Elizabeth Baker

“ CHAR. Throwing up a nice snug little place at Molesey’s and rushing himself on to the already overstocked labour market of the Colonies.
MAGGIE. You are really going on your luck?
TENNANT. Yes.
MAGGIE. How fine!
LILY. Maggie! Think of the risk!
MAGGIE. He’s a man. It doesn’t matter.
LILY. If he’d been out of work, it would have been so very different.
MAGGIE. That would have spoilt the whole thing. I admire his pluck.
LILY. Well, he’s got no one depending on him, so he will suffer alone.
MAGGIE. You’re not very encouraging, Lil. I have heard of a married man doing the same. ”

“ TENNANT. In time?
MAGGIE. Before you got too old to do anything.
Pause.
CHAR. [near the garden window but outside.] Climb on to the dustbin, only mind the lid’s on tight.
TENNANT. That’s Leslie coming over. I’ll go. [goes.]
Enter from the garden MORTON LESLIE, a big fair man, clean-shaven, lazy and good-natured. CHARLEY follows.
LESLIE. I nearly smashed your husband, Mrs. Wilson . . . Good day, Miss Maggie—and I’m sure I’ve absolutely killed Mr. Wilson’s beans.
CHAR. If you don’t the birds will—and if they don’t the worms will—and—how can you expect anything to grow in that garden? ”

“ But I’ll tell you what, marriage shouldn’t tie a man up as if he was a slave. I don’t want to desert Lily—she’s my wife and I’m proud of it—but because I married, am I never to strike out in anything? People like us are just cowards. We seize on the first soft job—and there we stick, like whipped dogs. We’re afraid to ask for anything, afraid to ask for a rise even—we wait till it comes. ”

“ Tennant is going so soon—
LESLIE. Tennant? Where’s he going?
MAGGIE. You’ll never guess.
LESLIE. He’s leaving you? He’s going to get married?
CHAR. [impatiently.] You’re as bad as a woman!
MAGGIE. I thought you more brilliant, Mr. Leslie.
LESLIE. I thought of the happiest thing that could happen to a man, Miss Maggie.
LILY. No, it’s not marrying. He’s going abroad.
LESLIE. Got a fortune?
MAGGIE. He’s just going to try his luck. He’s emigrating.
LESLIE. What a fool! He’s got the sack, I suppose?
MAGGIE. No. He’s thrown it up.
LESLIE. Thrown up a safe job? Oh, he’s an ass, a stupid ass! ”

“ CHARLEY enters from kitchen, dressed for the office.
[Pg 79]
MAGGIE. Charley!
CHARLEY. What’s up? Don’t rot, Mag!
MAGGIE. And now—
CHARLEY. Oh, let’s drop it. I was a fool all along—a bit of a beast, too—it’s done with. . . .
MAGGIE. But—
CHARLEY. What’s the good of talking? Don’t make me out more of a brute than I am! No, the thing was meant to be! I was mad. After all, a man can’t do just what he likes! It’s better as it is. If this hadn’t happened I should have done it—and a pretty mess, I daresay, I’d have been in—and dragged her in, too—
MAGGIE. If—
LILY enters. ”

“ Someone is playing the piano, and LILY, standing beside it, is singing in a sweet but rather weak voice, “Sing me to sleep.” No one is in the back parlour, but through the curtains can be seen MORTON LESLIE, lolling on mantelpiece; SYBIL FROST, a pretty fair-haired girl, much given to laughing at everything; PERCY MASSEY, a good-looking, somewhat weak youth of perhaps twenty-one or twenty-two, sitting very close to SYBIL, and TENNANT, standing in the bay window. ”

“ Don’t make it too early, though. [Looking out of the French windows into the garden.] I’ve got to get in my peas.
TENNANT. Green peas?
CHAR. Green peas in that patch? My dear chap, don’t I wish I could!
LILY. [to TENNANT.] Have some more?
TENNANT. No, thanks.
CHAR. For one thing, there’s the soil! It’s rotten. Then there’re the sparrows. . . .
LILY. Some of them are so tame, dear, and they don’t seem to care a bit for the cat next door.
CHAR. [bitterly.] They don’t care for anything. I wish they’d take a fancy to a few snails.
LILY. They don’t eat snails. ”

“ I’ve refused to marry Walter.
CHARLEY. [surprised, but not particularly interested.] What on earth for?
MAGGIE. It was all through Mr. Tennant—
CHARLEY. Tennant? You’re—
MAGGIE. [impatiently.] Oh, dear, NO. I’m not pining for him. But I found out, when there was all this talk about Mr. Tennant, that I was marrying Walter, because I wanted to be safe and was afraid of risk. Then I made up my mind I wouldn’t do that. I tell you because—if a girl can risk things—surely a man—
CHARLEY. There wasn’t any risk for you with Walter. I can’t see it.
MAGGIE. A woman isn’t tested in the same way as a man. ”

