Latest / Plays Collection / Arms and The Man - George Bernard Shaw
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Act one night. A ladies bedchamber in Bulgaria, in a
- 0:07Speaker 1: small town near the Dragoman Pass. It is late in
- 0:11Speaker 1: November the year eighteen eighty five, and through an open
- 0:15Speaker 1: window with a little balcony on the left can be
- 0:18Speaker 1: seen a peak of the Balkans, wonderfully white and beautiful
- 0:22Speaker 1: in the starlit snow. The interior of the room is
- 0:26Speaker 1: not like anything to be seen in the East of Europe.
- 0:30Speaker 1: It is half rich Bulgarian, half cheap Viennese. The counterpane
- 0:36Speaker 1: and hangings of the bed, the window curtains, the little carpet,
- 0:39Speaker 1: and all the ornamental textile fabrics in the room are
- 0:42Speaker 1: oriental and gorgeous. The paper on the wall is occidental
- 0:48Speaker 1: and paltry. Above the head of the bed, which stands
- 0:52Speaker 1: against a little wall cutting off the right hand corner
- 0:55Speaker 1: of the room diagonally is a painted wooden shrine blue
- 0:59Speaker 1: and gold, with an ivory image of Christ and a
- 1:03Speaker 1: light hanging before it in a pierced metal ball suspended
- 1:06Speaker 1: by three chains. On the left. Further forward is an ottoman.
- 1:12Speaker 1: The washstand against the wall on the left consists of
- 1:15Speaker 1: an enameled iron basin with a pale beneath it in
- 1:18Speaker 1: a painted metal frame, and a single towel on the
- 1:21Speaker 1: rail at the side. A chair near it is Austrian
- 1:25Speaker 1: bent wood with cane seat. The dressing table between the
- 1:30Speaker 1: bed and the window is an ordinary pine table covered
- 1:34Speaker 1: with a cloth of many colors, but with an expensive
- 1:37Speaker 1: tarilet mirror on it. The door is on the right
- 1:41Speaker 1: and there is a chest of drawers between the door
- 1:43Speaker 1: and the bed. This chest of drawers is also covered
- 1:48Speaker 1: by a variegated native cloth, and on it there is
- 1:51Speaker 1: a pile of paper backed novels, a box of chocolate creams,
- 1:55Speaker 1: and a miniature easel, on which is a large photograph
- 1:59Speaker 1: of an extremely handsome officer, whose lofty bearing and magnetic
- 2:03Speaker 1: glance can be felt even from the portrait. The room
- 2:07Speaker 1: is lighted by a candle on the chest of drawers
- 2:10Speaker 1: and another on the dressing table, with a box of
- 2:12Speaker 1: matches beside it. The window is hinged doorwise and stands
- 2:18Speaker 1: wide open, folding back to the left. Outside a pair
- 2:22Speaker 1: of wooden shutters opening outwards also stand open. On the balcony.
- 2:28Speaker 1: A young woman intensely conscious of the romantic beauty of
- 2:32Speaker 1: the night, and of the fact that her own youth
- 2:34Speaker 1: and beauty is a part of it. Is on the balcony,
- 2:37Speaker 1: gazing at the snowy Balkans. She is covered by a
- 2:41Speaker 1: long mantle of furs worth on a moderate estimate, about
- 2:45Speaker 1: three times the furniture of her room. Her reverie is
- 2:50Speaker 1: interrupted by her mother, Katherine Petkoff, a woman over forty,
- 2:55Speaker 1: imperiously energetic, with magnificent black hair and eyes, who might
- 3:00Speaker 1: be a very splendid specimen of the wife of a
- 3:03Speaker 1: mountain farmer, but is determined to be a Viennese lady.
- 3:08Speaker 1: And to that end, where is a fashionable tea gown
- 3:11Speaker 1: on all occasions? Catherine entering hastily full of good news. Ryena.
- 3:18Speaker 1: She pronounces it Ryena with the stress on the e reena.
- 3:22Speaker 1: She goes to the bed, expecting to find Ryina there.
- 3:26Speaker 1: Why where Ryena looks into the room. Heavens, child, are
- 3:32Speaker 1: you out in the night air instead of in your bed?
- 3:34Speaker 1: You catch your death? Luca told me you were asleep,
- 3:38Speaker 1: Ryena coming in? I sent her away. I want you
- 3:42Speaker 1: to be alone. The stars are so beautiful. What is
- 3:47Speaker 1: the matter, Katherine? Such news? There has been a battle
- 3:53Speaker 1: Raina her eyes dilating ah, she throws the cloak on
- 3:58Speaker 1: the ottoman, then comes eagerly to Catherine in her nightgown,
- 4:02Speaker 1: a pretty garment, but evidently the only one she has
- 4:05Speaker 1: on Catherine, A great battle at Slivnitza, a victory, and
- 4:11Speaker 1: it was won by Sergius. Raina with a cry of
- 4:15Speaker 1: the light. Ah rapturously, oh mother, Then with sudden anxiety,
- 4:23Speaker 1: is father safe? Catherine? Of course he sent me the news.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Sergius is the hero of the hour, the idol of
- 4:31Speaker 1: the regiment, Raina, tell me, tell me how was it? Ecstatically,
- 4:38Speaker 1: Oh mother, mother, Mother, Raina pulls her mother down on
- 4:42Speaker 1: the ottoman and they kiss one another frantically, Katherine, with
- 4:48Speaker 1: searching enthusiasm. You can't guess how splendid it is? A
- 4:54Speaker 1: cavalry charge. Think of that he defied our Russian commanders,
- 4:58Speaker 1: acted without orders, led a charge on his own responsibility,
- 5:03Speaker 1: headed it himself, was the first man to sweep through
- 5:06Speaker 1: their guns. Can't you see it, Reina, Our gallant, splendid
- 5:11Speaker 1: Bulgarians with their swords and eyes flashing, thundering down like
- 5:15Speaker 1: an avalanche and scattering the wretched Servian dandies like chaff.
- 5:20Speaker 1: And you you kept Sergius waiting a year before you
- 5:24Speaker 1: would be betrothed to him. Oh, if you have a
- 5:28Speaker 1: drop of Bulgarian blood in your veins, you will worship
- 5:31Speaker 1: him when he comes back. Raina, What will he care
- 5:36Speaker 1: for my poor little worship after the acclamations of a
- 5:39Speaker 1: whole army of heroes. But no matter, I am so happy,
- 5:44Speaker 1: so proud. She rises and walks about excitedly. It proves
- 5:50Speaker 1: that all our ideas were real after all, Catherine, indignantly,
- 5:56Speaker 1: Our idea is real. What do you mean right? Our
- 6:01Speaker 1: ideas of what Sergius would do? Our patriotism, our heroic ideals. Oh,
- 6:08Speaker 1: what faithless little creature's girls are. I sometimes used to
- 6:12Speaker 1: doubt whether they were anything but dreams. When I buckled
- 6:16Speaker 1: on Sergius's sword, he looked so noble. It was treason
- 6:20Speaker 1: to think of disillusion, our humiliation, our failure. And yet,
- 6:25Speaker 1: and yet, quickly promise me you'll never tell him, Catherine,
- 6:31Speaker 1: don't ask me for promises until I know what I
- 6:34Speaker 1: am promising. Rhina, Well, it came into my head, just
- 6:39Speaker 1: as he was holding me in his arms and looking
- 6:42Speaker 1: into my eyes, that perhaps we only had our heroic
- 6:45Speaker 1: ideas because we are so fond of reading Byron and pushkin,
- 6:49Speaker 1: and because we were so delighted with the opera that
- 6:52Speaker 1: season at Bucharist. Real life is so seldom like that, indeed,
- 6:57Speaker 1: never as far as I knew it. Thenmorsefully, only thank Mother,
- 7:03Speaker 1: I doubted him. I wondered whether all his heroic qualities
- 7:07Speaker 1: and his soldiership might not prove mere imagination when he
- 7:11Speaker 1: went into a real battle, I had an uneasy fear
- 7:15Speaker 1: that he might cut a poor figure there beside all
- 7:18Speaker 1: those clever Russian officers, Catherine, a poor figure. Shame on you.
