Part I
The Drawing Room, after Tea
An afternoon in late March
AMY, IVY, VIOLET, AGATHA, GERALD,
CHARLES, MARY
DENMAN enters to draw the curtains
AMY
Not yet! I will ring for you. It is still quite light.
I have nothing to do but watch the days draw out,
Now that I sit in the house from October to June,
And the swallow comes too soon and the spring will be over
And the cuckoo will be gone before I am out again.
O Sun, that was once so warm, O Light that was taken for granted
When I was young and strong, and sun and light unsought for
And the night unfeared and the day expected
And clocks could be trusted, tomorrow assured
And time would not stop in the dark!
Put on the lights. But leave the curtains undrawn.
Make up the fire. Will the spring never come? I am cold.
AGATHA
Wishwood was always a cold place, Amy.
IVY
I have always told Amy she should go south in the winter.
Were I in Amy's position, I would go south in the winter.
I would follow the sun, not wait for the sun to come here.
I would go south in the winter, if I could afford it,
Not freeze, as I do, in Bayswater, by a gas-fire counting shillings.
VIOLET
Go south! to the English circulating libraries,
To the military widows and the English chaplains,
To the chilly deck-chair and the strong cold tea —
The strong cold stewed bad Indian tea.
CHARLES
That's not Amy's style at all. We are country-bred people.
Amy has been too long used to our ways
Living with horses and dogs and guns
Ever to want to leave England in the winter.
But a single man like me is better off in London:
A man can be very cosy at his club
Even in an English winter.
GERALD
Well, as for me,
I'd just as soon be a subaltern again
To be back in the East. An incomparable climate
For a man who can exercise a little common prudence;
And your servants look after you very much better.
AMY
My servants are perfectly competent, Gerald.
I can still see to that.
VIOLET
Well, as for me,
I would never go south, no, definitely never,
Even could I do it as well as Amy:
England's bad enough, I would never go south,
Simply to see the vulgarest people —
You can keep out of their way at home;
People with money from heaven knows where —
GERALD
Dividends from aeroplane shares.
VIOLET
They bathe all day and they dance all night
In the absolute minimum of clothes.
CHARLES
It's the cocktail-drinking does the harm:
There's nothing on earth so bad for the young.
All that a civilised person needs
Is a glass of dry sherry or two before dinner.
The modern young people don't know what they're drinking,
Modern young people don't care what they're eating;
They've lost their sense of taste and smell
Because of their cocktails and cigarettes.
[Enter DENMAN with sherry and whisky. CHARLES takes sherry and GERALD whisky.]
That's what it comes to.
[Lights a cigarette]
IVY
The younger generation
Are undoubtedly decadent.
CHARLES
The younger generation
Are not what we were. Haven't the stamina,
Haven't the sense of responsibility.
GERALD
You're being very hard on the younger generation.
I don't come across them very much now, myself;
But I must say I've met some very decent specimens
And some first-class shots — better than you were,
Charles, as I remember. Besides, you've got to make allowances:
We haven't left them such an easy world to live in.
Let the younger generation speak for itself:
It's Mary's generation. What does she think about it?
MARY
Really, Cousin Gerald, if you want information
About the younger generation, you must ask someone else.
I'm afraid that I don't deserve the compliment:
I don't belong to any generation.
[Exit]
VIOLET
Really, Gerald, I must say you're very tactless,
And I think that Charles might have been more considerate.
GERALD
I'm very sorry: but why was she upset?
I only meant to draw her into the conversation.
CHARLES
She's a nice girl; but it's a difficult age for her.
I suppose she must be getting on for thirty?
She ought to be married, that's what it is.
AMY
So she should have been, if things had gone as I intended.
Harry's return does not make things easy for her
At the moment: but life may still go right.
Meanwhile, let us drop the subject. The less said the better.
GERALD
That reminds me, Amy,
When are the boys all due to arrive?
AMY
I do not want the clock to stop in the dark.
