Benefit of the Doubt — Act 1
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Title: The Benefit of the Doubt; a Comedy in Three Acts Author: Arthur Wing Pinero Release date: December 9, 2017 [eBook #56151] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language: English Other information and formats: www.
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) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT; A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ _THE BENEFIT
OF THE DOUBT_
------------------------------------------------------------------------ _THE PLAYS OF ARTHUR W.
PINERO_
WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTES
BY MALCOLM C.
SALAMAN
Paper cover, 1_s.
_ 6_d.
_; cloth, 2_s.
_ 6_d.
_ each In 16mo VOL.
I. _THE TIMES_
” II.
_THE PROFLIGATE_
” III.
_THE CABINET MINISTER_
” IV.
_THE HOBBY-HORSE_
” V. _LADY BOUNTIFUL_
” VI.
_THE MAGISTRATE_
” VII.
_DANDY DICK_
” VIII.
_SWEET LAVENDER_
” IX.
_THE SCHOOLMISTRESS_
” X. _THE WEAKER SEX_
” XI.
_THE AMAZONS_
Also _In small 4to.
_ ” XII.
_THE SECOND MRS.
TANQUERAY_
” XIII.
_THE NOTORIOUS MRS.
EBBSMITH_
” XIV.
_THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT_
_LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN_
_MDCCCXCVI_
------------------------------------------------------------------------ _THE BENEFIT_
_OF THE DOUBT_
_A COMEDY_
_In Three Acts_ _BY ARTHUR W.
PINERO_
_LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN_
_MDCCCXCVI_
------------------------------------------------------------------------ _Copyright 1895 All rights reserved Entered at Stationers’ Hall Entered at the Library of Congress, Washington, U. S.
A.
_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _This Play was produced at the Comedy Theatre, London, on Wednesday, October 16th, 1895_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
MRS.
EMPTAGE (_a widow_) CLAUDE EMPTAGE (_her son_) JUSTINA EMPTAGE } (_her daughters_) THEOPHILA FRASER }
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD, M.
P.
(_her brother_) MRS.
CLOYS (_her sister_) RT.
REV.
ANTHONY CLOYS, D.
D.
, Bishop of St. Olpherts ALEXANDER FRASER—“Fraser of Locheen” JOHN ALLINGHAM
OLIVE ALLINGHAM
DENZIL SHAFTO } (_Allingham’s Friends_) PETER ELPHICK }
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES
HORTON (_a servant at Mrs. Emptage’s_) QUAIFE (_a servant at Mr. Allingham’s_) _The scenes are placed at Mrs. Emptage’s house, in the neighbourhood of Regent’s Park, and at “The Lichens,” Mr. Allingham’s cottage at Epsom.
_ _The events of the First and Second Acts occur on the same day, those of the Third Act about fifteen hours afterwards.
_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE
BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
THE FIRST ACT
_The Scene represents a drawing-room in_ MRS. EMPTAGE’S _house near Regent’s Park.
At the back are double doors, opening on to a further drawing-room, and these face a window, over which the blinds are drawn, to moderate the glare of the sun, which nevertheless streams through them, for it is a fine afternoon in early summer.
The rooms are furnished and decorated in a costly and tasteful fashion.
_ MRS.
EMPTAGE _is reclining upon the settee, her eyes closed, a bottle of smelling-salts in her hand_.
JUSTINA _is pacing the room between the door and the window_.
MRS.
EMPTAGE _is a pretty, carefully-preserved woman with dyed hair and “touched-up” face: she is old enough to be the mother of a daughter of nine-and-twenty_.
JUSTINA _is of that age, good-looking, “smart,” and already somewhat passé.
Both are fashionably but sombrely dressed.
_ MRS.
EMPTAGE.
Tell me the time once more, ’Tina.
JUSTINA.
[_Referring to her watch.
_] A few minutes to four, mother.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
Does the judge of the Divorce Court invariably rise at four o’clock?
JUSTINA.
He may sit a little later under special circumstances.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
To have done with a case if it’s very near its end?
JUSTINA.
So I’m told.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
They must all be here soon, whether that happens or not.
JUSTINA.
Yes, yes.
Oh, but if the confounded thing should last into another day!
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
A third day’s suspense will kill me.
JUSTINA.
Ma, I suppose, really, we ought to be reading our Church Services or something.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
I can’t concentrate my attention in the least; I have been glancing at “The Yellow Book.
” JUSTINA.
Hark!
what’s that?
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
I don’t hear anything.
JUSTINA.
It _is_ somebody!
[HORTON, _a manservant, appears_.
HORTON.
Mrs. Quinton Twelves.
MRS.
EMPTAGE _struggles to her feet as_ MRS. QUINTON TWELVES _enters_.
HORTON _retires_.