- 7:26Speaker 1: The Serbians have Austrian officers who are just as clever
- 7:29Speaker 1: as our Russians. But we have beaten them in every battle.
- 7:32Speaker 1: For all that raina laughing and sitting down again, Yes,
- 7:37Speaker 1: that was only a prosaic little coward, Oh, to think
- 7:42Speaker 1: that it was all true that Sergius is just as
- 7:45Speaker 1: splendid and noble as he looks, That the world is
- 7:49Speaker 1: really a glorious world for women who can see its
- 7:52Speaker 1: glory and men who can act its romance. What happiness,
- 7:57Speaker 1: what unspeakable fulfillment? Ah. She throws herself on her knees
- 8:03Speaker 1: beside her mother, and flings her arms passionately round her.
- 8:08Speaker 1: They are interrupted by the entry of Luca, a handsome,
- 8:12Speaker 1: proud girl in a very pretty Bulgarian peasant's dress with
- 8:16Speaker 1: double apron, so defiant that her civility to Reina is
- 8:21Speaker 1: almost insolent. She is afraid of Catherine, but even with her,
- 8:25Speaker 1: goes as far as she dares. She is just now
- 8:29Speaker 1: excited like the others, but she has no sympathy for
- 8:32Speaker 1: Raina's raptures, and looks contemptuously at the ecstasies of the
- 8:36Speaker 1: two before she addresses them. Lucan, if you please, madam,
- 8:43Speaker 1: all the windows are to be closed and the shutters
- 8:46Speaker 1: made fast. They say there may be shooting in the streets.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Verena and Catherine rise together alarmed. The servians are being
- 8:55Speaker 1: chased right back through the pass, and they say they
- 8:58Speaker 1: may run into the town. Our cavalry will be after them,
- 9:02Speaker 1: and our people will be ready for them. You may
- 9:05Speaker 1: be sure now that they are running away. She goes
- 9:08Speaker 1: out on the balcony and pulls the outside shutters too,
- 9:12Speaker 1: then steps back into the room. Raina, I wish our
- 9:17Speaker 1: people were not so cruel. What glory is there in
- 9:21Speaker 1: killing wretched fugitives? Catherine business like her housekeeping instincts aroused
- 9:28Speaker 1: I must see that everything is made safe downstairs. To Luca.
- 9:33Speaker 1: Leave the shutters so that I can just close them
- 9:36Speaker 1: if I hear any noise, Catherine authoritatively, turning on her
- 9:41Speaker 1: way to the door. Oh no, dear, you must keep
- 9:44Speaker 1: them fastened. You would be sure to drop off to
- 9:47Speaker 1: sleep and leave them open and make them fast Luca. Luca, yes, madam,
- 9:54Speaker 1: She fastens them. Rayina, don't be anxious about me. The
- 10:00Speaker 1: moment I hear a shot, I shall blow out the
- 10:02Speaker 1: candles and roll myself up in bed with my ears
- 10:05Speaker 1: well covered. Catherine. Quite the wisest thing you can do,
- 10:09Speaker 1: my love. Good night, Rayina, good night. They kiss one another,
- 10:14Speaker 1: and Ryena's emotion comes back for a moment. Wish me
- 10:18Speaker 1: joy of the happiest night of my life. If only
- 10:21Speaker 1: there are no fugitives. Catherine go to bed, dear, and
- 10:26Speaker 1: don't think of them. She goes out. Luca secretly to Ryina,
- 10:32Speaker 1: if you would like the shutters open, just give them
- 10:35Speaker 1: a push like this. She pushes them. They open, She
- 10:38Speaker 1: pulls them to again. One of them ought to be
- 10:41Speaker 1: bolted at the bottom, but the bolt's gone. Raina, with
- 10:46Speaker 1: dignity reproving her thanks Luca, but we must do what
- 10:50Speaker 1: we are told. Luca makes a grimace. Good night, Luca
- 10:56Speaker 1: carelessly good night. She goes out swagger. Raina, left alone,
- 11:03Speaker 1: goes to the chest of drawers and adores the portrait
- 11:06Speaker 1: there with feelings that are beyond all expression. She does
- 11:10Speaker 1: not kiss it, or press it to her breast, or
- 11:12Speaker 1: show it any mark of bodily affection, but she takes
- 11:16Speaker 1: it in her hands and elevates it like a priestess,
- 11:20Speaker 1: Raina looking up at the picture with worship. Oh, I
- 11:24Speaker 1: shall never be unworthy of you anymore, my hero, never, never, never.
- 11:31Speaker 1: She replaces it reverently and selects a novel from the
- 11:34Speaker 1: little pile of books. She turns over the leaves dreamily
- 11:39Speaker 1: finds her page, turns the book inside out at it,
- 11:43Speaker 1: and then, with a happy sigh, gets into bed and
- 11:45Speaker 1: prepares to read herself to sleep. But before abandoning her
- 11:50Speaker 1: self to fiction, she raises her eyes once more, thinking
- 11:54Speaker 1: of the blessed reality, and murmurs, my hero, My hero.
- 12:03Speaker 1: A distant shot breaks the quiet of the night outside.
- 12:06Speaker 1: She starts listening, and two more shots much nearer follow
- 12:11Speaker 1: startling her so that she scrambles out of bed and
- 12:14Speaker 1: hastily blows out the candle on the chest of drawers. Then,
- 12:18Speaker 1: putting her fingers in her ears, she runs to the
- 12:21Speaker 1: dressing table and blows out the light there, and hurries
- 12:24Speaker 1: back to bed. The room is now in darkness. Nothing
- 12:28Speaker 1: is visible but the glimmer of the light in the
- 12:30Speaker 1: pierced ball before the image, and the starlight seen through
- 12:34Speaker 1: the slits at the top of the shutters. The firing
- 12:37Speaker 1: breaks out again. There is a startling fusillade quite close
- 12:41Speaker 1: at hand. Whilst it is still echoing, the shutters disappear,
- 12:47Speaker 1: pulled open from without, and for an instant the rectangle
- 12:51Speaker 1: of snowy starlight flashes out, with the figure of a
- 12:54Speaker 1: man in black upon it. The shutters close immediately and
- 12:58Speaker 1: the room is dark again, but the silence is now
- 13:01Speaker 1: broken by the sound of panting. Then there is a scrape,
- 13:06Speaker 1: and the flame of a match is seen in the
- 13:08Speaker 1: middle of the room. Raina crouching on the bed. Who's there?
