The Profligate 20

The Profligate 20

LESLIE.

 

Hush, Irene! You do Mr. Renshaw an injustice. Look. [_She hands IRENE

DUNSTAN’S letter._] Will, Dun has come back! Janet, be glad for my sake!

 

IRENE.

 

[_Reading the letter._] “Dear One. Weaver will explain my mode of

arrival. Dangars I once knew fairly well, and somehow he won’t be

shaken off now. As there appears to be an engagement between him and

your friend Miss Stonehay I have asked him to be our guest for a

couple of days, thinking you may consider it a kindness to her; but

please don’t extend the term, as he is not quite the man I wish my wife

to count among her acquaintances.”

 

[_JANET and WILFRID stroll away._]

 

LESLIE.

 

[_To herself._] My husband home again--home again--home again! But, oh,

why hasn’t he come back to me alone!

 

IRENE.

 

Leslie, I perceive I _have_ done Mr. Renshaw an injustice. But

surely you had some further motive in sharing with me the privilege

of enjoying Mr. Renshaw’s estimate of the gentleman who is to be my

husband?

 

LESLIE.

 

Yes, I had. I _will_ convince you of the contempt in which honest men

hold such as Lord Dangars.

 

IRENE.

 

[_Crushing the letter in her hand._] Thank you--I---- Leslie! you are

right--save me--save me!

 

LESLIE.

 

Irene!

 

IRENE.

 

I knew that my next meeting with Lord Dangars could not be long

delayed, and I taught myself to think of it coldly and callously.

But, now that the moment has come, and I am to lay my hand in his and

look him in the face--a woman willing to sell herself--every nerve in

my body is on fire with the shame of it and I can’t, I can’t fall so

utterly!

 

LESLIE

 

Dear Irene, I knew I should save you!

 

IRENE.

 

Ah, but can you? I am such a coward; I haven’t the courage of your good

instincts. If you don’t help me I shall falter and be lost!

 

LESLIE.

 

But I can help you. _I_ will make an appeal to your mother.

 

IRENE.

 

That’s hopeless, hopeless!

 

LESLIE.

 

Then I will face Lord Dangars himself.

 

IRENE.

 

You!

 

LESLIE.

 

Yes, with my husband. Ah, Irene, there are good men still to fight the

battles of weak women, and I promise you my dear husband’s aid.

 

[_WILFRID and JANET re-appear, talking earnestly._]

 

IRENE.

 

Hush!

 

LESLIE.

 

[_Quietly to IRENE._] Go back to your mother and tell her I will see

her in answer to her letter.

 

[_LESLIE and IRENE go into the villa._]

 

JANET PREECE.

 

[_To WILFRID._] No, no, please, don’t speak to me like that! I mustn’t

listen to you, indeed I mustn’t.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

I never thought I should hurt you by what I’ve said. What I was foolish

enough to think was--that perhaps you--didn’t dislike me.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

Dislike you! Why, there’s no book in the world that’s long enough, and

no poetry ever written that’s sweet enough, to match what I think, but

can’t say, in gratitude to you and Mrs. Renshaw.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

Ah, we don’t want you to thank us, Janet--unless it’s by a tinge of

colour in your white face. You make me feel how mean I’ve been to ask

for your love.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

Oh, stop, stop! I can’t bear you to say such a thing.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

I’ve no right to press you for the reason you can’t love me.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

No, no--don’t, don’t!

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

I can only guess what’s in your mind. Is it that we’re such new friends

to talk of love and marriage? Because, Janet, if we know each other for

years I can never alter the truth, that it took only a minute to fall

in love with you.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

No, it isn’t that you’re a new friend; for the matter o’ that, after

Mrs. Renshaw, you’re my only friend. It isn’t that--it isn’t that.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

Then, if we’re your only friends, at least I know that you don’t love

any other----

 

JANET PREECE.

 

[_Starting up and hiding her face from him._] Any other!

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

Any other--man.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

No--no. I don’t--I don’t love any other man.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

And yet you can’t love _me_. I’m answered. Ah, Janet, a man who isn’t

loved had better never seek the reason, or if he does he should look

for it--in himself. My brother-in-law will be home in a few minutes and

I can very well be spared here. So there’s one thing I beg of you, that

you won’t let this--stupidity of mine shorten your stay at the Villa

Colobiano.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

[_Bursting into tears._] I can’t bear it! My heart will break!

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

You seemed in bitter trouble when we first met; don’t leave us till we

have helped to make life easier for you.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

Oh, if we never had met--if we never had met!

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

Why, I’ve done nothing but love you, Janet. Come, you’re not cruel

enough to wish you had never seen me?

 

JANET PREECE.

 

Ah, no! No! Believe me, the only happiness for such as I is in such

wretchedness as this. Bid me good-bye--I am going.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

No!

 

JANET PREECE.

 

Let me steal away quietly. Tell your sister that I pray God to bless

her, her husband, and her children when they come to make her life

perfect; say I am only a poor creature never worth the love I’ve stolen

from you both, but that my thoughts will be only of you and her till I

die.

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.

 

No, you must not leave the house till you have seen Leslie.

 

JANET PREECE.

 

Don’t keep me here! If I see her again I must tell her why I run away

from the one sweet prospect my life has given me!

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL.You do love me then! You _do_ love me!