FARRANT. [_With a throw of his head towards the distant_ HORSHAM.] He was so
bored with our politics ... having to give his opinion too. We could just
hear your piano.
_And he follows_ WALTER.
MRS. FARRANT. Take Amy O'Connell that lace thing, will you, Lucy?
LUCY DAVENPORT. [_Her tone expressing quite wonderfully her sentiments
towards the owner._] Don't you think she'd sooner catch cold?
_She catches it up and follows the two men; then after looking round
impatiently, swings off in the direction_ MRS. O'CONNELL _took. The
three women now left together are at their ease._
FRANCES TREBELL. Did you expect Mr. Blackborough to get on well with Henry?
MRS. FARRANT. He has become a millionaire by appreciating clever men when he
met them.
LADY DAVENPORT. Yes, Julia, but his political conscience is comparatively
new-born.
MRS. FARRANT. Well, Mamma, can we do without Mr. Trebell?
LADY DAVENPORT. Everyone seems to think you'll come back with something of a
majority.
MRS. FARRANT. [_A little impatient._] What's the good of that? The Bill
can't be brought into the Lords ... and who's going to take Disestablishment
through the Commons for us? Not Eustace Fowler ... not Mr. Blackborough ...
not Lord Charles ... not George!
LADY DAVENPORT. [_Warningly._] Not all your brilliance as a hostess will
keep Mr. Trebell in a Tory Cabinet.
MRS. FARRANT. [_With wilful avoidance of the point._] Cyril Horsham is only
too glad.
LADY DAVENPORT. Because you tell him he ought to be.
FRANCES TREBELL. [_Coming to the rescue._] There is this. Henry has never
exactly called himself a Liberal. He really is elected independently.
MRS. FARRANT. I wonder will all the garden-cities become pocket-boroughs.
FRANCES TREBELL. I think he has made a mistake.
MRS. FARRANT. It makes things easier now ... his having kept his freedom.
FRANCES TREBELL. I think it's a mistake to stand outside a system. There's
an inhumanity in that amount of detachment ...
MRS. FARRANT. [_Brilliantly._] I think a statesman may be a little inhuman.
LADY DAVENPORT. [_With keenness._] Do you mean superhuman? It's not the same
thing, you know.
MRS. FARRANT. I know.
LADY DAVENPORT. Most people don't know.
MRS. FARRANT. [_Proceeding with her cynicism._] Humanity achieves ... what?
Housekeeping and children.
FRANCES TREBELL. As far as a woman's concerned.
MRS. FARRANT. [_A little mockingly._] Now, Mamma, say that is as far as a
woman's concerned.
LADY DAVENPORT. My dear, you know I don't think so.
MRS. FARRANT. We may none of us think so. But there's our position ... bread
and butter and a certain satisfaction until ... Oh, Mamma, I wish I were
like you ... beyond all the passions of life.
LADY DAVENPORT. [_With great vitality._] I'm nothing of the sort. It's my
egoism's dead ... that's an intimation of mortality.
MRS. FARRANT. I accept the snub. But I wonder what I'm to do with myself for
the next thirty years.
FRANCES TREBELL. Help Lord Horsham to govern the country.
JULIA FARRANT _gives a little laugh and takes up the subject this
time._
MRS. FARRANT. Mamma ... how many people, do you think, believe that Cyril's
_grande passion_ for me takes that form?
LADY DAVENPORT. Everyone who knows Cyril and most people who know you.
MRS. FARRANT. Otherwise I seem to have fulfilled my mission in life. The
boys are old enough to go to school. George and I have become happily
unconscious of each other.
FRANCES TREBELL. [_With sudden energy of mind._] Till I was forty I never
realised the fact that most women must express themselves through men.
MRS. FARRANT. [_Looking at_ FRANCES _a little curiously._] Didn't your
instinct lead you to marry ... or did you fight against it?
FRANCES TREBELL. I don't know. Perhaps I had no vitality to spare.
LADY DAVENPORT. That boy is a long time proposing to Lucy.