If you want to know why I never leave Wishwood
That is the reason. I keep Wishwood alive
To keep the family alive, to keep them together,
To keep me alive, and I live to keep them.
You none of you understand how old you are
And death will come to you as a mild surprise,
A momentary shudder in a vacant room.
Only Agatha seems to discover some meaning in death
Which I cannot find.
— I am only certain of Arthur and John,
Arthur in London, John in Leicestershire:
They should both be here in good time for dinner.
Harry telephoned to me from Marseilles,
He would come by air to Paris, and so to London,
And hoped to arrive in the course of the evening.
VIOLET
Harry was always the most likely to be late.
AMY
This time, it will not be his fault.
We are very lucky to have Harry at all.
IVY
And when will you have your birthday cake, Amy,
And open your presents?
AMY
After dinner:
That is the best time.
IVY
It is the first time
You have not had your cake and your presents at tea.
AMY
This is a very particular occasion
As you ought to know. It will be the first time
For eight years that we have all been together.
AGATHA
It is going to be rather painful for Harry
After eight years and all that has happened
To come back to Wishwood.
GERALD
Why, painful?
VIOLET
Gerald! you know what Agatha means.
AGATHA
I mean painful, because everything is irrevocable,
Because the past is irremediable,
Because the future can only be built
Upon the real past. Wandering in the tropics
Or against the painted scene of the Mediterranean,
Harry must often have remembered Wishwood —
The nursery tea, the school holiday,
The daring feats on the old pony,
And thought to creep back through the little door.
He will find a new Wishwood. Adaptation is hard.
AMY
Nothing is changed, Agatha, at Wishwood.
Everything is kept as it was when he left it,
Except the old pony, and the mongrel setter
Which I had to have destroyed.
Nothing has been changed. I have seen to that.
AGATHA
Yes. I mean that at Wishwood he will find another Harry.
The man who returns will have to meet
The boy who left. Round by the stables,
In the coach-house, in the orchard,
In the plantation, down the corridor
That led to the nursery, round the corner
Of the new wing, he will have to face him —
And it will not be a very jolly corner.
When the loop in time comes — and it does not come for everybody —
The hidden is revealed, and the spectres show themselves.
GERALD
I don't in the least know what you're talking about.
You seem to be wanting to give us all the hump.
I must say, this isn't cheerful for Amy's birthday
Or for Harry's homecoming. Make him feel at home, I say!
Make him feel that what has happened doesn't matter.
He's taken his medicine, I've no doubt.
Let him marry again and carry on at Wishwood.
AMY
Thank you, Gerald. Though Agatha means
As a rule, a good deal more than she cares to betray,
I am bound to say that I agree with you.
CHARLES
I never wrote to him when he lost his wife
That was just about a year ago, wasn't it?
Do you think I ought to mention it now?
It seems to me too late.
AMY
Much too late.
If he wants to talk about it, that's another matter;
But I don't believe he will. He will wish to forget it.
I do not mince matters in front of the family:
You can call it nothing but a blessed relief.
VIOLET
I call it providential.
IVY
Yet it must have been shocking,
Especially to lose anybody in that way —
Swept off the deck in the middle of a storm,
And never even to recover the body.
CHARLES
'Well-known Peeress Vanishes from Liner'.
GERALD
Yes, it's odd to think of her as permanently missing.
VIOLET
Had she been drinking?
AMY
I would never ask him.
IVY
These things are much better not enquired into.
She may have done it in a fit of temper.
GERALD
I never met her.
AMY
I am very glad you did not.
I am very glad that none of you ever met her.
It will make the situation very much easier
And is why I was so anxious you should all be here.
She never would have been one of the family,
She never wished to be one of the family,
She only wanted to keep him to herself
To satisfy her vanity. That's why she dragged him
All over Europe and half round the world
To expensive hotels and undesirable society
Which she could choose herself. She never wanted
Harry's relations or Harry's old friends;
She never wanted to fit herself to Harry,
But only to bring Harry down to her own level.