“ I’m sorry I came tonight, Wilson.
LESLIE’S voice can be heard, shouting out a comic song.
[Smiling.] Life doesn’t seem to worry him.
CHARLEY. Won’t you stay and have supper?
FENWICK. Thanks, no. I don’t feel exactly sociable.
CHARLEY. [with a short laugh.] Neither do I, old chap. Fact is, I was feeling a bit off when you came.
FENWICK. You’re a little restless, but it’ll work off. Look at me. I felt like that once.
They go out.
The curtains are pulled wide and LESLIE and PERCY MASSEY enter. TENNANT can be seen in the front parlour. ”

“ I expect I shall—I’m a coward like all of you—but what I want to know is, why can’t a man have a fit of restlessness and all that, without being thought a villain?
FOSTER. But after all, we undertake responsibilities when we marry, Mr. Wilson. We can’t overlook them.
CHARLEY. I don’t want to. But I don’t think we ought to talk as if when a man gets married he must always bring in just the same money.
FOSTER. If you have the misfortune to have your salary reduced, nobody would blame you.
CHARLEY. I don’t know. I felt a bit of a beast when I had to tell Lil about that. ”

“ He comes in. He is a broad-shouldered young fellow, a little shy in his manner with women.
TENNANT. Nice day, Mrs. Wilson.
LILY. Beautiful.
TENNANT. I’ve brought you home the paper, if you’d like it. It’s the “Daily Mirror.”
LILY. Oh, thank you. I do like the pictures. Charley is getting so dreadfully serious now in his reading, and won’t buy it. He takes the “Daily Telegraph.” He thinks the gardening notes are so good.
TENNANT. He’s luxurious. It’s a penny.
LILY. Oh, he shares it with somebody. [Pause.]
TENNANT. How goes the garden? ”

“ Well, you’ve done better than she, anyway, Maggie, if she is going to Canada. She’ll only be a servant, after all. What else can she do? And then in the end she’ll marry some farmer man and have to work fearfully hard—I’ve heard about the women over there—and wish she had never left England. While here are you, going to marry a rich man who’s devoted to you, with plenty of money and long holidays, and your own servant to begin with! Really, Maggie—!
MAGGIE. [stretching a little and smiling.] Isn’t it gorgeous? [shaking herself.] Well—it must be Mr. Tennant’s fault. ”

“ MASSEY. Do you want to take Lil with you?
CHARLEY. How could I?
Enter LILY—all mutter words of encouragement. General movement towards her. Everybody offers chairs in sympathy. She sits by her father.
CHARLEY. Look here now, just listen! It’s quite [Pg 59] true I want to go. I want to do as Tennant’s done, chuck everything and try my luck in the Colonies. As soon as I had a fair start Lil would come out.
MASSEY. [interrupting.] Yes, and suppose you failed? You should have thought of that before you married. You can’t run off when you like when you’ve a wife. ”

“ CHARLEY rolls up his sleeves and goes into the garden.
TENNANT comes in and looks round. CHARLEY comes to the window with a spade.
TENNANT. You—er—busy?
CHAR. [lighting his pipe.] Um! Want a job? There’s a nice little lot of squirming devils under that flower-pot that want killing. Take your time over it.
TENNANT. Thanks. My fancy doesn’t lie in gardening.
CHAR. Filthy soil, this.
TENNANT. Mrs. Wilson would like to keep chickens.
CHAR. Not if I know it! I’d rather go into a flat. [Leaning against the door and smoking thoughtfully.] I could chuck the lot sometimes. ”

“ CHARLEY. You wait till you’re a few years older.
LESLIE. Wilson’s caught the land fever. Take up an allotment—that’ll cure you. Your garden isn’t big enough. Have you got that map, Tennant?
TENNANT. It’s in my room. Shall we go up?
LESLIE. Is there a fire?
TENNANT. No.
LESLIE. Bring it down, there’s a good chap. I like to take things comfortable. I’ll wait down here.
TENNANT goes out R.
LESLIE rises; goes back to the front room.
PERCY. I say, Charley—
CHARLEY. Well?
PERCY. I’ve got a rise.
CHARLEY. Congratulations—wish I had.
PERCY. Foster’s given me Beckett’s job. ”

“ CHARLEY. Courage or cheek—I don’t know which. Of course, it’s quite a mad idea—any fool can see that.
MAGGIE. You’re not a fool. It’s the others who’re fools. If only you could hold out a little longer. Lil would be all right. ”

