The Profligate 6

The Profligate 6

DUNSTAN RENSHAW.

 

Oh, all right--don’t mention it.

 

LORD DANGARS.

 

[_To himself._] Thought so.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

You place us in rather an awkward position, Mr. Murray. I have to

escort Miss Brudenell, and I hardly wish to send a clerk with Mr.

Renshaw.

 

DUNSTAN RENSHAW.

 

Look here, don’t bother. Where does this Registrar chap hang out?

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Twenty-three, Ely Place--very near here.

 

LORD DANGARS.

 

I’ll walk with you, my boy, and lend you my moral support.

 

DUNSTAN RENSHAW.

 

Thanks. But, excuse me, George, I think we’ll part company at the

Registrar’s front door.

 

LORD DANGARS.

 

You believe in omens then, eh?

 

DUNSTAN RENSHAW.

 

Well, every man does on his wedding morning.

 

LORD DANGARS.

 

All right. Do you think I want to assist at your wedding? You never

came to hear my divorce case.

 

[_DANGARS leaves the office followed by DUNSTAN._]

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Really, Mr. Murray, this is scarcely business-like.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

I think it is all cruelly business-like. Mr. Cheal, don’t you think it

possible, even at this moment, to stop this marriage?

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Stop the marriage! Good gracious, sir, for what reason?

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

The marriage of a simple-minded trustful school-girl to a man of whom

you know either too little or too much.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

I know a great deal of Mr. Renshaw. He comes of a very excellent

family--excellent family.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Are the members of it at hand to speak for him?

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

They are all, I hope, beyond the reach of prejudice, Mr. Murray. They

are unhappily deceased.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Then how can you weigh the dead against the living? Here are two lives

to be brought together this morning or kept apart, as _you_ will; for

upon you rests the responsibility of this marriage.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

I beg your pardon, Mr. Murray. I should have thought that a young

gentleman of your severe training would scarcely need to be reminded

that marriages are----

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Made in Heaven?

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Yes, sir, certainly.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

This one, sir, is the exclusive manufacture of Holborn.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

That’s rather a flippant observation, Mr. Murray.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

I doubt whether Providence is ever especially busy in promoting

the union of a delicate-minded child with a coarse gross-natured

profligate.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Mr. Murray, you are speaking of a client in terms to which I prefer

being no party. Mr. Renshaw may have yielded to some of the lighter

temptations not unknown even in my youth--except to those employed in

legal studies. But the world is not apt to condemn the--the----

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

The license it permits itself!

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

You are bullying the world, Mr. Murray. I don’t attempt, sir, to be

much wiser than the world.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

But it costs so small an effort to be a little better. I tell you I

have stood by and heard this man Renshaw laughing over his excesses

with the airs of a vicious school-boy.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Tut, tut, that’s all past. Marriage is the real beginning of a man’s

life.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

No, sir, it is the end of it--what comes after is either heaven or hell.

 

[_EPHGRAVES enters._]

 

EPHGRAVES.

 

Miss Brudenell is here with her maid and Mr. Wilfrid.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Don’t bring them in till I ring.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

Really, Mr. Murray----! [_EPHGRAVES retires._]

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Mr. Cheal, I make a final appeal to you with my whole heart.

 

MR. CHEAL.

 

I am a man of business, Mr. Murray!

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

I know that; and I know that this child is an unremunerative

responsibility of which you would gladly be rid.

  MR. CHEAL.