Benefit of the Doubt — Act 3
THE THIRD ACT
_The Scene is the same as in the previous Act, but a few articles of furniture are differently disposed about the room.
There is no fire;
and flowers decorate the fireplace.
The windows are open and the light is that of a fine afternoon in summer.
_ FRASER _is seated upon the settee_.
JOHN ALLINGHAM _appears in the garden, looks into the room, glares fiercely at_ FRASER, _coughs significantly, and walks away.
When_ JOHN _has gone_, FRASER, _glancing at the window, rises, and, with an angry exclamation, crosses the room_.
MRS.
CLOYS _and_ JUSTINA _enter_; MRS. CLOYS _is dressed as in the previous Acts, but without her bonnet and mantle_;
JUSTINA _is in a bright morning-dress_.
MRS.
CLOYS.
[_To_ FRASER.
] She insists upon rising; she will see you in a few minutes.
FRASER.
Thank you.
MRS.
CLOYS.
She is excessively weak and shattered; you must remember that.
FRASER.
Yes, yes.
I can never adequately express my gratitude—— MRS.
CLOYS.
[_Sitting upon the settee.
_] Tsch!
JUSTINA.
Aunt has been up with her the whole night.
MRS.
CLOYS.
Not alone.
Mrs. Allingham—— FRASER.
Mrs. Allingham——?
MRS.
CLOYS.
Mrs. Allingham begged to be allowed to keep me company.
There was a little scene between us—but the woman is, to some extent, human, I find.
FRASER.
Oh, I’ve no doubt that Mrs. Allingham is ashamed of herself—— MRS.
CLOYS.
I hope we are all ashamed of ourselves.
In the end I was far from sorry to have her companionship.
Your poor wife didn’t come out of her swoon till nearly one o’clock this morning.
Then Dr. Erskine went home and Mrs. Allingham and I took our places by the bedside—[_to_ JUSTINA]—till you arrived at breakfast-time, Justina.
JUSTINA.
[_To_ FRASER.
] And I brought old Sarah, who used to maid us girls when Theo was at home; she’s dressing her now.
FRASER.
Mrs. Cloys, pray help me with your advice.
MRS.
CLOYS.
[_Bridling.
_] Oh—h—h——!
FRASER.
No, no—about Mr. Allingham.
Ha!
of course if we were Frenchmen we should fight a duel—— JUSTINA.
Certainly, my dear Alec, and he would kill you.
FRASER.
Perhaps; that doesn’t follow.
JUSTINA.
It doesn’t follow, because it can’t follow.
But he _would_ kill you and everybody would say of you, “Serve him right; another unsatisfactory husband disposed of!
” And you would be buried, and my sister would be free and would go to Trouville in August in her weeds, and we should all have a splendid time generally.
FRASER.
[_Dryly.
_] If we were French.
JUSTINA.
Yes.
[_Going to the window.
_] Why aren’t we French!
MRS.
CLOYS.
Justina——!
FRASER.
[_Advancing to_ MRS. CLOYS, _hesitatingly, uncomfortably—lowering his voice_.
] I can’t deny that I have behaved in a very poor fashion to Theophila—— JUSTINA.
[_Looking into the garden.
_] Deny it!
no!
FRASER.
[_Turning to_ JUSTINA.
] Please——!
[_To_ MRS. CLOYS.
] But you, Mrs. Cloys, have just admitted to me that, up till last night, your feelings towards her were at least as unjust as my own.
MRS.
CLOYS.
Ah, I hope your contrition, now that the facts are known to us, is as sincere and as deep as mine, Mr. Fraser.
JUSTINA.
Oh, how miserable he looks!
MRS.
CLOYS.
Who?
JUSTINA.
Jack Allingham.
[_She goes out, and disappears.
_ FRASER.
[_Walking about angrily.
_] There he is again!
MRS.
CLOYS.
He has every right to be here.
FRASER.
It’s in curious taste.
MRS.
CLOYS.
I don’t see that.
He feels called upon to remain here to protect his wife.
He might say, with equal reason—— FRASER.
Hardly.