A restless shivering painted shadow
In life, she is less than a shadow in death.
You might as well all of you know the truth
For the sake of the future. There can be no grief
And no regret and no remorse.
I would have prevented it if I could. For the sake of the future:
Harry is to take command at Wishwood
And I hope we can contrive his future happiness.
Do not discuss his absence. Please behave only
As if nothing had happened in the last eight years.
GERALD
That will be a little difficult.
VIOLET
Nonsense, Gerald!
You must see for yourself it's the only thing to do.
AGATHA
Thus with most careful devotion
Thus with precise attention
To detail, interfering preparation
Of that which is already prepared
Men tighten the knot of confusion
Into perfect misunderstanding,
Reflecting a pocket-torch of observation
Upon each other's opacity
Neglecting all the admonitions
From the world around the corner
The wind's talk in the dry holly-tree
The inclination of the moon
The attraction of the dark passage
The paw under the door.
CHORUS
(IVY, VIOLET, GERALD and CHARLES)
Why do we feel embarrassed, impatient, fretful, ill at ease,
Assembled like amateur actors who have not been assigned their parts?
Like amateur actors in a dream when the curtain rises, to find themselves dressed for a different play, or having rehearsed the wrong parts,
Waiting for the rustling in the stalls, the titter in the dress circle, the laughter and catcalls in the gallery?
CHARLES
I might have been in St. James's Street, in a comfortable chair rather nearer the fire.
IVY
I might have been visiting Cousin Lily at Sidmouth, if I had not had to come to this party.
GERALD
I might have been staying with Compton-Smith, down at his place in Dorset.
VIOLET
I should have been helping Lady Bumpus, at the Vicar's American Tea.
CHORUS
Yet we are here at Amy's command, to play an unread part in some monstrous farce, ridiculous in some nightmare pantomime.
AMY
What's that? I thought I saw someone pass the window.
What time is it?
CHARLES
Nearly twenty to seven.
AMY
John should be here now, he has the shortest way to come.
John at least, if not Arthur. Hark, there is someone coming:
Yes, it must be John.
[Enter HARRY]
Harry!
[HARRY stops suddenly at the door and stares at the window]
IVY
Welcome, Harry!
GERALD
Well done!
VIOLET
Welcome home to Wishwood!
CHARLES
Why, what's the matter?
AMY
Harry, if you want the curtains drawn you should let me ring for Denman.
HARRY
How can you sit in this blaze of light for all the world to look at?
If you knew how you looked, when I saw you through the window!
Do you like to be stared at by eyes through a window?
AMY
You forget, Harry, you are at Wishwood,
Not in town, where you have to close the blinds.
There is no one to see you but our servants who belong here,
And who all want to see you back, Harry.
HARRY
Look there, look there: do you see them?
GERALD
No, I don't see anyone about.
HARRY
No, no, not there. Look there!
Can't you see them? You don't see them, but I see them,
And they see me. This is the first time that I have seen them.
In the Java Straits, in the Sunda Sea,
In the sweet sickly tropical night, I knew they were coming.
In Italy, from behind the nightingale's thicket,
The eyes stared at me, and corrupted that song.
Behind the palm trees in the Grand Hotel
They were always there. But I did not see them.
Why should they wait until I came back to Wishwood?
There were a thousand places where I might have met them!
Why here? why here?
Many happy returns of the day, mother.
Aunt Ivy, Aunt Violet, Uncle Gerald, Uncle Charles, Agatha.
AMY
We are very glad to have you back, Harry.
Now we shall all be together for dinner.
The servants have been looking forward to your coming:
Would you like to have them in after dinner
Or wait till tomorrow? I am sure you must be tired.
You will find everybody here, and everything the same.
Mr. Bevan — you remember — wants to call tomorrow
On some legal business, a question about taxes —
But I think you would rather wait till you are rested.
Your room is all ready for you. Nothing has been changed.
HARRY
Changed? nothing changed? how can you say that nothing is changed?
