The Profligate 15
LESLIE.
It is her pride or her shame, the jewel she wears upon her brow or the
mud which clings to her skirts! It is her light or her darkness; her
life or her death!
IRENE.
You’re too young a wife to lecture me like this! The only difference
between me and other women will be that Lord Dangars’s story is public
and their husband’s vices are unrevealed!
LESLIE.
That is not true! You have no right to defend yourself in that way.
IRENE.
It _is_ true! What woman who doesn’t wish to be lied to would ask her
husband to unfold the record of his life of--liberty?
LESLIE.
What woman would----! _I_ would!
IRENE.
Simpleton!
LESLIE.
A thousand times, I would! Oh, under my dear husband’s roof how dare
you think so cruelly of good men!
[_She runs to DUNSTAN as he enters dressed for travelling._]
MRS. STONEHAY.
[_Rejoining them with WILFRID._] Irene, we are forgetting our drive to
Fiesole.
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
[_To LESLIE._] What’s the matter? Have I been away too long?
LESLIE.
It is always too long when you are away.
MRS. STONEHAY.
Good-bye, dear Mrs. Renshaw.
LESLIE.
[_Distantly._] Good-bye.
MRS. STONEHAY.
My dear Mr. Renshaw, everything here is too charming!
IRENE.
[_To LESLIE._] Forgive me. My life has made me bitter. Sometimes I am
nearly mad.
LESLIE.
Come and see me again, Irene. When you know my husband better you will
realize how little your world has taught you. [_LESLIE kisses IRENE._]
MRS. STONEHAY.
Irene, I believe I can see that obstinate young woman sitting down in a
vineyard--not a quarter of a mile from this house yet. There is a limit
even to my forbearance.
[_WILFRID, MRS. STONEHAY, and IRENE go out. LESLIE gives DUNSTAN a
cup of tea._]
LESLIE.
The stirrup cup.
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
You will think of me in the toils of the Roman furniture and
_bric-à-brac_ dealers, won’t you?
LESLIE.
Think of you!
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
I shall fight through the worry of it in a couple of days and
then--there will be the first home of our own making. Just imagine when
we skip up the stone stairs in the Via Sistina and I throw open the
door----
LESLIE.
Our own door!
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
Our own door--and we see our own chairs and tables, our own pictures,
our own----
[_He pauses suddenly._]
LESLIE.
Dun! Dun, dear?
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
This separating, even for a day or two, is a heavy-hearted business.
LESLIE.
It shall always be so, dear, always.
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
While I’m gone you’ll not forget the lame girl in the Via Vellutini--or
Pietro’s old mother----?
LESLIE.
No, dear, no.
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
And--and double the allowance to those little children we helped
yesterday.
LESLIE.
If you wish it; but the father is working here now in our garden----
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
Never mind--double it, treble it! I don’t spend enough, half enough, in
conscience money.
LESLIE.
Conscience money!
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
That is the name I give my little charities.
LESLIE.
Do you call all charity conscience money?
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
No. But, Leslie, no man is good enough for a good woman, and so I’m
trying to buy my right to possess you----
LESLIE.
To possess _me_! Worthless me!
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
My right to your love and--your esteem.
LESLIE.
Oh, Dun, you are sad! As if anything in life could rob you of my
worship.
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
Nothing that could happen?
LESLIE.
Husband, what _could_ happen!
[_HUGH MURRAY enters unseen by LESLIE, but DUNSTAN stares at him, as
if in terror._]
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
Murray!
HUGH MURRAY.
Pardon me. Wilfrid told me to----
LESLIE.
Mr. Murray! Oh, dear Mr. Murray!
[_She takes his hands._]
WILFRID.
[_Joining them._] The very last man we expected at the Villa Colobiano!
And, what do you think, Dunstan--he hasn’t come to see the old fresco!
LESLIE.
Dunstan!
[_HUGH and DUNSTAN look significantly at LESLIE, and then shake
hands._]
DUNSTAN RENSHAW.
As Wilfrid says, you are the last man we looked to see in Florence.
LESLIE.
But, oh, so welcome!
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기