SCENE--_Terrace and Grounds of the Grand Hôtel Villa d'Este,
on Lake Como. PODBURY and CULCHARD are walking up and down
together._
_Podbury._ Well, old chap, your resigning like that has made all the
difference to _me_, I can tell you!
_Culchard._ If I have succeeded in advancing your cause with Miss
PRENDERGAST, I am all the better pleased, of course.
_Podb._ You have, and no mistake. She's regularly taken me in hand,
don't you know--she says I've no intelligent appreciation of Italian
Art; and gad, I believe she's right there! But I'm pulling up--bound
to teach you a lot, seeing all the old altar-pieces I do! And she
gives me the right tips, don't you see; she's no end of a clever girl,
so well-read and all that! But I say--about Miss TROTTER? Don't want
to be inquisitive, you know, but you don't seem to be much _about_
with her.
[Illustration: "Bound to teach you a lot, seeing all the old
altar-pieces I do!"]
_Culch._ I--er--the feelings I entertain towards Miss TROTTER have
suffered no change--quite the reverse, only--and I wish to impress
this upon you, PODBURY--it is undesirable, for--er--many reasons,
to make my attentions--er--too conspicuous. I--I trust you have not
alluded to the matter to--well, to Miss PRENDERGAST, for example?
_Podb._ Not I, old fellow--got other things to talk about. But I don't
quite see why--
_Culch._ You are not _required_ to see. I don't _wish_ it, that is
all. I--er--think that should be sufficient.
_Podb._ Oh, all right, _I'll_ keep dark. But she's bound to know
sooner or later, now she and Miss TROTTER have struck up such
a friendship. And HYPATIA will be awfully pleased about it--why
_shouldn't_ she, you know?... I'm going to see if there's anyone on
the tennis-court, and get a game if I can. Ta-ta!
_Culch._ (_alone_). PODBURY knows very little about women. If
HYP--Miss PRENDERGAST--once found out _why_ I renounced my suitorship,
I should have very little peace, I know that--I've taken particular
care not to betray my attachment to MAUD. I'm afraid she's beginning
to notice it, but I must be careful. I don't like this sudden intimacy
between them--it makes things so very awkward. They've been sitting
under that tree over there for the last half-hour, and goodness only
knows what confidences they may have exchanged! I really must go up
and put a stop to it, presently.
_UNDER THE TREE._
_Hypatia._ I only tell you all this, sweetest one, because I _do_
think you have rather too low an opinion of men as a class, and I
wanted to show you that I have met at least _one_ man who was capable
of a real and disinterested devotion.
_Maud._ Well, I allowed that was about your idea.
_Hyp._ And don't you recognise that it was very fine of him to give up
everything for his friend's sake?
_Maud_. I guess it depends how much "everything" amounted to.
_Hyp._ (_annoyed_). I thought, darling, I had made it perfectly plain
what a sacrifice it meant to him. _I_ know how much he--I needn't tell
you there are certain symptoms one can_not_ be deceived in.
_Maud._ No, I guess you needn't tell me _that_, love. And it was
perfectly lovely of him to give you up, when he was under vow for you
and all, sooner than stand in his friend's light--only I don't just
see how that was going to help his friend any.
_Hyp._ Don't you, dearest? Not when the friend was under vow for me,
too?
_Maud._ Well, HYPATIA PRENDERGAST! And how many admirers do you have
around under vow, as a regular thing?
_Hyp._ There were only those two. RUSKIN permits as many as seven at
one time.
_Maud._ That's a vurry liberal allowance, too. I don't see how there'd
be sufficient suitors to go round. But maybe each gentleman can be
under vow for seven distinct girls, to make things sort of square now?
_Hyp._ Certainly not. The whole beauty of the idea lies in the
unselfish and exclusive devotion of every knight to the same sovereign
lady. In this case I happen to know that the--a--individual had never
met his ideal until--
_Maud._ Until he met you? At Nuremberg, wasn't it? My! And what was
his name? Do tell!