He can take _his_ wife away, and protect her elsewhere.
But I am helpless.
You tell me it is a question whether Theophila ought to be moved to-day or not—— MRS.
CLOYS.
[_Referring to her watch.
_] Dr. Erskine will decide very shortly.
FRASER.
So, for how long, in heaven’s name, am I to endure Mr. Allingham?
The fellow puts himself in my way.
If I walk in the garden, he appears, indoors, at a window, and coughs in a menacing fashion.
When I enter the house the proceedings are but slightly varied—I am inside; Allingham and his cough outside.
MRS.
CLOYS.
I find him a simple-minded, boyish young man.
FRASER.
[_Looking through the balustrade into the library.
_] Do you?
MRS.
CLOYS.
After all, the conspiracy he assisted at—for which I can never forgive him—was carried out, on his part, in perfect good faith to Theophila.
FRASER.
His share in it is singularly discreditable.
MRS.
CLOYS.
[_Rising.
_] You and I must remember that it is through this discreditable act that we are able to do justice to your wife.
[JUSTINA
_re-enters, at the window_.
] Is Mr. Allingham there?
JUSTINA.
Yes, aunt.
MRS.
CLOYS.
[_To_ FRASER.
] I assume you are anxious to avoid any open quarrel with Mr. Allingham?
FRASER.
I simply wish to get my sick wife away as speedily and as peacefully as possible, and then to forget this gentleman—and his cough.
[MRS.
CLOYS
_goes out at the window and disappears_.
] Justina; surely you—_you_—resent this new attitude of Mrs. Allingham’s?
For months and months she is your sister’s bitter, determined enemy; then suddenly she is allowed to sit up all night, nursing her!
JUSTINA.
You wouldn’t grudge the woman her little bit of practical repentance?
If ever I go in for repentance, let nobody try to do me out of it!
FRASER.
[_Impatiently.
_] Repentance——!
JUSTINA.
[_Sitting on the arm of a chair.
_] Oh, Olive Allingham didn’t have too gay a time of it last night, take my word for it.
When Theo came-to, aunt tells me, her poor, overwrought brain wandered for an hour or so;
that wasn’t over-pleasant for Mrs. A.
Theo went through the whole business from beginning to end, breaking off occasionally to say her prayers—praying that the case might end in her favour, and that the season’s invitations would flow in as usual.
Sometimes she’d stop in the middle of it, and call out that she couldn’t pray well while that creature was in the next room listening.
Luckily, she fell into a heavy sleep, at about half-past two, and didn’t wake till just as I turned up in response to aunt’s telegram.
But what a bad hour or two it must have been for Mrs. A.!
Picture it!
The half-darkened room; my little sister tossing about the bed, raving; aunt sitting grimly on one side, with a handkerchief round her head; and on the other side, hidden behind the bed-curtains, hardly daring to breathe, that woman, with her white face and her eyes almost out of their sockets!
SIR FLETCHER _enters, carrying some slips of paper covered with writing_.
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Allingham has had really a most admirable cold luncheon laid in the dining-room.
[_To_ FRASER.
] You haven’t seen the dining-room?
FRASER.
[_Shortly.
_] No. SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Really a capital lunch.
Evidently it is intended that one should wander in and eat a wing of a chicken when one feels inclined.
JUSTINA.
_You_ have been wandering, uncle, apparently.
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
A glass of sherry, merely.
No—it is strange and unreasonable that it should be so, but it _is_ so.
JUSTINA.
What is so?
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Why, one has rather a feeling of constraint in sitting down to Allingham’s table—at any rate until matters are in a more settled state.
[_To_ FRASER.
] _You_ wouldn’t care to—to make the plunge?
FRASER.
Plunge——?
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
To break the ice?
FRASER.
Eat his lunch!
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
[_Sitting on the settee and arranging his papers.
_] No, no; I can quite understand—— JUSTINA.
[_Throwing her head back.
_] Ha!
FRASER.
[_To her, angrily.
_] I believe you would grin by the side of a grave.
JUSTINA.
[_Shrugging her shoulders.
_] _Cela dépend.
