Six Short Plays. Galsworthy John

It's a great comfort! Have one to keep by you?

      KEITH. Come, Larry! Hand it over.

      LARRY. [Replacing the box] Not quite! You've never killed a man, you see. [He gives that crazy laugh.] D'you remember that hammer when we were boys and you riled me, up in the long room? I had luck then. I had luck in Naples once. I nearly killed a driver for beating his poor brute of a horse. But now—! My God! [He covers his face.]

      KEITH touched, goes up and lays a hand on his shoulder.

      KEITH. Come, Larry! Courage!

      LARRY looks up at him.

      LARRY. All right, Keith; I'll try.

      KEITH. Don't go out. Don't drink. Don't talk. Pull yourself together!

      LARRY. [Moving towards the door] Don't keep me longer than you can help, Keith.

      KEITH. No, no. Courage!

      LARRY reaches the door, turns as if to say something-finds no words, and goes.

      [To the fire] Courage! My God! I shall need it!

CURTAIN

      SCENE II

      At out eleven o'clock the following night an WANDA'S room on the ground floor in Soho. In the light from one close-shaded electric bulb the room is but dimly visible. A dying fire burns on the left. A curtained window in the centre of the back wall. A door on the right. The furniture is plush-covered and commonplace, with a kind of shabby smartness. A couch, without back or arms, stands aslant, between window and fire.

      [On this WANDA is sitting, her knees drawn up under her, staring at the embers. She has on only her nightgown and a wrapper over it; her bare feet are thrust into slippers. Her hands are crossed and pressed over her breast. She starts and looks up, listening. Her eyes are candid and startled, her face alabaster pale, and its pale brown hair, short and square-cut, curls towards her bare neck. The startled dark eyes and the faint rose of her lips are like colour-staining on a white mask.]

      [Footsteps as of a policeman, very measured, pass on the pavement outside, and die away. She gets up and steals to the window, draws one curtain aside so that a chink of the night is seen. She opens the curtain wider, till the shape of a bare, witch-like tree becomes visible in the open space of the little Square on the far side of the road. The footsteps are heard once more coming nearer. WANDA closes the curtains and cranes back. They pass and die again. She moves away and looking down at the floor between door and couch, as though seeing something there; shudders; covers her eyes; goes back to the couch and down again just as before, to stare at the embers. Again she is startled by noise of the outer door being opened. She springs up, runs and turns the light by a switch close to the door. By the glimmer of the fire she can just be seen standing by the dark window-curtains, listening. There comes the sound of subdued knocking on her door. She stands in breathless terror. The knocking is repeated. The sound of a latchkey in the door is heard. Her terror leaves her. The door opens; a man enters in a dark, fur overcoat.]

      WANDA. [In a voice of breathless relief, with a rather foreign accent] Oh! it's you, Larry! Why did you knock? I was so frightened. Come in! [She crosses quickly, and flings her arms round his neck] [Recoiling—in a terror-stricken whisper] Oh! Who is it?

      KEITH. [In a smothered voice] A friend of Larry's. Don't be frightened.

      She has recoiled again to the window; and when he finds the switch and turns the light up, she is seen standing there holding her dark wrapper up to her throat, so that her face has an uncanny look of being detached from the body.

      [Gently] You needn't be afraid. I haven't come to do you harm— quite the contrary. [Holding up the keys] Larry wouldn't have given me these, would he, if he hadn't trusted me?

      WANDA does not move, staring like a spirit startled out of the flesh.

      [After looking round him] I'm sorry to have startled you.

      WANDA. [In a whisper] Who are you, please?

      KEITH. Larry's brother.

      WANDA, with a sigh of utter relief, steals forward to the couch and sinks down. KEITH goes up to her.

      He'd told me.

      WANDA. [Clasping her hands round her knees.] Yes?

      KEITH. An awful business!

      WANDA. Yes; oh, yes! Awful—it is awful!

      KEITH. [Staring round him again.] In this room?

      WANDA. Just where you are standing. I see him now, always falling.

      KEITH. [Moved by the gentle despair in her voice] You—look very young. What's your name?

      WANDA. Wanda.

      KEITH. Are you fond of Larry?

      WANDA. I would die for him!

      [A moment's silence.]

      KEITH. I—I've come to see what you can do to save him.

      WANDA, [Wistfully] You would not deceive me. You are really his brother?

      KEITH. I swear it.

      WANDA. [Clasping her hands] If I can save him! Won't you sit down?

      KEITH. [Drawing up a chair and sitting] This, man, your—your husband, before he came here the night before last—how long since you saw him?

      WANDA. Eighteen month.

      KEITH. Does anyone about here know you are his wife?

      WANDA. No. I came here to live a bad life. Nobody know me. I am quite alone.

      KEITH. They've discovered who he was—you know that?

      WANDA. No; I have not dared to go out.

      KEITH: Well, they have; and they'll look for anyone connected with him, of course.

      WANDA. He never let people think I was married to him. I don't know if I was—really. We went to an office and signed our names; but he was a wicked man. He treated many, I think, like me.

      KEITH. Did my brother ever see him before?

      WANDA. Never! And that man first went for him.

      KEITH. Yes. I saw the mark. Have you a servant?

      WANDA. No. A woman come at nine in the morning for an hour.

      KEITH. Does she know Larry?

      WANDA. No. He is always gone.

      KEITH. Friends—acquaintances?

      WANDA. No; I am verree quiet. Since I know your brother, I see no one, sare.

      KEITH. [Sharply] Do you mean that?

      WANDA. Oh, yes! I love him. Nobody come here but him for a long time now.

      KEITH. How long?

      WANDA. Five month.

      KEITH. So you have not been out since–?

      [WANDA shakes her head.]

      What have you been doing?

      WANDA. [Simply] Crying. [Pressing her hands to her breast] He is in danger because of me. I am so afraid for him.

      KEITH. [Checking her emotion] Look at me.

      [She looks at him.]

      If the worst comes, and this man is traced to you, can you trust yourself not to give Larry away?

      WANDA. [Rising and pointing to the fire] Look! I have burned all the things he have given me—even his picture. Now I have nothing from him.

      KEITH. [Who has risen too] Good! One more question. Do the police know you—because—of your life?

      [She looks at him intently, and shakes her, head.]

      You know where Larry lives?

      WANDA. Yes.

      KEITH. You mustn't go there, and he mustn't come to you.

      [She bows her head; then, suddenly comes close to him.]

      WANDA. Please do not take him from me altogether. I will be so careful. I will