_Hyp._ You must not press me, sweetest, for I cannot tell that--even
to you.
_Maud._ I don't believe but what I could guess. But say, you didn't
care any for _him_, or you'd never have let him go like that? _I_
wouldn't. I should have suspected there was something behind!
_Hyp._ My feelings towards him were purely potential. I did him the
simple justice to believe that his self-abnegation was sincere. But,
with your practical, cynical little mind, darling, you are hardly
capable of--excuse me for saying so--of appreciating the real value
and meaning of such magnanimity!
_Maud._ Oh, I guess I _am_, though. Why, here's Mr. CULCHARD coming
along. Well, Mr. CULCHARD?
_Culch._ I--ah--appear to have interrupted a highly interesting
conversation?
_Maud._ Well, we were having a little discussion, and I guess you're
in time to give the casting vote--HYPATIA, you want to keep just
where you are, do you hear? I mean you should listen to Mr. CULCHARD's
opinion.
_Culch._ (_flattered_). Which I shall be delighted to give, if you
will put me in possession of the--er--facts.
_Maud._ Well, these are the--er--facts. There were two gentlemen under
vow--maybe you'll understand the working of that arrangement better
than I do?--under vow for the same young lady. [HYPATIA PRENDERGAST,
sit still, or I declare I'll pinch you!] One of them comes up and
tells her that he's arrived at the conclusion the other admirer is
the better man, and, being a friend of his, he ought to retire in
his favour, and he does it, too, right away. Now _I_ say that isn't
natural--he'd some other motive. Miss PRENDERGAST here will have it
he was one of those noble unselfish natures that deserve they should
be stuffed for a museum. What's _your_ opinion now?
_Culch._ (_perspiring freely_). Why--er--really, on so delicate a
matter, I--I-- [_He maunders._
_Hyp._ MAUD, why _will_ you be so headstrong! (_In a rapid whisper._)
Can't you see ... can't you _guess_?...
_Maud._ I guess I want to make sure Mr. CULCHARD isn't that kind of
magnanimous man himself. I shouldn't want him to renounce _me_!
_Hyp._ MAUD! You might at _least_ wait until Mr. CULCHARD has--
_Maud._ Oh, but he _did_--weeks ago, at Bingen. And at Lugano, too,
the other day, he spoke out tolerable plain. I guess he didn't wish
any secret made about it--_did_ you, Mr. CULCHARD?
_Culch._ I--ah--this conversation is rather ... If you'll excuse me--
[_Escapes with as much dignity as he can command._
_Maud._ Well, my dear,--that's the sort of self-denying hairpin _he_
is! What do you think of him _now_?
_Hyp._ I do not think so highly of him, I confess. His renunciation
was evidently less prompted by consideration for his friend than by a
recollection--tardy enough, I am afraid--of the duty which bound him
to _you_, dearest. But if you had seen and heard him, as I did, you
would not have doubted the _reality_ of the sacrifice, whatever the
true reason may have been. For myself, I am conscious of neither anger
nor sorrow--my heart, as I told you, was never really affected. But
what must it be to _you_, darling!
_Maud._ Well, I believe I'm more amused than anything.
_Hyp._ Amused! But surely you don't mean to have anything more to do
with him?
_Maud._ My dear girl, I intend to have considerable more to do with
him before I'm through. He's under vow for _me_ now, anyway, and I
don't mean he should forget it, either. He's my monkey, and he's got
to jump around pretty lively, at the end of a tolerable short chain,
too. And I guess, if it comes to renouncing, all the magnanimity's
going to be on _my_ side this time!
_IN AN AVENUE._
_Culch._ (_to himself, as he walks hurriedly on_). I only saved myself
in time. I don't _think_ MAUD noticed anything--she couldn't nave been
so innocent and indifferent if she had.... And HYPATIA won't enlighten
her any further now--after what she knows. It's rather a relief that
she _does_ know.... She took it very well, poor girl--_very_ well.
I expect she is really beginning to put up with PODBURY--I'm sure I
_hope_ so, sincerely!
* * * * *