_ FRASER.
[_Turning away in disgust.
_] Ah!
JUSTINA.
[_Jumping up.
_] Oh, I’ve had my bad days lately—plenty of ’em!
This morning the atmosphere’s a bit clearer.
[_Gaily.
_] Tra, la, la!
FRASER.
The woman who can laugh under such circumstances—— JUSTINA.
[_Turning upon him.
_] Laugh!
My dear Alec, if you had learnt to laugh when you acquired your other accomplishments, you would have been able perhaps to keep my sister out of the Divorce Court.
[_She goes out.
_ SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
[_Fussing with his papers.
_] Fraser——[FRASER _comes to him_.
] When I got to my hotel here last night I jotted down the—the—the leading points—the leading features—— FRASER.
Leading features——?
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Of this awkward affair between you and the Allinghams—— FRASER.
[_Impatiently.
_] There is now no question between me and the Allinghams—— SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
[_Rising.
_] My dear Locheen!
A lady deliberately stations herself in that room, with the cognizance and approval of her husband, to listen to—— FRASER.
I wish to forget all that occurred last night.
It is done with.
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Pardon me; it cannot be done with: it ought not to be done with, without the most complete apology—I will not, for reasons you will presently appreciate, hint from which side.
[_Going to_ FRASER, _button-holing him_.
] Do you know what has suggested itself to me, Fraser?
FRASER.
[_Releasing himself.
_] No. SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Why, sir, if ever there was a matter for reference, for arbitration, this is one!
FRASER.
[_Between his teeth.
_] Arbitration——?
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
Good heavens, when I open my _Times_ in the morning, and glance at the law reports, how often have I occasion to remark, “_That_ scandal might have been averted, and _that_, and _that_——” if only the intervention of some cool, level-headed person had been secured, the intervention of some one possessing the rarest of all gifts—the judicial faculty!
FRASER.
The gift is rare enough upon the bench.
People shrink from having their concerns adjudicated by a meddlesome amateur.
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
I sent Claude to town for his mother at ten o’clock this morning.
When _they_ arrive, the family will be complete—with the exception Of my brother, Thomas Osborne Portwood, who is in Australia; a deplorable case.
[_Looking about him.
_] Arbitration dispenses with legal paraphernalia.
A table, writing materials, a few chairs arranged—[_his eye falling upon a table_]—a table.
[_He moves the table and stands, disposing, by gesture, of an imaginary audience.
_] Seated here, I should command the room.
[_Pushing the settee a little further towards the left.
_] This thing must be differently placed.
Chairs there—and there—— [_To_ FRASER.
] Locheen, would this be the better room, I wonder, or the library?
FRASER.
[_Who has lapsed into thought, rousing himself.
_] Eh, for what?
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
For the arbitration?
[FRASER _impatiently starts to his feet as_ MRS. CLOYS _enters at the window with_ JOHN.
] Oh, Mr. Allingham, if you will give me just a moment or two—— MRS.
CLOYS.
[_Taking_ SIR FLETCHER’S _arm and drawing him aside_.
] Not now, Fletcher.
SIR FLETCHER PORTWOOD.
[_Annoyed.
_] Harriet——!
[SIR FLETCHER _and_ MRS. CLOYS _stand outside the window, talking_.
JOHN _comes and faces_ FRASER.
JOHN.
[_With an effort.
_] I am sorry to hear, Mr. Fraser, that you have been annoyed, while a visitor at my house, by the persistency of my cough.
FRASER.
If I could have assured myself, Mr. Allingham, that your cough was a genuine one, it would not, however violent and grave its attacks, have occasioned me the smallest concern.
JOHN.
I admit the cough was not genuine.
I employed it as a sign that I was at hand should you wish to have an explanation with me.
FRASER.
The invitation might have been more explicitly phrased.
JOHN.
It was clear enough for most men.
At any rate, I hope the invitation is sufficiently plain now.
FRASER.
Quite.
JOHN.
You decline it, or accept it?
FRASER.
If I hesitate, it is because I hardly know in what language you would choose for me to reply.
JOHN.
Language——?