KATE TWELVES _is a lively, handsome young woman, brightly dressed_.
JUSTINA AND MRS.
EMPTAGE.
[_Throwing themselves upon her.
_] Kitty!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
[_Kissing them.
_] Well, well, well, well!
JUSTINA.
Is it over?
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Not quite; that is, it wasn’t when I came away.
It’s all over by now, I expect.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
[_Hysterically.
_] Oh, Kitty——!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Sssh, sssh!
everything has gone swimmingly, I tell you.
JUSTINA.
For Theophila?
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Of course, for Theophila.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
[_Sinking back on to the settee.
_] I felt sure it would.
JUSTINA.
But what was happening when you left?
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
The dear old judge was just beginning to deliver his decision—his judgment.
JUSTINA.
Oh, how _could_ you come away then?
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Certainly, it was a wrench.
Only, Theo wrote little notes to Sir Fletcher Portwood and to Claude and me.
[_Taking a screw of paper from her glove.
_] Here’s mine.
[_Reading.
_] “I won’t have anybody I am fond of, except my husband, in Court at the finish.
They tell me they are sure I am cleared, but it frightens me to think you are all _waiting_.
Go to mother’s. ” MRS.
EMPTAGE.
[_Taking the note.
_] My poor child!
[_Reading it.
_] “...
they are sure I am cleared....
” ’Tina, she’s cleared!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Cleared!
I wish you could have heard Sir John Clarkson’s opening speech for Theophila this morning.
There was quite a murmur of approval when he sat down.
JUSTINA.
He let that wretch, Mrs. Jack Allingham, have it—eh?
He did!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
He said that a morbidly jealous wife is one of the saddest spectacles the world presents; but that when her jealousy leads her to attempt to blacken the reputation, the hitherto spotless reputation, of another woman—in this instance, a young lady more happily married than herself—then that jealous wife becomes a positive danger to society.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
I ought to have been there, ’Tina.
I said it was my duty, if you remember.
JUSTINA.
_I_ might have gone.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Certainly; and yet you have both sat at home, quaking; behaving, for all the world, as if you have a lurking suspicion that Theophila really may—really has—really did—— MRS.
EMPTAGE.
Kate, I will not permit you to say such a thing!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Why these miserable-looking gowns then?
You are dressed more funereally to-day than you were yesterday!
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
[_Tearfully.
_] If you live to see a daughter of yours, however innocent she may be, dragged through the Divorce Court——!
JUSTINA.
We haven’t been quite certain what we ought to put on.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
I considered half-mourning rather a happy thought.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
To my mind, it looks as if you had deliberately prepared for all emergencies.
MRS.
EMPTAGE.
[_Rising, in a flutter.
_] ’Tina, pin some flowers in your dress at once!
I’ll get Bristow to stick a bit of relief about me somewhere.
And I’ll wear some more rings—— [_She goes out.
_ JUSTINA _selects some cut flowers from a vase on the pianoforte_.
JUSTINA.
Oh, Kit, we were dreadfully in the dumps.
Bless you for bullying us!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
[_Taking a pin from her hat.
_] Come here.
JUSTINA.
[_Going to_ MRS. TWELVES.
] By Jove, though!
it would have been _too_ rough on us if—if—wouldn’t it?
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
[_Attaching the flowers to the bodice of_ JUSTINA’S _dress_.
] Pray complete your sentence.
JUSTINA.
Well—if Mrs. Allingham had made out her case against Jack Allingham and Theo.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
For shame, ’Tina!
JUSTINA.
Oh, you’re awfully prudish all of a sudden, Kate.
You’ve very soon forgotten—— Mind that pin!
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
What are you saying?
JUSTINA.
I mean, it isn’t as if we hadn’t all been just a _leetle_ rapid in our time, we three girls—Theo, you, and I. You needn’t be quite so newly-married-womanish with _me_.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
Shut up!
JUSTINA.
[_Glancing round.
_] No one’s there.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
[_In an undertone.
_] We always knew where to draw the line, I hope.
JUSTINA.
Of course we did.
Only, when you’re married, as Theo is, to a cold, dry mummy of a man like Alexander Fraser, the line’s apt to get drawn rather zigzag.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
[_Finishing with the flowers.
_] Go away!
JUSTINA.
Thanks—they’re jolly.
[_Picking up a little mirror from the table, and making a wry face at herself.
_] I haven’t had a night’s sound sleep for weeks.
MRS.
QUINTON TWELVES.
I should think not, with such thoughts in your head.
Poor Theo!
I’ve been fretting about her too, in a different way.
JUSTINA.
[_Adjusting the flowers with the aid of the mirror.
_] Yes, but it isn’t only Theo.
I’ve been doing a bit of lying-awake on my own account, I can tell you.
MRS.
