The scene is Evelyn Bathurst’s flat. It is a manly apartment, furnished with precision but no imagination. There is a door up left opening into a small hall and thence to the front door. Up right is Evie’s bedroom and down left a service door. Between these two is the fireplace, in front of which is a large sofa and a couple of armchairs. The windows occupy the right wall. The table, center, is laid for two.
[When the curtain rises, it is about 9.15 p.m. and Blackwell is putting the finishing touches, which consist of a bowl of roses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. He is regarding his handiwork pensively when there comes the sound of a key in the front door. After a moment Evelyn and Carol enter. Evelyn is wearing a dinner jacket; Carol, an elaborately simple dinner dress and cloak.]
Carol
What a nice flat!
Evelyn
I’ve been here for years.
Carol
It’s all quite typical of you.
Evelyn
How do you know?
Carol
Well, don’t you think it is?
Evelyn
I’ve never thought about it much.
Carol
Solid and rather austere.
Evelyn
That sounds beastly.
Carol
No. I like it.
Evelyn
I’m glad. Let me take your cloak. [He takes her cloak and lays it over a chair.] Cocktails please, Blackwell.
Blackwell
Yes, sir.
[He goes off.]
Carol
I suppose he’s been with you as long as the flat?
Evelyn
Longer, really; he was my batman when I was a raw subaltern.
Carol
[Smiling]
You must have been rather nice as a subaltern.
Evelyn
Oh no, I wasn’t. You ask Edward.
Carol
Edward adores you.
Evelyn
We’re very old friends.
Carol
It’s always puzzled me. You’re so very different from each other.
Evelyn
Edward’s a damn sight cleverer.
Carol
Now then—
Evelyn
But he is.
Carol
You seem to have done very well at your job and you’re always winning things.
Evelyn
I haven’t done anything.
Carol
Nonsense. [She wanders round the room, looking at photographs.] Who’s this?
Evelyn
Mary Liddle. I was engaged to her once.
Carol
Oh, I see.
Evelyn
I suppose you want to know why nothing ever came of it.
Carol
Of course.
Evelyn
She ran off with some one she hardly knew.
Carol
What a shame!
Evelyn
I expect I bored her stiff—
Carol
Were you very much in love with her?
Evelyn
Yes. I think I was.
Carol
I can’t imagine you in love.
Evelyn
It doesn’t happen often.
Carol
[Smiling and patting his arm]
Never mind, Evie.
Evelyn
I don’t. It’s a relief really.
[Blackwell enters with the cocktails; they both take them.]
Evelyn
Dinner please, Blackwell.
Blackwell
Very good, sir.
[He goes out.]
Carol
[At another photograph]
Is this your mother?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
You’re awfully like her.
Evelyn
It’s the nose, I think.
Carol
And the chin—so firm and unrelenting. I love firm chins.
Evelyn
They’re awfully deceptive.
Carol
[Sipping her cocktail]
Are they, Evie?
Evelyn
Yes. I’m as weak as water, really.
Carol
You’ll have to prove it to me before I believe it.
Evelyn
I’d rather not.
[Blackwell enters with caviare.]
Evelyn
Come and sit down.
Carol
[Sitting at table]
What divine roses!
Evelyn
They’re in your honor.
Carol
Thank you. I hoped they were.
[Blackwell helps her to caviare.]
Evelyn
[Opening champagne]
I feel awfully flattered at your being here.
Carol
Why should you?
Evelyn
I just do.
Carol
Don’t be silly. [He fills her glass and his own.] Thanks.
Evelyn
I feel flattered because it’s something I never thought possible.
Carol
Me dining with you?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
Idiot.
[She smiles.]
Evelyn
I’ve always seen you as a frightfully dazzling creature—always in demand—always rushing about.
Carol
Just because you feel flattered yourself, you mustn’t begin to flatter me.
Evelyn
Is that flattery?
Carol
Isn’t it?
Evelyn
Well yes, and no.
Carol
You mean you’ve never quite approved of me.
Evelyn
I didn’t say that.
