He didn't say what about, but of course we know. (His lordship fidgets.) (With feeling.) It was good of you to tell him, father. Oh, it is horrible to me--(covering her face). It seemed so natural at the time.
LORD LOAM (petulantly). Never again make use of that word in this house, Mary.
LADY MARY (with an effort). Father, Brocklehurst has been so loyal to me for these two years that I should despise myself were I to keep my--my extraordinary lapse from him. Had Brocklehurst been a little less good, then you need not have told him my strange little secret.
LORD LOAM (weakly). Polly--I mean Mary--it was all Crichton's fault, he--
LADY MARY (with decision). No, father, no; not a word against him though. I haven't the pluck to go on with it; I can't even understand how it ever was. Father, do you not still hear the surf? Do you see the curve of the beach?
LORD LOAM. I have begun to forget--(in a low voice). But they were happy days; there was something magical about them.
LADY MARY. It was glamour. Father, I have lived Arabian nights. I have sat out a dance with the evening star. But it was all in a past existence, in the days of Babylon, and I am myself again. But he has been chivalrous always. If the slothful, indolent creature I used to be has improved in any way, I owe it all to him. I am slipping back in many ways, but I am determined not to slip back altogether--in memory of him and his island. That is why I insisted on your telling Brocklehurst. He can break our engagement if he chooses. (Proudly.) Mary Lasenby is going to play the game.
LORD LOAM. But my dear--
(LORD BROCKLEHURST is announced.)
LADY MARY (meaningly). Father, dear, oughtn't you to be dressing?
LORD LOAM (very unhappy). The fact is--before I go--I want to say--
LORD BROCKLEHURST. Loam, if you don't mind, I wish very specially to have a word with Mary before dinner.
LORD LOAM. But--
LADY MARY. Yes, father. (She induces him to go, and thus courageously faces LORD BROCKLEHURST to hear her fate.) I am ready, George.
LORD BROCKLEHURST (who is so agitated that she ought to see he is thinking not of her but of himself). It is a painful matter--I wish I could have spared you this, Mary.
LADY MARY. Please go on.
LORD BROCKLEHURST. In common fairness, of course, this should be remembered, that two years had elapsed. You and I had no reason to believe that we should ever meet again.
(This is more considerate than she had expected.)
LADY MARY (softening). I was so lost to the world, George.
LORD BROCKLEHURST (with a groan). At the same time, the thing is utterly and absolutely inexcusable--
LADY MARY (recovering her hauteur). Oh!
LORD BROCKLEHURST. And so I have already said to mother.
LADY MARY (disdaining him). You have told her?
LORD BROCKLEHURST. Certainly, Mary, certainly; I tell mother everything.
LADY MARY (curling her lip). And what did she say?
LORD BROCKLEHURST. To tell the truth, mother rather pooh-poohed the whole affair.
LADY MARY (incredulous). Lady Brocklehurst pooh-poohed the whole affair!
LORD BROCKLEHURST. She said, 'Mary and I will have a good laugh over this.'
LADY MARY (outraged). George, your mother is a hateful, depraved old woman.
LORD BROCKLEHURST. Mary!
LADY MARY (turning away). Laugh indeed, when it will always be such a pain to me.
LORD BROCKLEHURST (with strange humility). If only you would let me bear all the pain, Mary.
LADY MARY (who is taken aback). George, I think you are the noblest man--
(She is touched, and gives him both her hands. Unfortunately he simpers.)
LORD BROCKLEHURST. She was a pretty little thing. (She stares, but he marches to his doom.) Ah, not beautiful like you. I assure you it was the merest flirtation; there were a few letters, but we have got them back. It was all owing to the boat being so late at Calais. You see she had such large, helpless eyes.
LADY MARY (fixing him). George, when you lunched with father to-day at the club--
LORD BROCKLEHURST. I didn't. He wired me that he couldn't come.