- 13:14Speaker 1: The match is out instantly? Who's there? Who is that?
- 13:19Speaker 1: A man's voice in the darkness, subduedly but threateningly, sh sh,
- 13:24Speaker 1: don't call out, or you'll be shot. Be good and
- 13:27Speaker 1: no harm will happen to you. She is heard leaving
- 13:30Speaker 1: her bed and making for the door. Take care, there's
- 13:33Speaker 1: no use in trying to run away. Remember, if you
- 13:36Speaker 1: raise your voice, my pistol will go off commandingly. Strike
- 13:42Speaker 1: a light and let me see you. Do you hear
- 13:45Speaker 1: another moment of silence and darkness. Then she is heard
- 13:49Speaker 1: retreating to the dressing table. She lights a candle, and
- 13:53Speaker 1: the mystery is at an end. A man of about
- 13:56Speaker 1: thirty five, in a deplorable light be spattered with mud
- 14:00Speaker 1: and blood and snow, his belt and the strap of
- 14:03Speaker 1: his revolver case keeping together the torn ruins of the
- 14:06Speaker 1: blue coat of a servian artillery officer. As far as
- 14:10Speaker 1: the candlelight and his unwashed, unkempt condition make it possible
- 14:14Speaker 1: to judge. He is a man of middling stature and
- 14:17Speaker 1: undistinguished appearance, with strong neck and shoulders, a roundish, obstinate
- 14:23Speaker 1: looking head, covered with short, crisp bronze curls, clear quick
- 14:27Speaker 1: blue eyes, and good brows and mouth, a hopelessly prosaic
- 14:31Speaker 1: nose like that of a strong minded baby trim soldier,
- 14:35Speaker 1: like carriage and energetic manner, and with all his widths
- 14:39Speaker 1: about him in spite of his desperate predicament, even with
- 14:43Speaker 1: a sense of humor of it, without, however, the least
- 14:45Speaker 1: intention of trifling with it or throwing away a chance.
- 14:49Speaker 1: He reckons up what he can guess about Rhina, her age,
- 14:53Speaker 1: her social position, her character, the extent to which he
- 14:56Speaker 1: is frightened at a glance, and continues more politely, but
- 15:00Speaker 1: still more determinedly. Excuse my disturbing you, but you recognize
- 15:05Speaker 1: my uniform servian. If I am caught, I shall be
- 15:10Speaker 1: killed determinedly. Do you understand that Raina? Yes? Man, Well,
- 15:19Speaker 1: I don't intend to get killed if I can help it?
- 15:23Speaker 1: Still more determinedly, do you understand that he locks the
- 15:27Speaker 1: door with a snap? Raina disdainfully? I suppose not. She
- 15:34Speaker 1: draws herself up superbly and looks him straight in the face, saying,
- 15:38Speaker 1: with emphasis, Some soldiers I know are afraid of death,
- 15:43Speaker 1: man with grim, good humor, all of them, dear lady,
- 15:47Speaker 1: all of them believe me. It is our duty to
- 15:50Speaker 1: live as long as we can and kill as many
- 15:53Speaker 1: of the enemy as we can. Now, if you raise
- 15:56Speaker 1: an alarm, Raina, cutting him short, you will shoot me.
- 16:00Speaker 1: How do you know that I am afraid to die?
- 16:03Speaker 1: Man cunningly? Ah, But suppose I don't shoot you. What
- 16:08Speaker 1: will happen then, why A lot of your cavalry, the
- 16:12Speaker 1: greatest blackbirds in your army, will burst into this pretty
- 16:16Speaker 1: room of yours and slaughter me here like a pig.
- 16:20Speaker 1: For I'll fight like a demon. They shan't get me
- 16:23Speaker 1: into the street to amuse themselves with. I know what
- 16:26Speaker 1: they are. Are you prepared to receive that sort of
- 16:29Speaker 1: company in your present undress? Raina, suddenly conscious of her
- 16:34Speaker 1: night gown, instinctively shrinks and gathers it more closely about her.
- 16:39Speaker 1: He watches her and adds, pitilessly, it's rather a scanty a.
- 16:45Speaker 1: She turns to the ottoman. He raises his pistol instantly
- 16:49Speaker 1: and cries, stop. She stops, where are you going? Raina,
- 16:55Speaker 1: with dignified patience, only to get my cloak? Man darting
- 17:01Speaker 1: to the ottoman and snatching the cloak A good idea. No,
- 17:06Speaker 1: I'll keep the cloak, and you will take care that
- 17:09Speaker 1: nobody comes in and sees you without it. This is
- 17:12Speaker 1: a better weapon than the pistol. He throws the pistol
- 17:16Speaker 1: down on the ottoman. Raina revolted. It is not the
- 17:21Speaker 1: weapon of a gentleman man. It's good enough for a
- 17:25Speaker 1: man with only you to stand between him and death.
- 17:28Speaker 1: As they look at one another for a moment, Raina
- 17:32Speaker 1: hardly able to believe that even a servian officer can
- 17:35Speaker 1: be so cynically and selfishly unchivalrous, they are startled by
- 17:40Speaker 1: a sharp fusillade in the street. The chill of imminent
- 17:44Speaker 1: death hushes the man's voice as he adds, do you
- 17:47Speaker 1: hear if you are going to bring those scoundrels in
- 17:50Speaker 1: on me, you shall receive them as you are Reina
- 17:55Speaker 1: meets his eye with unflinching scorn. Suddenly he starts listening.
- 18:01Speaker 1: There is a step outside. Someone tries the door and
- 18:04Speaker 1: then knocks hurriedly and urgently at it. Raina looks at
- 18:08Speaker 1: the man breathless. He throws up his head with the
- 18:11Speaker 1: gesture of a man who sees that it is all
- 18:14Speaker 1: over with him, and, dropping the manner which he has
- 18:17Speaker 1: been assuming to intimidate her, flames the cloak to her, exclaiming,
- 18:21Speaker 1: sincerely and kindly, ah, no use, I'm done for Quick,
- 18:25Speaker 1: wrap yourself up, they're coming, Raina, catching the cloak eagerly,
- 18:31Speaker 1: Oh thank you. She wraps herself up with great relief.
- 18:35Speaker 1: He draws his saber and turns to the door, waiting
- 18:40Speaker 1: Luca outside knocking. My lady, My lady, get up quick
- 18:44Speaker 1: and open the door. Raina anxiously. What will you do?
