The Mousetrap and Other Plays (36 page)

JOHN
. (
To
HENRIETTA
) Why—what on earth made you do this?

GERDA
. Oh, John, it's very pretty.

JOHN
. (
Crossing down Left turning and facing
HENRIETTA
) Really, Henrietta.

SIR
HENRY
. (
Tactfully interposing
) Mrs. Cristow, I must tell you about our latest excitement. You know the cottage at the end of this lane? It's been taken by a well-known film star, and all the locals are simply goggling.

GERDA
. Oh yes, of course—they will be.

MIDGE
. Is she very glamorous?

SIR
HENRY
. Well, I haven't seen her yet, though I believe she's in residence. What's her name now?

MIDGE
. Hedy Lamarr?

SIR
HENRY
. No. Who's that girl with her hair over her eyes?

MIDGE
. Veronica Lake.

SIR
HENRY
. No.

MIDGE
. Lauren Bacall.

SIR
HENRY
. No.

LADY
ANGKATELL
. Nazimova—no. We'd better ask Gudgeon. He'll know.

SIR
HENRY
. We saw her in that film—you remember, that tough chap—plays gangsters, and they flew to the Pacific and then flew back again, and there was a particularly horrible child . . .

MIDGE
.
San Francisco Story?

SIR
HENRY
. Yes.

MIDGE
. Veronica Craye.

(
JOHN
drops the statuette.
GERDA
moves quickly down Left with a cry and picks up the statuette. It is not broken.
)

HENRIETTA
. John! (
She watches him with sharpened interest.
)

LADY
ANGKATELL
. (
Rising and crossing to Right of
GERDA
) Would you like to see your room, Gerda?

GERDA
. Oh—yes, perhaps I'd better go and unpack.

LADY
ANGKATELL
. (
Crossing below
GERDA
to the door Left
) Simmonds will have done that. But if you'd like to come up . . . ?

MIDGE
. (
Crossing to Left
) I'll come with you. Where am I, Lucy? In the Blue Room?

LADY
ANGKATELL
. Yes, and I've put Edward in the Hermit, and I've put the rest . . .

(
Her voice dies away as she exits Left.
GERDA
and
MIDGE
follow her off.
JOHN
stands in a daze.
)

SIR
HENRY
. Where is Edward? Has he put his car away, I wonder? There's room in the end garage.

(
He exits up Centre to Left.
HENRIETTA
moves to
JOHN
and gives him her cigarette. Now that they are alone her voice holds a new intimacy.
)

HENRIETTA
. Is there anything the matter, darling?

JOHN
. (
Crossing to the sofa
) M'm? I was—thinking—remembering. I'm sorry. (
He sits on the sofa at the Left end, and faces Right.
)

HENRIETTA
. (
Easing to the fireplace
) There's an atmosphere of remembering about this place. (
She turns and looks at the picture over the mantelpiece.
) I've been remembering, too.

JOHN
. Have you? (
Disinterested
) Remembering what?

HENRIETTA
. (
Turning; bitterly
) The time when I was a long-legged lanky girl with untidy hair—a happy girl with no idea of the things that life could do to her. (
She turns to face the fire.
) Going back . . .

JOHN
. (
Dreamily
) Why should one want to go back—suddenly? Why do things you haven't thought of for years suddenly spring into your mind?

HENRIETTA
. (
Turning
) What things, John?

JOHN
. (
Dreamily
) Blue sea—the smell of mimosa . . .

HENRIETTA
. When?

JOHN
. Ten years ago.

HENRIETTA
. (
Crossing to Left of the sofa
) And you'd like—to go back?

JOHN
. I don't know—I'm so tired.

(
HENRIETTA
,
from behind, lays a hand on
JOHN
's shoulder.
)

(
He holds her hand but still stares dreamily Right.
) What would I do without you?

HENRIETTA
. Get along quite well, I expect.

JOHN
. Why should things come back into your mind—things that are over and done with?

HENRIETTA
. (
Crossing above the sofa to Right of it
) Perhaps because they are
not
really over and done with.

JOHN
. Not after ten years? Heaven knows how long since I thought about it. But lately—even when I'm walking round the wards, it comes into my mind and it's as vivid as a picture. (
He pauses. With sudden energy
) And now, on top of it all, she's here, just a few yards down the lane.

HENRIETTA
. (
Moving below the Right end of the sofa
) Veronica Craye, you mean?

JOHN
. Yes. I was engaged to her once—ten years ago.

HENRIETTA
. (
Sitting on the sofa at the Right end of it
) I—see.

JOHN
. Crazy young fool! I was mad about her. She was just starting in pictures then. I'd qualified about a year before. I'd had a wonderful chance—to work under Radley. D.H. Radley, you know,
the
authority on cortex of degeneration.

HENRIETTA
. What happened?

