Man and Superman and Three Other Plays (72 page)

ANN Well, your wife can put on a cap and make herself ugly to keep you in countenance, like my grandmother.

TANNER So that she may make her triumph more insolent by publicly throwing away the bait the moment the trap snaps on the victim!

ANN After all, though, what difference would it make? Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days? I thought our pictures very lovely when papa bought them; but I havn't looked at them for years. You never bother about my looks: you are too well used to me. I might be the umbrella stand.

TANNER You lie, you vampire: you lie.

ANN Flatterer. Why are you trying to fascinate me, Jack, if you don't want to marry me?

TANNER The Life Force. I am in the grip of the Life Force.

ANN I don't understand in the least: it sounds like the Life Guards.
^ep

TANNER Why don't you marry Tavy? He is willing. Can you not be satisfied unless your prey struggles?

ANN [turning to
him as if to
let
him
into a secret] Tavy will never marry. Havn't you noticed that that sort of man never marries?

TANNER What! a man who idolizes women! who sees nothing in nature but romantic scenery for love duets! Tavy, the chivalrous, the faithful, the tenderhearted and true! Tavy never marry! Why, he was born to be swept up by the first pair of blue eyes he meets in the street.

ANN Yes, I know. All the same, Jack, men like that always live in comfortable bachelor lodgings with broken hearts, and are adored by their landladies, and never get married. Men like you always get married.

TANNER [
smiting his brow
] How frightfully, horribly true! It has been staring me in the face all my life; and I never saw it before.

ANN Oh, it's the same with women. The poetic temperament's a very nice temperament, very amiable, very harmless and poetic, I daresay; but it's an old maid's temperament.

TANNER Barren. The Life Force passes it by.

ANN If that's what you mean by the Life Force, yes.

TANNER You don't care for Tavy?

ANN [
looking round carefully to make sure that TAVY is not within e
arshot
] No.

TANNER And you do care for me?

ANN [
rising quietly and shaking he
r finger at him
] Now Jack! Behave yourself.

TANNER Infamous, abandoned woman! Devil!

ANN Boa-constrictor! Elephant!

TANNER Hypocrite!

ANN [
softly
] I must be, for my future husband's sake.

TANNER For mine! [
Correcting himself savagely
]
I
mean for his.

ANN [
ignoring the correction
] Yes, for yours. You had better marry what you call a hypocrite, Jack. Women who are not hypocrites go about in rational dress and are insulted and get into all sorts of hot water. And then their husbands get dragged in too, and live in continual dread of fresh complications. Wouldn't you prefer a wife you could depend on?

TANNER No, a thousand times no: hot water is the revolutionist's element. You clean men as you clean milk-pails, by scalding them.

ANN Cold water has its uses too. It's healthy.

TANNER [
despairingly
] Oh, you are witty: at the supreme moment the Life Force endows you with every quality. Well, I too can be a hypocrite. Your father's will appointed me your guardian, not your suitor. I shall be faithful to my trust.

ANN [in low siren tones] He asked me who would I have as my guardian before he made that will. I chose you!

TANNER The will is yours then! The trap was laid from the beginning.

ANN [
concentrating all her magic
] From the beginning-from our childhood—for both of us—by the Life Force.

TANNER I will not marry you. I will not marry you.

ANN Oh, you will, you will.

TANNER I tell you, no, no, no.

ANN I tell you, yes, yes, yes.

TANNER No.

ANN
[coaxing
—
imploring
—
almost exhausted
] Yes. Before it is too late for repentance. Yes.

TANNER [
struck by the echo from the past
]
^eq
When did all this happen to me before? Are we two dreaming?

ANN [
suddenly losing her courage, with an anguish that she does not conceal
] No. We are awake; and you have said no: that is all.

TANNER [
brutally
] Well?

ANN Well, I made a mistake: you do not love me.

TANNER [
seizing her in his arms]
It is false: I love you. The Life Force enchants me: I have the whole world in my arms when I clasp you. But I am fighting for my freedom, for my honor, for my self, one and indivisible.

ANN Your happiness will be worth them all.

TANNER You would sell freedom and honor and self for happiness?

ANN It will not be all happiness for me. Perhaps death.

TANNER [
groaning
] Oh, that clutch holds and hurts. What have you grasped in me? Is there a father's heart
¹²
as well as a mother's?

ANN Take care, Jack: if anyone comes while we are like this, you will have to marry me.

TANNER If we two stood now on the edge of a precipice, I would hold you tight and jump.

ANN [
panting, Jailing more and more under the strain
] Jack: let me go. I have dared so frightfully—it is lasting longer than I thought. Let me go: I can't bear it.
¹³

TANNER Nor I. Let it kill us.

ANN Yes: I don't care. I am at the end of my forces. I don't care. I think I am going to faint.

At this moment VIOLET and OCTAVIUS come from the villa with Mrs. Whitefield, who is wrapped up for
driving.
Simultaneously MALONE and RAMSDEN, followed by MENDOZA and STRAKER, come in through the little gate in the paling. TANNER shamefacedly releases ANN, who raises her hand giddily to her forehead
.

MALONE Take care. Something's the matter with the lady.