- 18:49Speaker 1: Man grimly, never mind, keep out of the way. It
- 18:53Speaker 1: will not last long. Raina impulsively, I'll help you. Hide yourself, Oh,
- 18:59Speaker 1: hide yourself quick behind the curtain. She seizes him by
- 19:03Speaker 1: a torn strip of his sleeve and pulls him towards
- 19:07Speaker 1: the window. Man yielding to her, There is just half
- 19:11Speaker 1: a chance if you keep your head. Remember, nine soldiers
- 19:15Speaker 1: out of ten are born fools. He hides behind the curtain,
- 19:20Speaker 1: looking out for a moment to say, finally, if they
- 19:23Speaker 1: find me, I promise you a fight, A devil of
- 19:26Speaker 1: a fight. He disappears. Raina takes off the cloak and
- 19:31Speaker 1: throws it across the foot of the bed. Then, with
- 19:34Speaker 1: a sleepy, disturbed air, she opens the door. Luca enters excitedly. Luca,
- 19:40Speaker 1: a man has been seen climbing up the water pipe
- 19:43Speaker 1: to your balcony, a servian. The soldiers want to search
- 19:46Speaker 1: for him, and they are so wild and drunk and furious.
- 19:50Speaker 1: My lady says, you are to dress at once. Raina,
- 19:53Speaker 1: as if annoyed at being disturbed. They shall not search here.
- 19:58Speaker 1: Why have they been let in? Catherine coming in hastily, Raina, darling,
- 20:03Speaker 1: are you safe? Have you seen any one or heard anything? Raina?
- 20:08Speaker 1: I heard the shooting. Surely the soldiers will not dare
- 20:11Speaker 1: come in here, Catherine, I have found a Russian officer.
- 20:16Speaker 1: Thank Heaven, he knows Sergius speaking through the door to
- 20:20Speaker 1: some one outside. Sir, will you come in now? My
- 20:23Speaker 1: daughter is ready. A young Russian officer in Bulgarian uniform
- 20:28Speaker 1: enters sword in hand, the officer with soft, feline politeness
- 20:33Speaker 1: and stiff military carriage. Good evening, gracious lady. I am
- 20:37Speaker 1: sorry to intrude, but there is a fugitive hiding on
- 20:40Speaker 1: the balcony. Will you and the gracious lady your mother
- 20:44Speaker 1: please to withdraw whilst we search. Raina petulantly nosense, Sir,
- 20:50Speaker 1: you can see there is no one on the balcony.
- 20:53Speaker 1: She throws the shutters wide open and stands with her
- 20:56Speaker 1: back to the curtain where the man is hidden, pointing
- 20:58Speaker 1: to the moonlit balc A couple of shots are fired
- 21:03Speaker 1: right under the window, and the bullet shatters the glass
- 21:05Speaker 1: opposite Raina, who winks and gasps, but stands her ground,
- 21:10Speaker 1: while Catherine screams and the officer rushes to the balcony.
- 21:14Speaker 1: The officer on the balcony shouting savagely down to the street,
- 21:19Speaker 1: cease firing there, you fools, do you hear? Cease firing?
- 21:22Speaker 1: Damn you? He glares down for a moment, then turns
- 21:26Speaker 1: to Roena, trying to resume his polite manner. Could anyone
- 21:31Speaker 1: have got in without your knowledge? Were you asleep? Rayena? No,
- 21:36Speaker 1: I have not been to bed. The officer impatiently, coming
- 21:40Speaker 1: back into the room. Your neighbors have their heads so
- 21:44Speaker 1: full of runaway servians that they see them everywhere. Politely, gracious,
- 21:50Speaker 1: lady A thousand pardons good night, military bow, which Raina
- 21:56Speaker 1: returns coldly, another to Catherine, who follows him out. Reina
- 22:01Speaker 1: closes the shutters. She turns and sees Luca, who has
- 22:05Speaker 1: been watching the scene curiously. Reina, don't leave my mother, Luca,
- 22:10Speaker 1: whilst the soldiers are here. Luca glances at Reyena, at
- 22:15Speaker 1: the ottoman at the curtain, then purses her lips, secretively,
- 22:20Speaker 1: laughs to herself and goes out. Raina follows her to
- 22:24Speaker 1: the door, shuts it behind her with a slam, and
- 22:27Speaker 1: locks it violently. The man immediately steps out from behind
- 22:31Speaker 1: the curtain, sheathing his saber and dismissing the danger from
- 22:35Speaker 1: his mind in a business like way. Man, a narrow shave,
- 22:39Speaker 1: but a miss is as good as a mile. Dear
- 22:42Speaker 1: young lady, your servant until death, I wish for your
- 22:46Speaker 1: sake I had joined the Bulgarian army instead of the Servian.
- 22:49Speaker 1: I am not a native Servian, Reina, haughtily, No, you
- 22:54Speaker 1: are one of the Austrians who set the Servians on
- 22:57Speaker 1: to rob us of our national liberty, and who offer
- 23:00Speaker 1: her their army for them. We hate them, man, Austrian.
- 23:06Speaker 1: Not I don't hate me, dear young lady. I'm only
- 23:10Speaker 1: as Swiss, fighting merely as a professional soldier. I joined
- 23:14Speaker 1: servia because it was nearest to me. Be generous. You've
- 23:17Speaker 1: beaten us, hollow, Reina, Have I not been generous? Man? Noble, heroic?
- 23:26Speaker 1: But I'm not saved yet. This particular rush will soon
- 23:30Speaker 1: pass through, but the pursuit will go on all night
- 23:33Speaker 1: by fits and starts. I must take my chance to
- 23:36Speaker 1: get off during a quiet interval. You don't mind my
- 23:39Speaker 1: waiting just a minute or two, do you, Reina? Oh? No,
- 23:44Speaker 1: I am sorry. You will have to go into danger again,
- 23:48Speaker 1: motioning towards ottoman, who won't you sit, She breaks off
- 23:52Speaker 1: with an irrepressible cry of alarm. As she catches sight
- 23:56Speaker 1: of the pistol. The man all nerves shies a frightened
- 24:00Speaker 1: horse man irritably, don't frighten me like that. What is it, Reina,
- 24:07Speaker 1: your pistol? It was staring that officer in the face
- 24:10Speaker 1: all the time. What an escape man vexed at being
- 24:15Speaker 1: unnecessarily terrified? Oh is that all? Reina staring at him
- 24:22Speaker 1: rather superciliously, conceiving a poorer and poor opinion of him,
- 24:27Speaker 1: and feeling proportionately more and more at her ease with him.
- 24:32Speaker 1: I am sorry, I frightened you. She takes up the
- 24:35Speaker 1: pistol and hands it to him. Pray, take it to
- 24:38Speaker 1: protect yourself against me. Man grinning wearily at the sarcasm
- 24:43Speaker 1: as he takes the pistol, No use, dear young lady,
- 24:47Speaker 1: there is nothing in it. It's not loaded. He makes
- 24:50Speaker 1: a grimace at it and drops it disparagingly into his
- 24:53Speaker 1: revolver case. Reina, loaded by all means man, I I
- 25:00Speaker 1: have no ammunition. What use are cartridges in battle? I
- 25:04Speaker 1: always carry chocolate instead, and I finished the last cake
- 25:08Speaker 1: of that yesterday. Raina outraged in her most cherished ideals
- 25:14Speaker 1: of manhood chocolate. Do you stuff your pockets with sweets
- 25:19Speaker 1: like a schoolboy even in a field? Man? Yes, isn't
- 25:24Speaker 1: it contemptible? Raina stares at him, unable to utter her feelings.