You all look so withered and young.
GERALD
We must have a ride tomorrow.
You'll find you know the country as well as ever.
There wasn't an inch of it you didn't know.
But you'll have to see about a couple of new hunters.
CHARLES
And I've a new wine merchant to recommend you;
Your cellar could do with a little attention.
IVY
And you'll really have to find a successor to old Hawkins.
It's really high time the old man was pensioned.
He's let the rock garden go to rack and ruin,
And he's nearly half blind. I've spoken to your mother
Time and time again: she's done nothing about it
Because she preferred to wait for your coming.
VIOLET
And time and time again I have spoken to your mother
About the waste that goes on in the kitchen.
Mrs. Packell is too old to know what she is doing.
It really needs a man in charge of things at Wishwood.
AMY
You see your aunts and uncles are very helpful, Harry.
I have always found them forthcoming with advice
Which I have never taken. Now it is your business.
I have only struggled to keep Wishwood going
And to make no changes before your return.
Now it's for you to manage. I am an old woman.
They can give me no further advice when I'm dead.
IVY
Oh, dear Amy!
No one wants you to die, I'm sure!
Now that Harry's back, is the time to think of living.
HARRY
Time and time and time, and change, no change!
You all of you try to talk as if nothing had happened,
And yet you are talking of nothing else. Why not get to the point
Or if you want to pretend that I am another person —
A person that you have conspired to invent, please do so
In my absence. I shall be less embarrassing to you. Agatha?
AGATHA
I think, Harry, that having got so far —
If you want no pretences, let us have no pretences:
And you must try at once to make us understand,
And we must try to understand you.
HARRY
But how can I explain, how can I explain to you?
You will understand less after I have explained it.
All that I could hope to make you understand
Is only events: not what has happened.
And people to whom nothing has ever happened
Cannot understand the unimportance of events.
GERALD
Well, you can't say that nothing has happened to me.
I started as a youngster on the North-West Frontier —
Been in tight corners most of my life
And some pretty nasty messes.
CHARLES
And there isn't much would surprise me, Harry;
Or shock me, either.
HARRY
You are all people
To whom nothing has happened, at most a continual impact
Of external events. You have gone through life in sleep,
Never woken to the nightmare. I tell you, life would be unendurable
If you were wide awake. You do not know
The noxious smell untraceable in the drains,
Inaccessible to the plumbers, that has its hour of the night; you do not know
The unspoken voice of sorrow in the ancient bedroom
At three o'clock in the morning. I am not speaking
Of my own experience, but trying to give you
Comparisons in a more familiar medium. I am the old house
With the noxious smell and the sorrow before morning,
In which all past is present, all degradation
Is unredeemable. As for what happens —
Of the past you can only see what is past,
Not what is always present. That is what matters.
AGATHA
Nevertheless, Harry, best tell us as you can:
Talk in your own language, without stopping to debate
Whether it may be too far beyond our understanding.
HARRY
The sudden solitude in a crowded desert
In a thick smoke, many creatures moving
Without direction, for no direction
Leads anywhere but round and round in that vapour —
Without purpose, and without principle of conduct
In flickering intervals of light and darkness;
The partial an?sthesia of suffering without feeling
And partial observation of one's own automatism
While the slow stain sinks deeper through the skin
Tainting the flesh and discolouring the bone —
This is what matters, but it is unspeakable,
Untranslatable: I talk in general terms
Because the particular has no language. One thinks to escape
By violence, but one is still alone
In an over-crowded desert, jostled by ghosts.
It was only reversing the senseless direction
For a momentary rest on the burning wheel
That cloudless night in the mid-Atlantic
When I pushed her over.
VIOLET
Pushed her?
HARRY
You would never imagine anyone could sink so quickly.
I had always supposed, wherever I went
That she would be with me; whatever I did
That she was unkillable. It was not like that.
Everything is true in a different sense.
I expected to find her when I went back to the cabin.