“ He’ll get over it. Everybody says he will—except you. And how could he go? It’s just an idea he’s got over Mr. Tennant.
MAGGIE. [angrily.] Of course it’s Mr. Tennant. [Pg 66] Everybody speaks as if Mr. Tennant was a wicked person going round tempting poor husbands to desert their wives. “It’s all that Mr. Tennant.” “What a blessing when that man goes,” etc., etc., as if he had a bad character. The truth is, that he’s done a jolly good thing. He’s stirred us all up. He’s made us dissatisfied.
LILY. What’s the good of that? Nobody can make things different if they wanted to. ”

“ MAGGIE. That isn’t the only kind of war. Is a soldier to be the only kind of man, that a woman’s going to encourage? Can’t she help the man who wants to make a better thing of life? Oh, what a lovely chance you had and didn’t take it, Lil! ”

“ LILY. [big laugh from behind curtains.] You should hear Mr. Leslie. He’s so funny, he’s been giving Mr. Tennant advice what to do when he’s a lonely bachelor in Australia. He made us roar with laughter.
Goes back laughing.
CHARLEY. Silly ass!
FENWICK. [startled.] What?
CHARLEY. That chap Leslie! It’d do him good to go to Australia for a bit. He’d stick to his berth if they docked his screw to ten bob. He’s got no pride in him. ”

“ And when the boss says he won’t give you one—do we up and say, “Then I’ll go somewhere where I can get more.” Not a bit of it! What’s the good of sticking on here all our lives? Why shouldn’t somebody risk something sometimes? We’re all so jolly frightened—we’ve got no spunk—that’s where the others get the hold over us—we slog on day after day and when they cut our wages down we take it as meek as Moses. We’re not men, we’re machines. Next week I’ve got my choice—either to take less money to keep my job or to chuck it and try something else. You say—everybody says—keep the job. ”

“ TENNANT. No offence, old chap. It’s all right for some. It suits you. You’re used to it. I want to see things a bit before I settle.
CHARLEY is silent. His pipe has gone out and he is staring at the floor. ”

“ Tennant said he was going to Australia. He wants to go too.
MRS. M. What next? Charley ought to be ashamed of himself. Go to Australia indeed! He forgets he is married.
LILY. I don’t want him to stay just because he’s married, if he wants to leave me.
MAGGIE. You are quite wrong, I’m sure, Lil. He doesn’t want to leave you at all. He wants to leave his work.
MRS. M. Perhaps he does. So do other people very often. Suppose we all stopped work when we didn’t like it? A pretty muddle the world would be in. ”

“ Walter is very nice and attentive—in fact, quite devoted.
MAGGIE. Yes, I know. Just like he was to his first wife, I expect.
MRS. M. You’ve such an absurd prejudice against widowers, Maggie. You’re jealous.
MAGGIE. I’m not. Not a bit. But I do wish he would do something, and not worry about getting married.
MRS. M. The poor man is doing something, I should think, running after you every spare minute, and house hunting.
MAGGIE. I would much rather he went to Australia—or somewhere.
MRS. M. That’s that absurd Tennant man again. You’re not in love with him, I hope? ”

“ Tennant goes the better. He’s been putting Charley up to this, I suppose?
MAGGIE. You don’t know Mr. Tennant, mother. He’s not that sort.
MRS. M. Then what made Charley think of it at all?
MAGGIE. It’s just a feeling you get sometimes, mother. You can’t help it. Office work is awf’lly monotonous.
MRS. M. Of course it is. So is all work. Do you expect work to be pleasant? Does anybody ever like work? The idea is absurd. Anyone would think work was to be pleasant. You don’t come into the world to have pleasure. ”

“ CHARLEY disappears for a moment into garden, but is now and again to be seen outside the door with a flower-pot or some other thing for the garden.
LILY. And you have the evenings, and they give you Saturday morning at Molesey’s as you get on, don’t they?
[Pg 11]
TENNANT. Yes, it’s all true, Mrs. Wilson—but I can’t stand it. Anybody can have the job. ”

“ TENNANT. [coming forward.] Why didn’t he quite?
LESLIE. Not enough devil in him. Hundreds of ’em almost go.
CHARLEY. Did you?
LESLIE. [with energy.] I’m comfortable enough where I am. I’ve been telling this chap here he’s a fool, but he won’t believe me. He says he’d rather be a fool in the Colonies than a wise man here. Don’t know what he means quite, but it sounds rather smart. [Waving his pipe oracularly as he faces the three men.] I’ve known lots of chaps who’ve wanted to go. ”

“ I’m not going to get over anything. I’ve been a coward, see?—and now I’m going to cut and run. It’s no good telling Lil—she wouldn’t understand—but when I’m out there and get something and making a tidy little place for her, she’ll be all right. She’s nervous—the women are like that, you know—they can’t help it—and her people, too—well, they’re old, and when you’re old, you’re afraid.
TENNANT. [interrupting.] You mean to go! to-day?
CHARLEY. Why not? Why not? If I put it off, I’ll never go. It wants a bit of doing, and if you don’t do these things at the time, well, you give in. ”