- 25:30Speaker 1: Then she sails away scornfully to the chest of drawers
- 25:34Speaker 1: and returns with a box of confectionery in her hand.
- 25:38Speaker 1: Raina allow me. I am sorry. I've eaten them all
- 25:42Speaker 1: except these. She offers him the box man ravenously. You're
- 25:48Speaker 1: an angel. He gobbles the comforts creams delicious. He looks
- 25:55Speaker 1: anxiously to see whether there are any more. There are none,
- 26:00Speaker 1: ups the inevitable with pathetic good humor, and says, with
- 26:03Speaker 1: grateful emotion, bless you, dear lady. You can always tell
- 26:08Speaker 1: an old soldier by the insides of his holsters and
- 26:11Speaker 1: cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges. The
- 26:15Speaker 1: old ones grub Thank you. He hands back the box.
- 26:21Speaker 1: She snatches it contemptuously from him and throws it away.
- 26:25Speaker 1: This impatient action is so sudden that he shies again. Oh,
- 26:30Speaker 1: don't do things so suddenly gracious lady, don't revenge yourself
- 26:34Speaker 1: because I've frightened you just now. Rayna, superbly frighten me.
- 26:41Speaker 1: Do you know, sir, that though I am only a woman,
- 26:44Speaker 1: I think I am at heart as brave as you man.
- 26:50Speaker 1: I should think so. You haven't been under fire for
- 26:53Speaker 1: three days as I have. I can stand two days
- 26:57Speaker 1: without showing it much, but no man can stand three days.
- 27:01Speaker 1: I'm as nervous as a mouse. He sits down on
- 27:05Speaker 1: the ottoman and takes his head in his hands. Would
- 27:08Speaker 1: you like to see me cry? Reina quickly? No, man,
- 27:16Speaker 1: If you would, all you have to do is to
- 27:19Speaker 1: scold me, just as if I were a little boy
- 27:21Speaker 1: in you my nurse. If I were in camp now,
- 27:25Speaker 1: they'd play all sorts of tricks on me. Reina a
- 27:29Speaker 1: little moved, I'm sorry, I won't scold you. Touched by
- 27:34Speaker 1: the sympathy in her tone, he raises his head and
- 27:37Speaker 1: looks gratefully at her. She immediately draws back, insistively. You
- 27:42Speaker 1: must excuse me. Our soldiers are not like that. She
- 27:46Speaker 1: moves away from the ottoman. Man, oh, yes they are.
- 27:52Speaker 1: There are only two sorts of soldiers, old ones and
- 27:56Speaker 1: young ones. I've served fourteen years. Half of your fellows
- 28:00Speaker 1: never smelt powder before. Why how is it that you've
- 28:04Speaker 1: beaten us? Sheer ignorance of the art of war? Nothing
- 28:08Speaker 1: else indignantly, I never saw anything so unprofessional, Raina, ironically, Oh,
- 28:17Speaker 1: was it unprofessional to beat you? Man? Well? Come, is
- 28:23Speaker 1: it professional to throw a regiment of cavalry on a
- 28:27Speaker 1: battery of machine guns with the dead certainty that if
- 28:30Speaker 1: the guns go off, not a horse or man will
- 28:33Speaker 1: ever get within fifty yards of the fire. I couldn't
- 28:37Speaker 1: believe my eyes when I saw it, Raina, eagerly turning
- 28:42Speaker 1: to him as all her enthusiasm and her dream of
- 28:45Speaker 1: glory rushed back on her. Did you see the great
- 28:50Speaker 1: cavalry charge? Oh? Tell me about it? Describe it to me. Man,
- 28:56Speaker 1: You never saw a cavalry charge, did you, Reina? How
- 29:00Speaker 1: could I? Man? Ah? Perhaps not, of course. Well it's
- 29:05Speaker 1: a funny sight. It's like slinging a handful of peas
- 29:10Speaker 1: against a windowpane. First one comes, then two or three
- 29:14Speaker 1: close behind him, and then all the rest in a lump, Reina,
- 29:19Speaker 1: her eyes dilating as she raises her clasped hands ecstatically. Yes,
- 29:25Speaker 1: first one, the bravest of the brave man prosaically. Hmm.
- 29:33Speaker 1: You should see the poor devil pulling at his horse, Reina,
- 29:37Speaker 1: Why should he pull at his horse? Man? Impatient of
- 29:41Speaker 1: so stupid a question. It's running away with him, of course.
- 29:46Speaker 1: Do you suppose the fellow wants to get there before
- 29:49Speaker 1: the others and be killed? Then they all come. You
- 29:53Speaker 1: can tell the young ones by their wildness and their slashing.
- 29:57Speaker 1: The old ones come bunched up under the number one guard.
- 30:00Speaker 1: They know that they are mere projectiles, and that it's
- 30:03Speaker 1: no use trying to fight. The wounds are mostly broken
- 30:07Speaker 1: knees from the horse's cannoning together. Raina, Oh, but I
- 30:12Speaker 1: don't believe the first man is a coward. I believe
- 30:15Speaker 1: he is a hero man, good humoredly. That's what you'd
- 30:21Speaker 1: have said if you'd seen the first man in the
- 30:23Speaker 1: charge today, Reina, breathless, Ah, I knew it. Tell me,
- 30:28Speaker 1: tell me about him man. He did it like an
- 30:33Speaker 1: operatic tenor, a regular handsome fellow with flashing eyes and
- 30:38Speaker 1: the lovely mustache, shouting a war cry and charging like
- 30:42Speaker 1: don Quixote at the windmills. We nearly burst with laughter
- 30:46Speaker 1: at him. But when the sergeant ran up as white
- 30:49Speaker 1: as a sheet, and told us they'd sent us the
- 30:52Speaker 1: wrong cartridges, and that we couldn't fire a shot for
- 30:55Speaker 1: the next ten minutes. We laughed at the other side
- 30:59Speaker 1: of our mouths. I never felt so sick in my life,
- 31:02Speaker 1: though I've been in one or two very tight places,
- 31:06Speaker 1: and I hadn't even a revolver cartridge. Nothing but chocolate.
- 31:11Speaker 1: We'd know bayonets nothing. Of course, they just cut us
- 31:15Speaker 1: to bits. And there was Don Quixote, flourishing like a
- 31:19Speaker 1: drum major, thinking he'd done the cleverest thing ever known,
- 31:24Speaker 1: whereas he ought to be court martial for it. Of
- 31:27Speaker 1: all the fools ever let loose on a field of battle,
- 31:30Speaker 1: that man must be the very maddest. He and his
- 31:35Speaker 1: regiment simply committed suicide. Only the pistol missed fire. That's all.
- 31:42Speaker 1: Raina deeply wounded but steadfastly loyal to her ideals. Indeed,
- 31:49Speaker 1: would you know him again? If you saw him? Man?