Later, I became excited, I think I made enquiries;
The purser and the steward were extremely sympathetic
And the doctor very attentive.
That night I slept heavily, alone.
AMY
Harry!
CHARLES
You mustn't indulge such dangerous fancies.
It's only doing harm to your mother and yourself.
Of course we know what really happened, we read it in the papers —
No need to revert to it. Remember, my boy,
I understand, your life together made it seem more horrible.
There's a lot in my own past life that presses on my chest
When I wake, as I do now, early before morning.
I understand these feelings better than you know —
But you have no reason to reproach yourself.
Your conscience can be clear.
HARRY
It goes a good deal deeper
Than what people call their conscience; it is just the cancer
That eats away the self. I knew how you would take it.
First of all, you isolate the single event
As something so dreadful that it couldn't have happened,
Because you could not bear it. So you must believe
That I suffer from delusions. It is not my conscience,
Not my mind, that is diseased, but the world I have to live in.
— I lay two days in contented drowsiness;
Then I recovered. I am afraid of sleep:
A condition in which one can be caught for the last time.
And also waking. She is nearer than ever.
The contamination has reached the marrow
And they are always near. Here, nearer than ever.
They are very close here. I had not expected that.
AMY
Harry, Harry, you are very tired
And overwrought. Coming so far
And making such haste, the change is too sudden for you.
You are unused to our foggy climate
And the northern country. When you see Wishwood
Again by day, all will be the same again.
I beg you to go now and rest before dinner.
Get Downing to draw you a hot bath,
And you will feel better.
AGATHA
There are certain points I do not yet understand:
They will be clear later. I am also convinced
That you only hold a fragment of the explanation.
It is only because of what you do not understand
That you feel the need to declare what you do.
There is more to understand: hold fast to that
As the way to freedom.
HARRY
I think I see what you mean,
Dimly — as you once explained the sobbing in the chimney
The evil in the dark closet, which they said was not there,
Which they explained away, but you explained them
Or at least, made me cease to be afraid of them.
I will go and have my bath.
[Exit]
GERALD
God preserve us!
I never thought it would be as bad as this.
VIOLET
There is only one thing to be done:
Harry must see a doctor.
IVY
But I understand —
I have heard of such cases before — that people in his condition
Often betray the most immoderate resentment
At such a suggestion. They can be very cunning —
Their malady makes them so. They do not want to be cured
And they know what you are thinking.
CHARLES
He has probably let this notion grow in his mind,
Living among strangers, with no one to talk to.
I suspect it is simply that the wish to get rid of her
Makes him believe he did. He cannot trust his good fortune.
I believe that all he needs is someone to talk to,
To get it off his mind. I'll have a talk to him tomorrow.
AMY
Most certainly not, Charles, you are not the right person.
I prefer to believe that a few days at Wishwood
Among his own family, is all that he needs.
GERALD
Nevertheless, Amy, there's something in Violet's suggestion.
Why not ring up Warburton, and ask him to join us?
He's an old friend of the family, it's perfectly natural
That he should be asked. He looked after all the boys
When they were children. I'll have a word with him.
He can talk to Harry, and Harry need have no suspicion.
I'd trust Warburton's opinion.
AMY
If anyone speaks to Dr. Warburton
It should be myself. What does Agatha think?
AGATHA
It seems a necessary move
In an unnecessary action,
Not for the good that it will do
But that nothing may be left undone
On the margin of the impossible.
AMY
Very well.
I will ring up the doctor myself.
[Exit]
CHARLES
Meanwhile, I have an idea. Why not question Downing?
He's been with Harry ten years, he's absolutely discreet.
He was with them on the boat. He might be of use.
IVY
Charles! you don't really suppose
That he might have pushed her over?
CHARLES
In any case, I shouldn't blame Harry.
I might have done the same thing once, myself
Nobody knows what he's likely to do
Until there's somebody he wants to get rid of.
GERALD
Even so, we don't want Downing to know
Any more than he knows already.