JOHN
. What I might have guessed would happen. Veronica got her chance to go to Hollywood. Well, naturally, she took it. But she assumed, without making any bones about it, that I'd give up everything and go with her. (
He laughs.
) No idea how important my profession was to me. I can hear her now. “Oh, there's absolutely no need for you to go on doctoring—
I
shall be making heaps of money.” (
He gives his cigarette to
HENRIETTA
.) I tried to explain it all to her. Radley—what a wonderful opportunity it was to work under him. Do you know what she said? “What, that comic little old man?” I told her that that comic little old man had done some of the most remarkable work of our generation—that his experiments might revolutionize the treatment of Rigg's Disease. But of course that was a waste of time. She'd never even heard of Rigg's Disease.

HENRIETTA
. Very few people have. I hadn't till you told me about it and I read it up.

(
JOHN
rises, moves up Centre, goes on to the terrace and stands facing Left.
)

JOHN
. She said who cared about a lot of obscure diseases anyway. California was a wonderful climate—it would be fun for me to see the world. She'd hate to go there without me. Miss Craye was the complete egoist—never thought of anyone but herself.

HENRIETTA
. You're rather by way of being an egoist too, John.

JOHN
. (
Turning to face
HENRIETTA
) I saw her point of view. Why couldn't she see mine?

HENRIETTA
. What did you suggest?

JOHN
. (
Moving to the sofa and leaning over the back of it
) I told her I loved her. I begged her to turn down the Hollywood offer and marry me there and then.

HENRIETTA
. And what did she say to that?

JOHN
. (
Bitterly
) She was just—amused.

HENRIETTA
. And so?

JOHN
. (
Moving down Right
) Well, there was only one thing to be done—break it off. I did. It wasn't easy. All that was when we were in the South of France. (
He crosses to the coffee table, picks up a magazine, then crosses and stands below the armchair Left Centre.
) I broke with Veronica, and came back to London to work under Radley. (
During the following speeches he occasionally glances idly at the magazine.
)

HENRIETTA
. And then you married Gerda?

JOHN
. The following year. Yes.

HENRIETTA
. Why?

JOHN
.
Why?

HENRIETTA
. Yes. Was it because you wanted someone as different as possible from Veronica Craye?

JOHN
. Yes, I suppose that was it. (
He sits in the armchair Left Centre.
) I didn't want a raving beauty as a wife. I didn't want a damned egoist out to grab everything she could get. I wanted safety and peace and devotion, and all the quiet enduring things of life. I wanted someone who'd take her ideas from
me.

HENRIETTA
. Well, you certainly got what you wanted. None could be more devoted to you than Gerda.

JOHN
. That's the irony of it. I picked Gerda for just the qualities she has, and now half the time I snap her head off because of them. How was I to know how irritating devotion can be?

HENRIETTA
. (
Rising and stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table
) And what about Gerda? Is she satisfied?

JOHN
. Oh, Gerda's all right. She's quite happy.

HENRIETTA
. Is she?

JOHN
. Oh, yes. She spends her life fussing about the house and the children. That's all she thinks about. She's the most incompetent housekeeper and the most injudicious mother that you can imagine. Still, it keeps her occupied.

HENRIETTA
. (
Crossing to Right of
JOHN
) How horribly cruel you are, John.

JOHN
. (
Surprised
) Me?

HENRIETTA
. Do you never see or feel anything except from your own point of view? Why do you bring Gerda down here for weekends when you know it's misery for her?

JOHN
. Nonsense! Does her a world of good to get away. It makes a break for her.

HENRIETTA
. Sometimes, John, I really hate you.

JOHN
. (
Startled
) Henrietta. (
He rises.
) Darling—don't say that. You know it's only you who makes life possible for me.

HENRIETTA
. I wonder. (
She puts up a hand to touch him lovingly, then checks herself.
)

(
JOHN
kisses her, then crosses and puts the magazine on the coffee table.
)

JOHN
. Who's the Edward Angkatell?

HENRIETTA
. A second cousin of mine—and of Henry's.

JOHN
. Have I met him?

HENRIETTA
. Twice.

JOHN
. I don't remember. (
He perches himself on the Left arm of the sofa.
) Is he in love with you, Henrietta?

HENRIETTA
. Yes.

JOHN
. Well, you watch your step. You're mine, you know.

(
HENRIETTA
looks at him in silence.
)

And look here, what do you mean by doing that absurd statuette of Gerda? Hardly up to your standard, is it?

HENRIETTA
. It's technically quite good craftsmanship—a straightforward portrait statuette. It pleased Gerda.

JOHN
. Oh, Gerda!

HENRIETTA
. It was made to please her.

JOHN
. Gerda doesn't know the difference between a work of art and a coloured photograph. What about your pearwood figure for the International Group? Have you finished that?

HENRIETTA
. Yes.

JOHN
. Let's have a look at it.

(
HENRIETTA
moves unwillingly to the alcove, opens the curtain, switches on the light, then stands Left of the arch and watches
JOHN
's
face.
JOHN
rises, crosses to the alcove and stands in the arch looking off Left.
)

I say, that's rather good. Why, what on earth . . . ? (
Angrily
) So that's why you wanted Gerda to sit for you. How dare you!