- 31:53Speaker 1: Shall I ever forget him? She again goes to the
- 31:57Speaker 1: chest of drawers. He watches her with a vague hope
- 32:00Speaker 1: that she may have something else for him to eat.
- 32:02Speaker 1: She takes the portrait from its stand and brings it
- 32:05Speaker 1: to him. Raina that is a photograph of the gentleman,
- 32:11Speaker 1: the patriot and hero to whom I am betrothed. Man,
- 32:17Speaker 1: looking at it, I'm really very sorry looking at her.
- 32:22Speaker 1: Was it fair to lead me on? He looks at
- 32:26Speaker 1: the portrait again. Yes, that's him, not a doubt of it.
- 32:30Speaker 1: He stifles a laugh, Reina, quickly, why do you laugh? Man, shamefacedly,
- 32:37Speaker 1: but still greatly tickled. I didn't laugh, I assure you,
- 32:41Speaker 1: at least I didn't mean to. But when I think
- 32:44Speaker 1: of him charging the windmills and thinking he was doing
- 32:48Speaker 1: the finest thing, chokes with suppressed laughter. Raina sternly give
- 32:55Speaker 1: me back the portrait, sir Man, with sincere remorse. Of course, certainly,
- 33:01Speaker 1: I'm really very sorry. She deliberately kisses it and looks
- 33:06Speaker 1: him straight in the face, before returning to the chest
- 33:09Speaker 1: of drawers to replace it. He follows her, apologizing, perhaps
- 33:15Speaker 1: I'm quite wrong. You know, no doubt I am. Most
- 33:18Speaker 1: likely he got wind of the cartridge business somehow and
- 33:21Speaker 1: knew it was a safe job, Reina. That is to
- 33:25Speaker 1: say he was a pretender and a coward. You did
- 33:29Speaker 1: not dare say that before, Man, with a comic gesture
- 33:33Speaker 1: of despair. It's no use, dear lady, I can't make
- 33:37Speaker 1: you see it from the professional point of view. As
- 33:40Speaker 1: he turns away to get back to the ottoman, the
- 33:43Speaker 1: firing begins again in the distance. Reina sternly as she
- 33:48Speaker 1: sees him, listening to the shots. So much the better
- 33:52Speaker 1: for you, man turning how Reina, you are my enemy
- 34:00Speaker 1: and you are at my mercy. What would I do
- 34:03Speaker 1: if I were a professional soldier? Man? Ah, true, dear
- 34:09Speaker 1: young lady, You're always right. I know how good you
- 34:12Speaker 1: have been to me to my last hour. I shall
- 34:15Speaker 1: remember those three chocolate creams. It was unsoldierly, but it
- 34:21Speaker 1: was angelic. Rna coldly thank you, and now I will
- 34:27Speaker 1: do the soldiery thing. You cannot stay here after what
- 34:31Speaker 1: you have just said about my future husband, But I
- 34:34Speaker 1: will go out on the balcony and see whether it
- 34:36Speaker 1: is safe for you to climb down into the street.
- 34:39Speaker 1: She turns to the window man changing countenance. Down that
- 34:44Speaker 1: water pipe. Stop. Wait, I can't, I daren't. The very
- 34:49Speaker 1: thought of it makes me giddy. I came up it
- 34:52Speaker 1: fast enough with death behind me, but to face it
- 34:55Speaker 1: now in cold blood? He sinks on the ottoman. It's
- 35:01Speaker 1: no use, I give up I'm beaten. Give the alarm.
- 35:06Speaker 1: He drops his head in his hands in the deepest dejection. Rayina,
- 35:12Speaker 1: disarmed by pity. Come, don't be disheartened. She stoops over him,
- 35:18Speaker 1: almost maternally. He shakes his head. Oh, you are a
- 35:23Speaker 1: very poor soldier, a chocolate cream soldier. Come cheer up.
- 35:27Speaker 1: It takes less courage to climb down than to face capture,
- 35:31Speaker 1: remember that man, dreamily lulled by her voice. No, capture
- 35:38Speaker 1: only means death, and death is sleep. Oh, sleep, sleep, sleep,
- 35:45Speaker 1: undisturbed sleep. Ah, Climbing down the pipe means doing something,
- 35:50Speaker 1: exerting myself, thinking death ten times over first, Reina softly
- 35:57Speaker 1: and wonderingly, catching the rhythm of his weary Are you
- 36:01Speaker 1: so sleepy as that man? I've not had two hours
- 36:07Speaker 1: undisturbed sleep since the war began. I'm on the staff.
- 36:12Speaker 1: You don't know what that means. I haven't closed my
- 36:15Speaker 1: eyes for thirty six hours. Raina desperately. But what am
- 36:21Speaker 1: I to do with you man staggering up? Of course
- 36:27Speaker 1: I must do something. He shakes himself, pulls himself together,
- 36:31Speaker 1: and speaks with rallied vigor and courage. You see sleep hard,
- 36:37Speaker 1: no sleep, hunger or no hunger, tired or not tired.
- 36:40Speaker 1: You can always do a thing when you know it
- 36:43Speaker 1: must be done well. That pipe must be got down.
- 36:49Speaker 1: He hits himself on the chest and adds, do you
- 36:52Speaker 1: hear that? You chocolate cream soldier. He turns to the window.
- 36:57Speaker 1: Raina anxiously. But if you fall, man, I shall sleep
- 37:03Speaker 1: as if the stones were a featherbed. Goodbye. He makes
- 37:08Speaker 1: boldly for the window, and his hand is on the
- 37:10Speaker 1: shutter when there is a terrible burst of firing in
- 37:13Speaker 1: the street beneath Raina. Rushing to him, stop. She catches
- 37:19Speaker 1: him by the shoulder and turns him quite round. They'll
- 37:22Speaker 1: kill you, man, coolly but attentively. Never mind, this sort
- 37:28Speaker 1: of thing is all in my day's work. I'm bound
- 37:31Speaker 1: to take my chance decisively. Now do what I tell you.
- 37:36Speaker 1: Put out the candles so that they shan't see the
- 37:39Speaker 1: light when I open the shutters, and keep away from
- 37:41Speaker 1: the window. Whatever you do. If they see me, they're
- 37:44Speaker 1: sure to have a shot at me, Reina clinging to him.
- 37:49Speaker 1: They're sure to see you. It's bright moonlight. I'll save you. Oh,
- 37:54Speaker 1: how can you be so indifferent? You want me to
- 37:57Speaker 1: save you, don't you? Man? I really don't want to
- 38:01Speaker 1: be troublesome. She shakes him in her impatience. I am
- 38:06Speaker 1: not indifferent, dear young lady, I assure you. But how
- 38:10Speaker 1: is it to be done, Reina? Come away from the window, please?
- 38:16Speaker 1: She coaxes him back to the middle of the room.