And even if he knew, it's very much better
That he shouldn't know that we knew it also.
Why not let sleeping dogs lie?
CHARLES
All the same, there's a question or two
[Rings the bell]
That I'd like to ask Downing.
He shan't know why I'm asking.
[Enter DENMAN]
Denman, where is Downing? Is he up with his Lordship?
DENMAN
He's out in the garage, Sir, with his Lordship's car.
CHARLES
Tell him I'd like to have a word with him, please.
[Exit DENMAN]
VIOLET
Charles, if you are determined upon this investigation,
Which I am convinced is going to lead us nowhere,
And which I am sure Amy would disapprove of —
I only wish to express my emphatic protest
Both against your purpose and the means you are employing.
CHARLES
My purpose is, to find out what's wrong with Harry:
Until we know that, we can do nothing for him.
And as for my means, we can't afford to be squeamish
In taking hold of anything that comes to hand.
If you are interested in helping Harry
You can hardly object to the means.
VIOLET
I do object.
IVY
And I wish to associate myself with my sister
In her objections —
AGATHA
I have no objection,
Any more than I object to asking Dr. Warburton:
I only see that this is all quite irrelevant;
We had better leave Charles to talk to Downing
And pursue his own methods.
[Rises]
VIOLET
I do not agree.
I think there should be witnesses. I intend to remain.
And I wish to be present to hear what Downing says.
I want to know at once, not be told about it later.
IVY
And I shall stay with Violet.
AGATHA
I shall return
When Downing has left you.
[Exit]
CHARLES
Well, I'm very sorry
You all see it like this: but there simply are times
When there's nothing to do but take the bull by the horns,
And this is one.
[Knock: and enter DOWNING]
CHARLES
Good evening, Downing.
It's good to see you again, after all these years.
You're well, I hope?
DOWNING
Thank you, very well indeed, Sir.
CHARLES
I'm sorry to send for you so abruptly,
But I've a question I'd like to put to you,
I'm sure you won't mind, it's about his Lordship.
You've looked after his Lordship for over ten years …
DOWNING
Eleven years, Sir, next Lady Day.
CHARLES
Eleven years, and you know him pretty well.
And I'm sure that you've been a good friend to him, too.
We haven't seen him for nearly eight years;
And to tell the truth, now that we've seen him,
We're a little worried about his health.
He doesn't seem to be … quite himself.
DOWNING
Quite natural, if I may say so, Sir,
After what happened.
CHARLES
Quite so, quite.
Downing, you were with them on the voyage from New York —
We didn't learn very much about the circumstances;
We only knew what we read in the papers —
Of course, there was a great deal too much in the papers.
Downing, do you think that it might have been suicide,
And that his Lordship knew it?
DOWNING
Unlikely, Sir, if I may say so.
Much more likely to have been an accident.
I mean, knowing her Ladyship,
I don't think she had the courage.
CHARLES
Did she ever talk of suicide?
DOWNING
Oh yes, she did, every now and again.
But in my opinion, it is those that talk
That are the least likely. To my way of thinking
She only did it to frighten people.
If you take my meaning — just for the effect.
CHARLES
I understand, Downing. Was she in good spirits?
DOWNING
Well, always about the same, Sir.
What I mean is, always up and down.
Down in the morning, and up in the evening,
And then she used to get rather excited,
And, in a way, irresponsible, Sir.
If I may make so bold, Sir,
I always thought that a very few cocktails
Went a long way with her Ladyship.
She wasn't one of those that are designed for drinking:
It's natural for some and unnatural for others.
CHARLES
And how was his Lordship, during the voyage?
DOWNING
Well, you might say depressed, Sir.
But you know his Lordship was always very quiet:
Very uncommon that I saw him in high spirits.
For what my judgment's worth, I always said his Lordship
Suffered from what they call a kind of repression.
But what struck me … more nervous than usual;
I mean to say, you could see that he was nervous.
He behaved as if he thought something might happen.
CHARLES
What sort of thing?
