TREBELL. Evans?
KENT. The reverend one . . is downstairs and wants to see you.
WEDGECROFT. [_As he comes to them._] Hampstead Road Tabernacle . . Oh,
the mammon of righteousness!
TREBELL. Shut up! How long have I before Lord Charles--?
KENT. Only ten minutes.
MRS. O'CONNELL _goes to sit at the big table, and apparently idly takes
a sheet of paper to scribble on_.
TREBELL. [_Half thinking, half questioning._] He's a man I can say
nothing to politely.
WEDGECROFT. I'm off to Percival's now. Then I've another case and I'm
due back at twelve. If there's anything helpful to say I'll look in
again for two minutes . . not more.
TREBELL. You're a good man.
WEDGECROFT. [_As he goes._] Congratulations, Kent.
KENT. [_Taking him to the stairs._] Thank you very much.
AMY. [_Beckoning with her eyes._] What's this, Mr. Trebell?
TREBELL. Eh? I beg your pardon.
_He goes behind her and reads over her shoulder what she has written._
KENT _comes back_.
KENT. Shall I bring him up here?
TREBELL _looks up and for a moment stares at his secretary rather
sharply, then speaks in a matter-of-fact voice_.
TREBELL. See him yourself, downstairs. Talk to him for five minutes . .
find out what he wants. Tell him it will be as well for the next week or
two if he can say he hasn't seen me.
KENT. Yes.
_He goes._ TREBELL _follows him to the door which he shuts. Then he
turns to face_ AMY, _who is tearing up the paper she wrote on_.
TREBELL. What is it?
AMY. [_Her steady voice breaking, her carefully calculated control
giving way._] Oh Henry . . Henry!
TREBELL. Are you in trouble?
AMY. You'll hate me, but . . oh, it's brutal of you to have been away so
long.
TREBELL. Is it with your husband?
AMY. Perhaps. Oh, come nearer to me . . do.
TREBELL. [_Coming nearer without haste or excitement._] Well? [_Her eyes
are closed._] My dear girl, I'm too busy for love-making now. If there
are any facts to be faced, let me have them . . quite quickly.
_She looks up at him for a moment; then speaks swiftly and sharply as
one speaks of disaster._
AMY. There's a danger of my having a child . . your child . . some time
in April. That's all.
TREBELL. [_A sceptic who has seen a vision._] Oh . . it's impossible.
AMY. [_Flashing at him, revengefully._] Why?
TREBELL. [_Brought to his mundane self._] Well . . are you sure?
AMY. [_In sudden agony._] D'you think I want it to be true? D'you think
I--? You don't know what it is to have a thing happening in spite of
you.
TREBELL. [_His face set in thought._] Where have you been since we met?
AMY. Not to Ireland . . I haven't seen Justin for a year.
TREBELL. All the easier for you not to see him for another year.
AMY. That wasn't what you meant.
TREBELL. It wasn't . . but never mind.
_They are silent for a moment . . miles apart. . Then she speaks dully._
AMY. We do hate each other . . don't we!
TREBELL. Nonsense. Let's think of what matters.
AMY. [_Aimlessly._] I went to a man at Dover . . picked him out of the
directory . . didn't give my own name . . pretended I was off abroad. He
was a kind old thing . . said it was all most satisfactory. Oh, my God!
TREBELL. [_He goes to bend over her kindly._] Yes, you've had a
torturing month or two. That's been wrong, I'm sorry.
AMY. Even now I have to keep telling myself that it's so . . otherwise I
couldn't understand it. Any more than one really believes one will ever
die . . one doesn't believe that, you know.
TREBELL. [_On the edge of a sensation that is new to him._] I am told
that a man begins to feel unimportant from this moment forward. Perhaps
it's true.
AMY. What has it to do with you anyhow? We don't belong to each other.
How long were we together that night? Half an hour! You didn't seem to
care a bit until after you'd kissed me and . . this is an absurd
consequence.
TREBELL. Nature's a tyrant.
AMY. Oh, it's my punishment . . I see that well enough . . for thinking
myself so clever . . forgetting my duty and religion . . not going to
confession, I mean. [_Then hysterically._] God can make you believe in
Him when he likes, can't he?
TREBELL. [_With comfortable strength._] My dear girl, this needs your
pluck. [_And he sits by her._] All we have to do is to prevent it being
found out.
AMY. Yes . . the scandal would smash you, wouldn't it?
TREBELL. There isn't going to be any scandal.
AMY. No . . if we're careful. You'll tell me what to do, won't you? Oh,
it's a relief to be able to talk about it.
TREBELL. For one thing, you must take care of yourself and stop
worrying.
_It soothes her to feel that he is concerned; but it is not enough to be
soothed._
AMY. Yes, I wouldn't like to have been the means of smashing you, Henry
. . especially as you don't care for me.