- 38:19Speaker 1: He submits humbly. She releases him and addresses him patronizingly. Now, listen,
- 38:25Speaker 1: you must trust to our hospitality. You do not yet
- 38:29Speaker 1: know in whose house you are. I am a pet
- 38:32Speaker 1: cough Man. What's that, Reina? Rather indignantly, I mean that
- 38:39Speaker 1: I belong to the family of the pet Coughs, the
- 38:43Speaker 1: richest and best known in our country. Man, Oh, yes,
- 38:48Speaker 1: of course, I beg your pardon, the pet Coughs, to
- 38:51Speaker 1: be sure. How stupid of me, Reina, You know you
- 38:56Speaker 1: never heard of them until this minute. How can you
- 38:59Speaker 1: stoop to pretend? Man, forgive me, I'm too tired to think,
- 39:05Speaker 1: and the change of subject was too much for me.
- 39:07Speaker 1: Don't scold me, Rain, I forgot. It might make you cry.
- 39:13Speaker 1: He nods quite seriously. She pouts, and then resumes her
- 39:18Speaker 1: patronizing tone. I must tell you that my father holds
- 39:22Speaker 1: the highest command of any Bulgarian in our army. He
- 39:26Speaker 1: is proudly a major man pretending to be deeply impressed
- 39:33Speaker 1: a major. Bless me. Think of that rain. You showed
- 39:39Speaker 1: great ignorance in thinking that it was necessary to climb
- 39:42Speaker 1: up to the balcony. Because ours is the only private
- 39:45Speaker 1: house that has two rows of windows. There is a
- 39:48Speaker 1: flight of stairs inside to get up and down by
- 39:52Speaker 1: man stairs. How grand you live in great luxury? Indeed,
- 39:57Speaker 1: dear young lady, do you know what a library is, Man?
- 40:06Speaker 1: A library, a room full of books, Reina. Yes, we
- 40:11Speaker 1: have one, the only one in Bulgaria, Man, actually a
- 40:16Speaker 1: real library. I should like to see that, Reina. Affectively,
- 40:22Speaker 1: I tell you these things to show you that you
- 40:24Speaker 1: are not in the house of ignorant country folk who
- 40:27Speaker 1: would kill you the moment they saw your surveyan uniform,
- 40:31Speaker 1: but among civilized people. We go to Bucharest every year
- 40:35Speaker 1: for the opera season, and I have spent a whole
- 40:38Speaker 1: month in Vienna. Man. I saw that, dear young lady,
- 40:44Speaker 1: I saw it once that you knew the world, Reina.
- 40:48Speaker 1: Have you ever seen the opera of Ernani? Man? Is
- 40:53Speaker 1: that the one with the devil in it? In red
- 40:56Speaker 1: velvet and a soldier's chorus, Reina can temptuously no, man,
- 41:02Speaker 1: stifling a heavy sigh of weariness. Then I don't know it, Reina.
- 41:10Speaker 1: I thought you might have remembered the great scene where
- 41:13Speaker 1: er Nani, flying from his foes, just as you are tonight,
- 41:17Speaker 1: takes refuge in the castle of his bitterest enemy and
- 41:20Speaker 1: old Castilian noble. The noble refuses to give him up.
- 41:25Speaker 1: His guest is sacred to him. Man, quickly waking a little.
- 41:30Speaker 1: Have your people got that notion? Reina? With dignity? My
- 41:36Speaker 1: mother and I can understand that notion, as you call it.
- 41:40Speaker 1: But if instead of threatening me with your pistol as
- 41:43Speaker 1: you did, you had simply thrown yourself as a fugitive
- 41:47Speaker 1: on our hospitality, you would have been as safe as
- 41:50Speaker 1: in your father's house. Man, quite sure, Reina, turning her
- 41:56Speaker 1: back on him in disgust. Oh, it is useless to
- 41:59Speaker 1: try to make you understand, man, don't be angry. You
- 42:05Speaker 1: see how awkward it would be for me if there
- 42:07Speaker 1: was any mistake. My father is a very hospitable man.
- 42:11Speaker 1: He keeps six hotels, but I couldn't trust him as
- 42:15Speaker 1: far as that. What about your father, Reina? He is
- 42:20Speaker 1: away in Slivnitza fighting for his country. I answer for
- 42:24Speaker 1: your safety. There is my hand in pledge of it.
- 42:28Speaker 1: Will that reassure you? She offers him her hand man
- 42:33Speaker 1: looking dubiously at his own hand. Better not touch my hand,
- 42:37Speaker 1: dear young lady, I must have a wash first, Reina touched.
- 42:43Speaker 1: That is very nice of you. I see that you
- 42:46Speaker 1: are a gentleman. Man puzzled a Reina, You must not
- 42:52Speaker 1: think I am surprised. Bulgarians of really good standing people
- 42:57Speaker 1: in our position wash their hands nearly every day. But
- 43:02Speaker 1: I appreciate your delicacy. You may take my hand, She
- 43:06Speaker 1: offers it again, man kissing it with his hands behind
- 43:11Speaker 1: his back. Thanks, gracious, young lady. I feel safe at last,
- 43:17Speaker 1: And now would you mind breaking the news to your mother?
- 43:20Speaker 1: I had better not stay here secretly longer than is necessary, Reina,
- 43:26Speaker 1: If you will be so good as to keep perfectly
- 43:28Speaker 1: still whilst I am away, man certainly, he sits down
- 43:34Speaker 1: on the ottoman. Reina goes to the bed and wraps
- 43:38Speaker 1: herself in the fur cloak. His eyes close, she goes
- 43:42Speaker 1: to the door, but on turning for a last look
- 43:44Speaker 1: at him, sees that he is dropping off to sleep.
- 43:48Speaker 1: Raina at the door. You are not going asleep, or you,
- 43:53Speaker 1: he murmurs inarticulately. She runs to him and shakes him.
- 43:57Speaker 1: Do you hear wake up? You are falling asleep? Man, eh,
- 44:02Speaker 1: falling asleep? Oh no, not the least in the world.
- 44:07Speaker 1: I was only thinking. It's all right. I'm wide awake,
- 44:13Speaker 1: rain severely. Will you please stand up while I am away?
- 44:18Speaker 1: He rises reluctantly, all the time, mind, man, standing unsteadily. Certainly,
- 44:26Speaker 1: certainly you may depend on me. Raina looks doubtfully at him.
- 44:32Speaker 1: He smiles foolishly. She goes reluctantly, turning again at the
- 44:37Speaker 1: door and almost catching him in the act of yawning.
- 44:40Speaker 1: She goes out, Man drowsily, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep Siley.
- 44:50Speaker 1: The words trail off into a murmur. He wakes again
- 44:54Speaker 1: with a shock, on the point of falling. Where am I?
- 44:57Speaker 1: That's what I want to know? Where am I? Must
- 45:00Speaker 1: keep awake? Nothing keeps me awake except danger? Remember that
- 45:06Speaker 1: intently danger? Danger? Danger? Where's danger? Must find it? He
- 45:13Speaker 1: starts off vaguely around the room in search of it.
- 45:17Speaker 1: What am I looking for? Sleep? Danger? Don't know? He
- 45:23Speaker 1: stumbles against the bed. Ah, yes, now I know, all right?
- 45:27Speaker 1: Now I'm to go to bed, but not to sleep.