DOWNING
Well, I don't know, Sir.
But he seemed very anxious about my Lady.
Tried to keep her in when the weather was rough,
Didn't like to see her lean over the rail.
He was in a rare fright, once or twice.
But you know, it is just my opinion, Sir,
That his Lordship is rather psychic, as they say.
CHARLES
Were they always together?
DOWNING
Always, Sir.
That was just my complaint against my Lady.
It's my opinion that man and wife
Shouldn't see too much of each other, Sir.
Quite the contrary of the usual opinion,
I dare say. She wouldn't leave him alone.
And there's my complaint against these ocean liners
With all their swimming baths and gymnasiums
There's not even a place where a man can go
For a quiet smoke, where the women can't follow him.
She wouldn't leave him out of her sight.
CHARLES
During that evening, did you see him?
DOWNING
Oh yes, Sir, I'm sure I saw him.
I don't mean to say that he had any orders —
His Lordship is always most considerate
About keeping me up. But when I say I saw him,
I mean that I saw him accidental.
You see, Sir, I was down in the Tourist,
And I took a bit of air before I went to bed,
And you could see the corner of the upper deck.
And I remember, there I saw his Lordship
Leaning over the rail, looking at the water —
There wasn't a moon, but I was sure it was him.
While I took my turn about, for near half an hour
He stayed there alone, looking over the rail.
Her Ladyship must have been all right then,
Mustn't she, Sir? or else he'd have known it.
CHARLES
Oh yes … quite so. Thank you, Downing,
I don't think we need you any more.
GERALD
Oh, Downing,
Is there anything wrong with his Lordship's car?
DOWNING
Oh no, Sir, she's in good running order:
I see to that.
GERALD
I only wondered
Why you've been busy about it tonight.
DOWNING
Nothing wrong, Sir:
Only I like to have her always ready.
Would there be anything more, Sir?
GERALD
Thank you, Downing;
Nothing more.
[Exit DOWNING]
VIOLET
Well, Charles, I must say, with your investigations,
You seem to have left matters much as they were —
Except for having brought Downing into it:
Of which I disapprove.
CHARLES
Of which you disapprove.
But I believe that an unconscious accomplice is desirable.
CHORUS
Why should we stand here like guilty conspirators, waiting for some revelation
When the hidden shall be exposed, and the newsboy shall shout in the street?
When the private shall be made public, the common photographer
Flashlight for the picture papers: why do we huddle together
In a horrid amity of misfortune? why should we be implicated, brought in and brought together?
IVY
I do not trust Charles with his confident vulgarity, acquired from worldly associates.
GERALD
Ivy is only concerned for herself, and her credit among her shabby genteel acquaintance.
VIOLET
Gerald is certain to make some blunder, he is useless out of the army.
CHARLES
Violet is afraid that her status as Amy's sister will be diminished.
CHORUS
We all of us make the pretension
To be the uncommon exception
To the universal bondage.
We like to appear in the newspapers
So long as we are in the right column.
We know about the railway accident
We know about the sudden thrombosis
And the slowly hardening artery.
We like to be thought well of by others
So that we may think well of ourselves.
And any explanation will satisfy:
We only ask to be reassured
About the noises in the cellar
And the window that should not have been open.
Why do we all behave as if the door might suddenly open, the curtains be drawn,
The cellar make some dreadful disclosure, the roof disappear,
And we should cease to be sure of what is real or unreal?
Hold tight, hold tight, we must insist that the world is what we have always taken it to be.
AMY'S VOICE
Ivy! Violet! has Arthur or John come yet?
IVY
There is no news of Arthur or John.
[Enter AMY and AGATHA]
AMY
It is very annoying. They both promised to be here
In good time for dinner. It is very annoying.
Now they can hardly arrive in time to dress.
I do not understand what could have gone wrong
With both of them, coming from different directions.
Well, we must go and dress, I suppose. I hope Harry will feel better
After his rest upstairs.
[Exeunt, except AGATHA]