_This effectually startles the other two from their conversational
reverie._
MRS. FARRANT. Walter? I'm not sure that he means to. She means to marry him
if he does.
FRANCES TREBELL. Has she told you so?
MRS. FARRANT. No. I judge by her business-like interest in his welfare.
FRANCES TREBELL. He's beginning to feel the responsibility of manhood ...
doesn't know whether to be frightened or proud of it.
LADY DAVENPORT. It's a pretty thing to watch young people mating. When
they're older and marry from disappointment or deliberate choice, thinking
themselves so worldly-wise....
MRS. FARRANT, [_Back to her politely cynical mood._] Well ... then at least
they don't develop their differences at the same fire-side, regretting the
happy time when neither possessed any character at all.
LADY DAVENPORT. [_Giving a final douche of common sense._] My dear, any two
reasonable people ought to be able to live together.
FRANCES TREBELL. Granted three sitting rooms. That'll be the next
middle-class political cry ... when women are heard.
MRS. FARRANT. [_Suddenly as practical as her mother._] Walter's lucky ...
Lucy won't stand any nonsense. She'll have him in the Cabinet by the time
he's fifty.
LADY DAVENPORT. And are you the power behind your brother, Miss Trebell?
FRANCES TREBELL. [_Gravely._] He ignores women. I've forced enough good
manners on him to disguise the fact decently. His affections are two
generations ahead.
MRS. FARRANT. People like him in an odd sort of way.
FRANCES TREBELL. That's just respect for work done ... one can't escape from
it.
_There is a slight pause in their talk. By some not very devious
route_ MRS. FARRANT'S _mind travels to the next subject._
MRS. FARRANT. Fanny ... how fond are you of Amy O'Connell?
FRANCES TREBELL. She says we're great friends.
MRS. FARRANT. She says that of me.
FRANCES TREBELL. It's a pity about her husband.
MRS. FARRANT. [_Almost provokingly._] What about him?
FRANCES TREBELL. It seems to be understood that he treats her badly.
LADY DAVENPORT. [_A little malicious._] Is there any particular reason he
should treat her well?
FRANCES TREBELL. Don't you like her, Lady Davenport?
LADY DAVENPORT. [_Dealing out justice._] I find her quite charming to look
at and talk to ... but why shouldn't Justin O'Connell live in Ireland for
all that? I'm going to bed, Julia.
_She collects her belongings and gets up._
MRS. FARRANT. I must look in at the billiard room.
FRANCES TREBELL. I won't come, Julia.
MRS. FARRANT. What's your brother working at?
FRANCES TREBELL. I don't know. Something we shan't hear of for a year,
perhaps.
MRS. FARRANT. On the Church business, I daresay.
FRANCES TREBELL. Did you hear Lord Horsham at dinner on the lack of dignity
in an irreligious state?
MRS. FARRANT. Poor Cyril ... he'll have to find a way round that opinion of
his now.
FRANCES TREBELL. Does he like leading his party?
MRS. FARRANT. [_After due consideration._] It's an intellectual exercise.
He's the right man, Fanny. You see it isn't a party in the active sense at
all, except now and then when it's captured by someone with an axe to grind.
FRANCES TREBELL. [_Humorously._] Such as my brother.
MRS. FARRANT. [_As humorous._] Such as your brother. It expresses the
thought of the men who aren't taken in by the claptrap of progress.
FRANCES TREBELL. Sometimes they've a queer way of expressing their love for
the people of England.
MRS. FARRANT. But one must use democracy. Wellington wouldn't ... Disraeli
did.
LADY DAVENPORT. [_At the door._] Good-night, Miss Trebell.
FRANCES TREBELL. I'm coming ... it's past eleven.
MRS. FARRANT. [_At the window._] What a gorgeous night! I'll come in and
kiss you, Mamma.
FRANCES _follows_ LADY DAVENPORT _and_ MRS. FARRANT _starts across the
lawn to the billiard room.... An hour later you can see no change in
the room except that only one lamp is alight on the table in the
middle._ AMY O'CONNELL _and_ HENRY TREBELL _walk past one window and
stay for a moment in the light of the other. Her wrap is about her
shoulders. He stands looking down at her._
AMY O'CONNELL. There goes the moon ... it's quieter than ever now. [_She
comes in._] Is it very late?
