crofts scholarship at Newnham? Well, that was founded by my brother the M.P. He gets his 22 per cent out of a factory with 600 girls in it, and not one of them getting wages enough to live on. How d‘ye suppose most of them manage? Ask your mother. And do you expect me to turn my back on 35 per cent when all the rest are pocketing what they can, like sensible men? No such fool! If you're going to pick and choose your acquaintances on moral principles, you'd better clear out of this country, unless you want to cut yourself out of all decent society.

VIVIE [
conscience stricken
] You might go on to point out that I myself never asked where the money I spent came from. I believe I am just as bad as you.

CROFTS [
greatly reassured
] Of course you are; and a very good thing, too! What harm does it do after all? [
Rallying her jocularly
.] So you don't think me such a scoundrel now you come to think it over. Eh?

VIVIE I have shared profits with you; and I admitted you just now to the familiarity of knowing what I think of you.

CROFTS [
with serious friendliness
] To be sure you did. You won't find me a bad sort: I don't go in for being super-fine intellectually ; but I've plenty of honest human feeling; and the old Crofts breed comes out in a sort of instinctive hatred of anything low, in which I'm sure you'll sympathize with me. Believe me, Miss Vivie, the world isn't such a bad place as the croakers make out. So long as you don't fly openly in the face of society, society doesn't ask any inconvenient questions; and it makes precious short work of the cads who do. There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses. In the society I can introduce you to, no lady or gentleman would so far forget themselves as to discuss my business affairs or your mother's. No man can offer you a safer position.

VIVIE [
studying him curiously
] I suppose you really think you're getting on famously with me.

CROFTS Well, I hope I may flatter myself that you think better of me than you did at first.

VIVIE [
quietly
] I hardly find you worth thinking about at all now. [
She rises and turns towards the gate, pausing on her way to contemplate him and say almost gently, but with intense conviction.
When I think of the society that tolerates you, and the laws that protect you—when I think of how helpless nine out of ten young girls would be in the hands of you and my mother—the unmentionable woman and her capitalist bully—

CROFTS [
livid
] Damn you!

VIVIE You need not. I feel among the damned already. [
She raises the latch of the gate to open it and go out. He follows her and puts his hand heavily on the top bar to prevent its opening
.]