LITMIR.BIZ

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I could have struck them, for they did not disguise their meaning; but they had put the idea into my head, and it flourished there and grew apace.

      MRS. OMMANEY (PASSIONATELY). It was not only that? Speak, you loved me!

      PAUL. You took possession of every chamber of my mind. There was no one in the world to me but you.

      MRS. OMMANEY. That was enough for me. I was willing to let all else go. I was up to date. Up to date!

      PAUL. We thought it such a fine thing to defy the conventions.

      MRS. OMMANEY. I gloried in the risk. When a woman loves, the more she must venture the better pleased she is. And, Paul, we were happy at first, you loved me —

      PAUL. I was deliriously happy at first, but soon —

      MRS. OMMANEY. You awakened — and it was all over! Did you know her in those days?

      PAUL. Not till after you left me. What I felt was a sense of shame — I hated myself — I could not work — I saw I had given away my manhood.

      MRS. OMMANEY. I gave it you back again — a little tarnished.

      PAUL. I have tried to cleanse it.

      MRS. OMMANEY. And in the meantime I have borne a child!

      PAUL (BOWED). Kate, when you left me, did you know of her?

      MRS. OMMANEY. I knew! Now do you understand why I could not go back to my father? At least I have hidden it from him.

      PAUL. Why did YOU NOT TELL ME? If I had KNOWN — !

      MRS OMMANEY. Why did you not ask? (HE HAS NO ANSWER.)

      Yes, I took away that secret with me also. I was not to be generous by halves.

      (PAUL opens bedroom door and stands looking in. MRS.

      OMMANEY is bitterly sarcastic.)

      Pity she didn’t die, isn’t it? But she is very healthy; hard on you that, isn’t it? But they are often carried off in the measles; she might get run over in the street, too; there’s always a chance!

      (PAUL looks at her and then exits into bedroom, MRS.

      OMMANEY remains in parlour.)

      This is a gentleman come to see you, baby; don’t be frightened, he won’t touch you. Don’t stretch out your little hand to him, he won’t take it. Don’t offer your mouth to him, he won’t kiss it. He may kiss other babies yet, but not you.

      (Suddenly a gratified look comes into her face, and she sinks in chair, PAUL comes out.)

      You kissed her!

      (He is very remorseful — door is heard opening — and they both rise, PAUL goes to window.)

      PAUL. It is Lady Janet come back.

      (Enter LADY JANET.)

      LADY JANET (to PAUL, after looking from one to other). Well?

      (paul HAS NO ANSWER.)

      MRS OMMANEY. You have something of mine, I understand?

      (lady janet HANDS HER THE LOCKET.)

      MRS OMMANEY (OPENS IT). Where is the portrait?

      LADY JANET. I destroyed it. (TO PAUL) Is it arranged?

      MRS OMMANEY. We were coming to that.

      LADY JANET. How much?

      PAUL (STERNLY). Lady Janet, for shame!

      MRS OMMANEY. Pooh, I don’t mind her! (WITH SHRINKING DISDAIN) What can she know about women! What can the virtuous spinster know? I have borne a child; I am a woman. What are you who dare interfere with a woman — you childless thing!

      PAUL. Kate!

      LADY JANET (WITH EMOTION). It is true, it is true.

      (EXIT LADY JANET, SORROWFULLY.)

      MRS. OMMANEY. She said, ‘Is it arranged?’ Paul, you broke your promise — what are you to do?

      PAUL. Anything, anything! Kate, you and our child shall be well provided for.

      (mrs ommaney turns away.) You must take it. Oh, it is so pitifully little I can do.

      MRS. OMMANEY (EAGERLY, BUT HALF AFRAID). It need not be pitifully little, Paul, if — (HESITATES) — I shall do whatever you ask of me, live where you please, go into the country far from her, be so patient. Paul, I need never again be as you have seen me to-day. Only my wild craving for you brought it on. It turned my brain. There shall be no more of that. I will be so contented; so happy; you will say I am my old self again — when you come to see me.

      PAUL (STARTLED). But I can’t do that! Everything else.

      MRS. OMMANEY. Only now and again — she will never know.

      PAUL. Kate, do you know what you are proposing to me?

      MRS. OMMANEY. You will do it — speak! PAUL. No!

      MRS. OMMANEY (CHANGING FROM ENTREATY TO PASSION). But you shall! It is the price of my silence!

      PAUL. You say this — you who have done so much for me.

      MRS. OMMANEY. The conditions have changed. I would never have troubled you again had you not married, I swore it. But you have broken your promise.

      PAUL. I have broken it, but — surely that is a little thing to you now.

      MRS. OMMANEY. A little thing! It was everything to me, it gave me a kind of self-respect as I sat dressmaking once more, it was an excuse to my conscience for calling myself a married woman. I could exult in your growing fame, because of it; it made me a part of that fame, for in leaving you I had done something to make you ambitious again. Often I have stood outside your studio with my child in my arms and I have whispered to her proudly, ‘But he never took up with another woman.’ She was to be your only child. Was there nothing to me in that?

      PAUL. I deserve no mercy — but Margaret?

      MRS OMMANEY. How much pity had she for me? (LOVINGLY)

      Paul, it is not much to ask. Give me something to live for.

      PAUL. It can’t be.

      (SHE RISES, LOOKING DETERMINED. ENTER LADY JANET.)

      LADY JANET. Mr. Digby, Margaret is coming back! I saw her carriage in the bend of the road.

      MRS. OMMANEY (EXULTINGLY). Coming back! She is coming back to be told all. Innocent little Margaret! Thinks her spotless husband is staying too long! Sisterly little Margaret, who was so anxious to be my friend; merciless little Margaret!

      (TURNING TO PAUL) Do you still refuse?

      PAUL. Yes.

      LADY JANET. Mr. Digby, you can refuse nothing! What did she ask?

      PAUL. That I should — it amounts to this, that I should have two homes.

      LADY JANET. Woman! She was good to you — kind —

      MRS. OMMANEY. Till she knew what I was, till she knew I needed kindness, and then she ran from me — did she not?

      PAUL. She was appalled; it seemed too awful to her; she could say nothing, do nothing.

      MRS. OMMANEY. She has found the words now, and is coming back to cast them at me.

      LADY JANET. There must be some other way. Mrs. Ommaney, I am wealthier than he. I will give you thousands; I will beggar myself.

      MRS. OMMANEY. No, no, no.

      PAUL. Kate!

      MRS. OMMANEY. Choose!

      LADY JANET. She is here!

      MRS. OMMANEY. Which is it to be. (TO PAUL.)

      PAUL (PASSIONATELY). Leave it to me to tell her.

      MRS. OMMANEY. No.

      LADY

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