TREBELL. [_As he follows._] Half-past twelve.
TREBELL _is hard-bitten, brainy, forty-five and very sure of himself.
He has a cold keen eye, which rather belies a sensitive mouth; hands
which can grip, and a figure that is austere._
AMY O'CONNELL. I ought to be in bed. I suppose everyone has gone.
TREBELL. Early trains to-morrow. The billiard room lights are out.
AMY O'CONNELL. The walk has just tired me comfortably.
TREBELL. Sit down. [_She sits by the table. He sits by her and says with the
air of a certain buyer at a market._] You're very pretty.
AMY O'CONNELL. As well here as by moonlight? Can't you see any wrinkles?
TREBELL. One or two ... under the eyes. But they give character and bring
you nearer my age. Yes, Nature hit on the right curve in making you.
_She stretches herself, cat-like._
AMY O'CONNELL. Praise is the greatest of luxuries, isn't it, Henry? ...
Henry ... [_she caresses the name._]
TREBELL. Quite right ... Henry.
AMY O'CONNELL. Henry ... Trebell.
TREBELL. Having formally taken possession of my name....
AMY O'CONNELL. I'll go to bed.
_His eyes have never moved from her. Now she breaks the contact and
goes towards the door._
TREBELL. I wouldn't ... my spare time for love making is so limited.
_She turns back, quite at ease, her eyes challenging him._
AMY O'CONNELL. That's the first offensive thing you've said.
TREBELL. Why offensive?
AMY O'CONNELL. I may flirt. Making love's another matter.
TREBELL. Sit down and explain the difference ... Mrs. O'Connell.
_She sits down._
AMY O'CONNELL. Quite so. 'Mrs. O'Connell'. That's the difference.
TREBELL. [_Provokingly._] But I doubt if I'm interested in the fact that
your husband doesn't understand you and that your marriage was a mistake ...
and how hard you find it to be strong.
AMY O'CONNELL. [_Kindly._] I'm not quite a fool though you think so on a
three months' acquaintance. But tell me this ... what education besides
marriage does a woman get?
TREBELL. [_His head lifting quickly._] Education....
AMY O'CONNELL. Don't be business-like.
TREBELL. I beg your pardon.
AMY O'CONNELL. Do you think the things you like to have taught in schools
are any use to one when one comes to deal with you?
TREBELL. [_After a little scrutiny of her-face._] Well, if marriage is only
the means to an end ... what's the end? Not flirtation.
AMY O'CONNELL. [_With an air of self-revelation._] I don't know. To keep
one's place in the world, I suppose, one's self-respect and a sense of
humour.
TREBELL. Is that difficult?
AMY O'CONNELL. To get what I want, without paying more than it's worth to
me....?
TREBELL. Never to be reckless.
AMY O'CONNELL. [_With a side-glance._] One isn't so often tempted.
TREBELL. In fact ... to flirt with life generally. Now, what made your
husband marry you?
AMY O'CONNELL. [_Dealing with the impertinence in her own fashion._] What
would make you marry me? Don't say: Nothing on earth.
TREBELL. [_Speaking apparently of someone else._] A prolonged fit of
idleness might make me marry ... a clever woman. But I've never been idle
for more than a week. And I've never met a clever woman ... worth calling a
woman.
AMY O'CONNELL. [_Bringing their talk back to herself, and fastidiously._]
Justin has all the natural instincts.
TREBELL. He's Roman Catholic, isn't he?
AMY O'CONNELL. So am I ... by profession.
TREBELL. It's a poor religion unless you really believe in it.
AMY O'CONNELL. [_Appealing to him._] If I were to live at Linaskea and have
as many children as God sent, I should manage to make Justin pretty
miserable! And what would be left of me at all I should like to know?
TREBELL. So Justin lives at Linaskea alone?