RAMSDEN What does this mean?

VIOLET [
running between ANN and TANNER
] Are you ill?

ANN [
reeling, with a supreme effort
] I have promised to marry Jack. [
She swoons. VIOLET kneels by her and chafes her hand. TANNER runs round to her other hand, and tries to lift her head. OCTA
VIUS goes to VIOLET's assistance, but does not know what to do. MRS. WHITEFIELD hurries back into the villa.
OCTAVIUS, MALONE and RAMSDEN run to ANN and crowd round her, stooping to assist. STRAKER coolly comes to ANN's feet, and MENDOZA
to her head, both upright
and self-possessed
]
.

STRAKER Now then, ladies and gentlemen: she don't want a crowd round her: she wants air—all the air she can git. If you please, gents—[
MALONE and RAMSDEN
allow him to drive them gently past ANN and up the lawn towards the garden, where OCTAVIUS, who has already become conscious of his uselessness, joins them. STRAKER, following them up, pauses for
a
moment to instruct TANNER
]. Don't lift er ed, Mr. Tanner: let it go flat so's the blood can run back into it.

MENDOZA He is right, Mr. Tanner. Trust to the air of the Sierra. [
He withdraws delicately to the garden steps
]
.

TANNER [rising] I yield to your superior knowledge of physiology, Henry. [
He
withdraws to the corner of the
lawn; and OCTAVIUS
immediately hurries down to
him
]
.

TAVY [
aside to TANNER, grasping his hand
] Jack: be very happy.

TANNER [
aside
to TAVY] I never asked her. It is a trap for me. [
He goes up the lawn towards the garden.
OCTAVIUS remains petrified
]
.

MENDOZA [
intercepting MRS. WHITEFIELD, who comes from the villa with a glass of brandy
] What is this, madam [
he takes it from her
]?

MRS. WHITEFIELD A little brandy.

MENDOZA The worst thing you could give her. Allow me. [
He swallows
it]. Trust to the air of the Sierra, madam.
For a moment the men all forget
ANN
and stare at MENDOZA
.

ANN [
in VIOLET's ear, clutching her round the neck
] Violet: did Jack say anything when I fainted?

VIOLET No.

ANN Ah! [
with
a
sigh
of
intense relief she relapses
].

MRS. WHITEFIELD Oh, she's fainted again.

They
are about
to rush back to her; but MENDOZA stops them with
a
warning gesture.

ANN [supine] No I havn't. I'm quite happy.

TANNER [
suddenly walking determinedly to her, and snatching her hand from VIOLET to feel her pulse
] Why, her pulse is positively bounding. Come, get up. What nonsense! Up with you. [He gets her up
summarily
]
.

ANN Yes: I feel strong enough now. But you very nearly killed me, Jack, for all that.

MALONE A rough wooer, eh? They're the best sort, Miss Whitefield. I congratulate Mr. Tanner; and I hope to meet you and him as frequent guests at the Abbey.

ANN Thank you. [
She goes past MALONE to OCTAVIUS
] Ricky Ticky Tavy: congratulate me. [
Aside to him
] I want to make you cry for the last time.

TAVY [
steadfastly
] No more tears. I am happy in your happiness. And I believe in you in spite of everything.

RAMSDEN [
coming between MALONE and TANNER
] You are a happy man, Jack Tanner. I envy you.

MENDOZA [
advancing between VIOLET and TANNER
] Sir: there are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it. Mine and yours, sir.

TANNER Mr. Mendoza: I have no heart's desires. Ramsden: it is very easy for you to call me a happy man: you are only a spectator. I am one of the principals; and I know better. Ann: stop tempting Tavy, and come back to me.

ANN [
complying
] You are absurd, Jack. [
She takes his proffered arm
]
.

TANNER [
continuing
] I solemnly say that I am not a happy man. Ann looks happy; but she is only triumphant, successful, victorious. That is not happiness, but the price for which the strong sell their happiness. What we have both done this afternoon is to renounce happiness, renounce freedom, renounce tranquillity, above all renounce the romantic possibilities of an unknown future, for the cares of a household and a family. I beg that no man may seize the occasion to get half drunk and utter imbecile speeches and coarse pleasantries at my expense. We propose to furnish our own house according to our own taste; and I hereby give notice that the seven or eight travelling clocks, the four or five dressing cases, the salad bowls, the carvers and fish slices, the copy of Tennyson
^er
in extra morocco, and all the other articles you are preparing to heap upon us, will be instantly sold, and the proceeds devoted to circulating free copies of the Revolutionist's Handbook. The wedding will take place three days after our return to England, by special license, at the office of the district superintendent registrar, in the presence of my solicitor and his clerk, who, like his clients, will be in ordinary walking dress—

VIOLET [
with intense conviction
] You a r e a brute, Jack.

ANN [
looking at him with fond pride and caressing his arm
] Never mind her, dear. Go on talking.

TANNER Talking!

EXCERPTS FROM

THE REVOLUTIONIST'S HANDBOOK AND POCKET COMPANION

BY JOHN TANNER, M.I.R.C.

FOREWORD

A revolutionist is one who desires to discard the existing social order and try another.