Carol
I believe it’s true, all the same.
Evelyn
I’ve wondered a bit what you were really like.
Carol
[With subtle pathos]
I don’t think I know, myself.
Evelyn
You haven’t had much time to think, have you?
Carol
No—I suppose not.
Evelyn
[Sententiously]
We’re all so different underneath.
Carol
[Laughing]
Oh, Evie!
Evelyn
What?
Carol
You’re awfully serious.
Evelyn
Don’t laugh at me.
Carol
I wasn’t.
Evelyn
I don’t mind, really; it shows that you’re enjoying yourself.
Carol
I am thoroughly.
Evelyn
I was terrified that you’d be bored.
Carol
You’re fishing again.
Evelyn
I wish you weren’t so quick; it embarrasses me.
[He laughs.]
Carol
I’ll try to be slower.
[She laughs too.]
Evelyn
I’m the plodding sort, you know—gets there in the end, but takes a long time about it.
Carol
Nonsense!
Evelyn
The British army doesn’t specialize in wit.
Carol
I won’t hear a word against the British army.
Evelyn
[With jocularity]
Hurrah!
[They both laugh.]
Carol
You’re like a schoolboy.
Evelyn
I feel one with you.
Carol
Do I look so terribly old?
Evelyn
You know I didn’t mean that.
Carol
I’ll let you off this time, but you mustn’t do it again.
[Blackwell enters with the soup; he takes away the caviare plates.]
Evelyn
How long is it since you dined quietly like this?
Carol
Oh, ages.
Evelyn
I thought so.
Carol
You’re looking disapproving again.
[Blackwell serves the soup and exits.]
Evelyn
I think I’m envious.
Carol
Envious?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
No, you’re not, really.
Evelyn
Your life would never suit me, I know, but somehow it does sound rather fun, for a change.
Carol
Let’s make a bargain.
Evelyn
I know what you’re going to say.
Carol
Change over for a bit.
Evelyn
Temptress.
Carol
You come out to a few theaters and parties with me—
Evelyn
I can’t dance well enough.
Carol
I’ll soon teach you.
Evelyn
I’d drive you mad.
Carol
Have you a gramophone here?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
We’ll start after dinner.
Evelyn
All right.
Carol
And whenever I’m tired and sick of everything, I’ll come here and dine quietly like this.
Evelyn
Will you, honestly?
Carol
Of course, if you stick to your side of the compact.
Evelyn
I don’t believe you’ll have the patience to carry it through.
Carol
You must despise me.
Evelyn
Despise you? Good Heavens! Why?
Carol
You’re so untrusting.
Evelyn
No, I’m not; but it does look as though I were going to get more out of this than you.
Carol
Not at all. It’s a perfectly fair exchange. You’ve no idea how utterly weary I get every now and then.
Evelyn
Poor Carol.
Carol
This is peace, absolute peace, and I’m tremendously grateful to you for it.
[They look at each other in silence for a moment. Evelyn’s expression is faintly nonplused.]
Evelyn
The compact’s on.
Carol
Good! Shake hands.
Evelyn
Right you are.
[They shake hands across the table. Carol allows hers to remain in his a shade more than is strictly necessary.]
Carol
Do you want to come to the first night of “Round Pegs” on Thursday?
Evelyn
What on earth’s that?
Carol
A new play by Burton Trask.
Evelyn
Who’s he?
Carol
[Laughing]
Oh, Evie!
Evelyn
Well, how should I know?
Carol
He’s only the most talked of dramatist we’ve got.
Evelyn
Sorry.
Carol
He wrote “The Sinful Spinster.”
Evelyn
Oh, the play all the fuss was about last year.
Carol
Yes.
Evelyn
It sounded pretty hot stuff.
Carol
It wasn’t, really, but the woman in it fell in love with a man younger than herself and the Church of England didn’t like it.
Evelyn
Oh, I see!
Carol
You need educating badly.
Evelyn
I’m afraid I do.
[Blackwell enters and takes away their soup plates.]
Carol
Wasn’t it funny us talking this afternoon and you asking me to dine all in a minute?