TREBELL. I intend to care for you.
AMY. Love me, I mean. I wish you did . . a little; then perhaps I
shouldn't feel so degraded.
TREBELL. [_A shade impatiently, a shade contemptuously._] I can say I
love you if that'll make things easier.
AMY. [_More helpless than ever._] If you'd said it at first I should be
taking it for granted . . though it wouldn't be any more true, I
daresay, than now . . when I should know you weren't telling the truth.
TREBELL. Then I'd do without so much confusion.
AMY. Don't be so heartless.
TREBELL. [_As he leaves her._] We seem to be attaching importance to
such different things.
AMY. [_Shrill even at a momentary desertion._] What do you mean? I want
affection now just as I want food. I can't do without it . . I can't
reason things out as you can. D'you think I haven't tried? [_Then in
sudden rebellion._] Oh, the physical curse of being a woman . . no
better than any savage in this condition . . worse off than an animal.
It's unfair.
TREBELL. Never mind . . you're here now to hand me half the
responsibility, aren't you?
AMY. As if I could! If I have to lie through the night simply shaking
with bodily fear much longer . . I believe I shall go mad.
_This aspect of the matter is meaningless to him. He returns to the
practical issue._
TREBELL. There's nobody that need be suspecting, is there?
AMY. My maid sees I'm ill and worried and makes remarks . . only to me
so far. Don't I look a wreck? I nearly ran away when I saw Dr.
Wedgecroft . . some of these men are so clever.
TREBELL. [_Calculating._] Someone will have to be trusted.
AMY. [_Burrowing into her little tortured self again._] And I ought to
feel as if I had done Justin a great wrong . . but I don't. I hate you
now; now and then. I was being myself. You've brought me down. I feel
worthless.
_The last word strikes him. He stares at her._
TREBELL. Do you?
AMY. [_Pleadingly._] There's only one thing I'd like you to tell me,
Henry . . it isn't much. That night we were together . . it was for a
moment different to everything that has ever been in your life before,
wasn't it?
TREBELL. [_Collecting himself as if to explain to a child._] I must make
you understand . . I must get you to realise that for a little time to
come you're above the law . . above even the shortcomings and
contradictions of a man's affection.
AMY. But let us have one beautiful memory to share.
TREBELL. [_Determined she shall face the cold logic of her position._]
Listen. I look back on that night as one looks back on a fit of
drunkenness.
AMY. [_Neither understanding nor wishing to; only shocked and hurt._]
You beast.
TREBELL. [_With bitter sarcasm._] No, don't say that. Won't it comfort
you to think of drunkenness as a beautiful thing? There are precedents
enough . . classic ones.
AMY. You mean I might have been any other woman.
TREBELL. [_Quite inexorable._] Wouldn't any other woman have served the
purpose . . and is it less of a purpose because we didn't know we had
it? Does my unworthiness then . . if you like to call it so . . make you
unworthy now? I must make you see that it doesn't.
AMY. [_Petulantly hammering at her idee fixe._] But you didn't love me . .
and you don't love me.
TREBELL. [_Keeping his patience._] No . . only within the last five
minutes have I really taken the smallest interest in you. And now I
believe I'm half jealous. Can you understand that? You've been talking a
lot of nonsense about your emotions and your immortal soul. Don't you
see it's only now that you've become a person of some importance to the
world . . and why?
AMY. [_Losing her patience, childishly._] What do you mean by the World?
You don't seem to have any personal feelings at all. It's horrible you
should have thought of me like that. There has been no other man than
you that I would have let come anywhere near me . . not for more than a
year.
_He realises that she will never understand._
TREBELL. My dear girl, I'm sorry to be brutal. Does it matter so much to
you that I should have =wished= to be the father of your child?
AMY. [_Ungracious but pacified by his change of tone._] It doesn't
matter now.
TREBELL. [_Friendly still._] On principle I don't make promises. But I
think I can promise you that if you keep your head and will keep your
health, this shall all be made as easy for you as if everyone could
know. And let's think what the child may mean to you . . just the fact
of his birth. Nothing to me, of course! Perhaps that accounts for the
touch of jealousy. I've forfeited my rights because I hadn't honourable
intentions. You can't forfeit yours. Even if you never see him and he
has to grow up among strangers . . just to have had a child must make a
difference to you. Of course, it may be a girl. I wonder.
_As he wanders on so optimistically she stares at him and her face
changes. She realises . ._
AMY. Do you expect me to go through with this? Henry! . . I'd sooner
kill myself.
_There is silence between them. He looks at her as one looks at some
unnatural thing. Then after a moment he speaks, very coldly._
TREBELL. Oh . . indeed. Don't get foolish ideas into your head. You've
no choice now . . no reasonable choice.
AMY. [_Driven to bay; her last friend an enemy._] I won't go through
with it.