Evelyn
Awfully funny, but very lucky for me.
Carol
You make me feel shy when you say things like that. It was just as lucky for me.
Evelyn
[With intensity]
Was it, honestly?
Carol
[Looking down]
Of course.
[Blackwell enters with partridges and attendant vegetables. He serves them during the ensuing dialogue.]
Evelyn
Edward’s looking awfully tired these days.
Carol
[Absently]
Is he? I haven’t noticed it.
Evelyn
Why, you said so yourself this afternoon.
Carol
So I did. I remember he looked very wan when I came in. By the way, what were you two discussing so intently. I felt as though I were interrupting a Masonic meeting.
Evelyn
Nothing particular.
Carol
Me, by any chance?
Evelyn
Good Heavens, no!
Carol
There’s no need to be so vehement about it; it wouldn’t have mattered if you had been.
Evelyn
Have some more champagne.
Carol
Thanks—just a little.
[She holds out her glass and he fills it, also his own.]
Evelyn
[With great boldness]
Why did you think we were talking about you?
Carol
You both looked so guilty.
Evelyn
Surely that proves we weren’t.
Carol
Very good, Evie.
Evelyn
You’re embarrassing me dreadfully.
Carol
Am I? Why?
Evelyn
Because we were discussing you.
Carol
Ah!
Evelyn
I see it’s useless to try and deceive you for moment.
Carol
What were you saying?
Evelyn
Must I tell you?
Carol
Certainly.
Evelyn
You’re terribly unrelenting.
Carol
Come on—out with it.
Evelyn
I was lecturing Edward.
[Blackwell goes out.]
Carol
Lecturing him?
Evelyn
Yes. I said he was paying too much attention to his work and not enough to you.
Carol
And do you think that’s true?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
It isn’t; it’s the other way round, really. I neglect Edward. You should have saved your lecture for me.
Evelyn
I’m sure it’s his fault, really, he’s so damned lackadaisical.
Carol
It was nice of you, but a little interfering.
Evelyn
I’m sorry. I suppose I deserve to be snubbed.
Carol
I’m not snubbing you, exactly, but I’m puzzled.
Evelyn
Why puzzled?
Carol
It seems so strange that you should have taken up the cudgels on my side.
Evelyn
That was how I saw the situation.
Carol
I never realized there was a situation.
Evelyn
There isn’t, but there may be soon.
Carol
How horrid of you!
Evelyn
I know Edward pretty well, you know.
Carol
And me hardly at all.
Evelyn
Exactly. That’s why I went to him, as I told you this afternoon. I always felt that you disliked me and thought me dull.
Carol
How absurd!
Evelyn
You did, all the same. You’d have crushed me to the earth if I’d dared mention the subject to you.
Carol
You must have thought me a prig.
Evelyn
Not in the least. I quite saw your point.
Carol
And now—?
Evelyn
Now I’m muddled.
Carol
Have I muddled you, Evie?
Evelyn
Yes, terribly.
Carol
I’m so glad.
Evelyn
That’s malicious of you.
Carol
Go ahead with your lecture.
Evelyn
Certainly not.
Carol
Whose fault do you consider this slight drifting apart—Edward’s or mine?
Evelyn
Edward’s.
Carol
I told you it was mine.
Evelyn
I don’t believe you.
Carol
Stubborn.
Evelyn
Is it yours?
Carol
Yes.
Evelyn
Why?
Carol
[Seriously]
Oh, Evie—
Evelyn
Tell me.
Carol
It’s rather difficult.
Evelyn
I’m awfully sympathetic.
Carol
I believe you are.
Evelyn
You love him still, don’t you?
Carol
Yes—in a way.
Evelyn
But not so much as you did?
Carol
Not quite so much.
Evelyn
I suppose that’s inevitable in married life, always.
Carol
I expect it is.
Evelyn
It’s sad, though.
Carol
Not if one isn’t sentimental about it.
Evelyn
Are you ever sentimental about anything?
Carol
[Wistfully]
Do I seem so hard?
Evelyn
A little, I think.
Carol
I’m not, really.
Evelyn
I’m afraid Edward’s unhappy.
Carol
Not deep down inside.
Evelyn
Are you sure?
Carol
He may think he is.
Evelyn
Poor Edward.
Carol
He doesn’t love me quite so much, either, you know.
Evelyn
Perhaps he wants to, but you won’t let him.
Carol
Evie, why are we talking like this?
Evelyn
I don’t know.
Carol
I can’t bear to pretend about things.
Evelyn
You’re quite right; it doesn’t pay in the long run.
Carol
But I don’t want you to blame Edward and lecture him for something that’s not entirely his fault.
Evelyn
I see.
Carol
I’m awfully fond of him and I always shall be, but—
Evelyn
But what?
Carol
Don’t let’s say any more about it.
Evelyn
All right. You’re rather a dear, you know.
Carol
Am I?
Evelyn
More than I ever suspected!
Carol
Oh, Evie!
[They look at each other for a moment, Evelyn intently, Carol with a faintly wistful smile. Blackwell enters to collect the plates and serve the sweet—pêche Melba—which he does during ensuing dialogue.]
Evelyn
You don’t like Zoe St. Merryn, do you?
Carol
Why do you suddenly ask that?
Evelyn
I felt you didn’t this afternoon.
Carol
She’s rather obvious, I think.
Evelyn
In what way?
Carol
She tries to be clever.
Evelyn
I always thought she was clever.
Carol
Yes, most men do, but very few women.
Evelyn
Why is that?
Carol
Because they see through her. All that divorce business was a put-up job.
Evelyn
I say, Carol!
Carol
Don’t look so shocked. Of course it was. She’s been so brave and defiant over it. Men love that.
Evelyn
Aren’t you being a little hard on her?
Carol
No, not really. I know her type so well.
Evelyn
She’s an old friend of Edward’s, isn’t she?
Carol
Yes, but that hasn’t anything to do with it. She tried to marry him once.
Evelyn
He seems very fond of her.
Carol
She flatters him terribly. He’s an awful baby.
Evelyn
Thank Heaven I haven’t got your feminine intuition. It must complicate life dreadfully.
Carol
It’s very useful sometimes.
Evelyn
Do you size everyone up so mercilessly.
Carol
[Laughing]
Perhaps.
Evelyn
I’m trembling visibly.
Carol
Nonsense! You’re not frightened by anything, really.
Evelyn
You don’t know!
[Blackwell goes out.]
Carol
Well, you shouldn’t be, anyhow.
Evelyn
That’s different.
Carol
Why did you ask me not to tell Edward I was dining with you?
Evelyn
[Nonplused]
Did I?
Carol
You know you did.
Evelyn
Perhaps I was afraid he’d think I was interfering again.
Carol
Did he tell you that, too?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
[Smiling]
Never mind.
Evelyn
I don’t. I’m used to Edward.
Carol
So am I.
Evelyn
But when you tell me I’m interfering, I feel beastly.
Carol
You are, you know.
Evelyn
There! You’ve done it again.
Carol
People like Edward and me should be left to manage our own troubles.
Evelyn
All right. From now on I won’t say a word.
Carol
Cheer up.
Evelyn
I’m a blundering fool, anyhow.
Carol
[Laughing]
Yes.
Evelyn
And instead of making you like me, I’ve made you laugh at me.
Carol
That’s not quite true.
Evelyn
I’m afraid it is.
Carol
You don’t know a bit what I’m really like.
Evelyn
No.
Carol
Do you want to?
Evelyn
Yes.
Carol
I’m not sure that it’s wise.
Evelyn
Why not?
Carol
You might be shocked.
Evelyn
As bad as that?
Carol
Yes—as bad as that.
Evelyn
I don’t believe it.
Carol
Good.
Evelyn
You’re too sensitive to behave really badly.
Carol
That’s nonsense.
Evelyn
No, it isn’t.
Carol
Sensitiveness hasn’t anything to do with it.
Evelyn
Yes, it has.
Carol
Don’t contradict me.
Evelyn
[With truculence]
Why shouldn’t I?
Carol
Because it infuriates me.
Evelyn
[Slowly]
We’re almost quarreling.
Carol
Yes.
Evelyn
I’m sorry.
Carol
Antagonism is a bad sign.
Evelyn
What do you mean?
Carol
[Suddenly burying her face in her hands]
Oh, Evie!
Evelyn
[Alarmed]
What on earth’s the matter?
Carol
[Muffled]
Nothing.
Evelyn
Carol, don’t—please—
[He gets up and comes to her.]
Carol
No, no. Sit down. Your man will be in in a moment.
Evelyn
Do tell me what’s wrong.
Carol
Sit down, please.
Evelyn
All right.
[He sits down.]
Carol
Give me my bag, will you? It’s over there. I want to powder my nose.
[Evelyn rises. When his back is toward her, an expression of extreme satisfaction flits across Carol’s face. By the time he has turned she is once again bravely melancholy.]
Evelyn
Here.
[He gives her her bag.]
Carol
Thank you.
[She looks up at him with a weary smile. Blackwell enters and takes away the remains of the sweet.]
Evelyn
Serve the coffee at once, Blackwell; then I shan’t want you any more.
Blackwell
Very good, sir.
[He goes out.]
Carol
I feel better now.
Evelyn
I don’t suppose you’ll ever want to dine with me again.
Carol
Don’t be silly. Of course I shall.
Evelyn
I seem to have depressed you terribly.
Carol
No—it’s not your fault, really.
Evelyn
I wish I understood you a bit better.
Carol
I’m glad you don’t.
[Blackwell enters with coffee and liqueurs, which he places beside Evelyn.]
Evelyn
Thank you, Blackwell. Good night.
Blackwell
Good night, sir.
[He goes out.]
Evelyn
Coffee?
Carol
Yes, please.
Evelyn
[Pouring it out]
Sugar?
Carol
One.
Evelyn
[Handing it to her]
There. Cointreau or brandy?
Carol
Cointreau—just a little.
Evelyn
The brandy’s very good.
Carol
All right. Brandy, then—you’re so dominant.
Evelyn
Don’t laugh at me any more.
Carol
I must a little.
Evelyn
Here you are.
[He gives her some brandy and takes some himself.]
Carol
Next time I come I’ll try to be more amusing.
Evelyn
I don’t want you to be amusing if you don’t feel like it.
Carol
You’re awfully kind and gentle.
Evelyn
I want you to relax completely.
Carol
I am relaxing completely.
Evelyn
I feel you need it.
Carol
No one else has ever taken the trouble to feel that.
Evelyn
They’re all too occupied in enjoying themselves.
Carol
But I don’t think they do, really.
Evelyn
That’s true, but they wouldn’t dare admit it.
Carol
Put the gramophone on.
Evelyn
Now?
Carol
Yes, please, or I shall cry again.
Evelyn
[Rising]
What shall we have?
Carol
Something blaring and noisy.
Evelyn
What a baby you are!
Carol
Am I? [He puts on a foxtrot and stands by the machine looking at her. After a pause she speaks.] I love this tune.
Evelyn
It’s not very new, I’m afraid. I must get some more of the latest ones.
Carol
Are you ready for your lesson?
Evelyn
Lesson?
Carol
Yes, your dancing lesson.
Evelyn
If you are.
Carol
Of course I am! Come on.
[She rises.]
Evelyn
I’ll push the table back. [He does so.] There.
Carol
Now then.
[They begin to dance.]
Evelyn
Is the time all right?
Carol
A scrap too fast.
Evelyn
Wait a minute.
[He stops for a second and regulates the time.]
Carol
That’s better.
[They dance again.]
Evelyn
I’m so sorry. Did I kick you?
Carol
No.
Evelyn
I warned you, didn’t I?
Carol
Hold me a little tighter.
Evelyn
All right.
[They dance in silence for a moment.]
Carol
This is divine.
Evelyn
You’re not teaching me a thing.
Carol
You don’t need it.
Evelyn