- 45:30Speaker 1: Be sure, not to sleep because of danger. Not to
- 45:36Speaker 1: lie down either, only sit down. He sits on the bed.
- 45:41Speaker 1: A blissful expression comes into his face. Ah, with a
- 45:47Speaker 1: happy sigh. He sinks back at full length, lifts his
- 45:51Speaker 1: boots into the bed with a final effort, and falls
- 45:55Speaker 1: fast asleep instantly. Catherine comes in, followed by Raina. Raina
- 46:02Speaker 1: looking at the ottoman. He's gone. I left him here,
- 46:06Speaker 1: Catherine here, then he must have climbed down from the
- 46:10Speaker 1: Raina seeing him, Oh, she points Catherine, scandalized well, she
- 46:19Speaker 1: strides to the left side of the bed, Raina following
- 46:22Speaker 1: and standing opposite her on the right. He's fast asleep,
- 46:26Speaker 1: the brute Raina anxiously sh Catherine shaking him, Sir, shaking
- 46:34Speaker 1: him again, harder, Sir, vehemently shaking very hard, Sir, Raina
- 46:41Speaker 1: catching her arm. Don't, Mamma, the poor dear is worn out.
- 46:45Speaker 1: Let him sleep, Catherine, letting him go and turning amazed
- 46:49Speaker 1: to Reina. The poor dear ray Ena. She looks sternly
- 46:55Speaker 1: at her daughter. The man sleeps profoundly. End of Act one,
- 47:05Speaker 1: Act two, the sixth of March eighteen eighty six. In
- 47:11Speaker 1: the garden of Major Petkoff's house. It is a fine
- 47:15Speaker 1: spring morning and the garden looks fresh and pretty. Beyond palings,
- 47:20Speaker 1: the tops of a couple of minarets can be seen,
- 47:23Speaker 1: showing that there is a valley there with the little
- 47:25Speaker 1: town in it. A few miles further, the Balkan mountains
- 47:30Speaker 1: rise and shut. In the view within the garden, the
- 47:33Speaker 1: side of the house is seen on the right, with
- 47:36Speaker 1: a garden door reached by a little flight of steps.
- 47:39Speaker 1: On the left, the stable yard with its gateway encroaches
- 47:43Speaker 1: on the garden. There are fruit bushes along the palings
- 47:46Speaker 1: and house covered with washing hung out to dry. A
- 47:50Speaker 1: path runs by the house and rises by two steps
- 47:54Speaker 1: at the corner where it turns out of the right.
- 47:56Speaker 1: Along the front in the middle, a small table with
- 48:00Speaker 1: two bent wood chairs at it is laid for breakfast
- 48:03Speaker 1: with Turkish coffee, pot cups, rolls, et cetera, but the
- 48:07Speaker 1: cups have been used in the bread broken. There is
- 48:11Speaker 1: a wooden garden seat against the wall. On the left.
- 48:14Speaker 1: Luka smoking a cigarette is standing between the table and
- 48:18Speaker 1: the house, turning her back with angry disdain on a
- 48:22Speaker 1: man servant who is lecturing her. He is a middle
- 48:26Speaker 1: aged man of cool temperament and low but clear and
- 48:29Speaker 1: keen intelligence, with the complacency of the servant who values
- 48:33Speaker 1: himself on his rank in servility, and the imperturbability of
- 48:38Speaker 1: the accurate calculator who has no illusions. He wears a
- 48:42Speaker 1: white Bulgarian costume jacket with decorated border, sash, wide knickerbuckers
- 48:49Speaker 1: and decorated garters. His head is shaved up to the crown,
- 48:53Speaker 1: giving him a high Japanese forehead. His name is Nikola.
- 48:58Speaker 1: Nikolon warned in time, Luca, mend your manners. I know
- 49:03Speaker 1: the mistress. She is so grand that she never dreams
- 49:07Speaker 1: that any servant would dare to be disrespectful to her.
- 49:11Speaker 1: But if she once suspects that you are defying her,
- 49:14Speaker 1: out you go, Luca. I do defy her. I will
- 49:20Speaker 1: defy her. What do I care for her? Nicola? If
- 49:24Speaker 1: you quarrel with the family, I can never marry you.
- 49:27Speaker 1: It's the same as if you quarreled with me. Luca,
- 49:31Speaker 1: you take her part against me, do you? Niccola said lately,
- 49:37Speaker 1: I shall always be dependent on the good will of
- 49:39Speaker 1: the family. When I leave their service and start a
- 49:42Speaker 1: shop in Sophia, their custom will be half my capital.
- 49:47Speaker 1: Their bad word would ruin me. Luca, you have no spirit.
- 49:53Speaker 1: I should like to see them dare say a word
- 49:55Speaker 1: against me, Nicola, pitying. I should have affected more sense
- 50:01Speaker 1: from you, Luca. But you're young, Your young, Luca, you
- 50:06Speaker 1: have no sh no Luca. Yes, and you like me
- 50:11Speaker 1: the better for it, don't you? But I know some
- 50:14Speaker 1: family secrets they wouldn't care to have told young as
- 50:17Speaker 1: I am. Let them quarrel with me if they dare,
- 50:22Speaker 1: Nicola with compassionate superiority. Do you know what they would
- 50:27Speaker 1: do if they heard you talk like that, Luca? What
- 50:31Speaker 1: could they do, Nicola? Discharge you for untruthfulness? Who would
- 50:37Speaker 1: believe any stories you told after that? Who would give
- 50:41Speaker 1: you another situation? Who in this house would dare be
- 50:45Speaker 1: seen speaking to you ever again? How long would your
- 50:49Speaker 1: father be left on his little farm? She impatiently throws
- 50:53Speaker 1: away the end of her cigarette and stamps on it. Child,
- 50:57Speaker 1: You don't know the power such high people have over
- 51:00Speaker 1: the like of you and me when we try to
- 51:03Speaker 1: rise out of our poverty against them. He goes close
- 51:07Speaker 1: to her and lowers his voice. Look at me. Ten
- 51:10Speaker 1: years in their service do you think I know no secrets.
- 51:15Speaker 1: I know things about the Mistress that she wouldn't have
- 51:18Speaker 1: the Master know for a thousand levers. I know things
- 51:22Speaker 1: about him that she wouldn't let him hear the last
- 51:25Speaker 1: of for six months if I blab them to her.
- 51:29Speaker 1: I know things about Rhina that would break off her
- 51:31Speaker 1: match with Sergius if Luca turning on him quickly. How
- 51:36Speaker 1: do you know? I never told you, Nikola opening his
- 51:39Speaker 1: eyes cunningly. So that's your little secret, is it? I
- 51:44Speaker 1: thought it might be something like that. Well, you take
- 51:48Speaker 1: my advice and be respectful and make the mistress feel
- 51:52Speaker 1: that no matter what you know or don't know, they
- 51:55Speaker 1: can depend on you to hold your tongue and serve
- 51:59Speaker 1: the family faithful. That's what they like, and that's how
- 52:03Speaker 1: you make most out of them. Luca, with searching scorn,
- 52:08Speaker 1: you have the soul of a servant, Nicola, Nikola complacently, Yes,
- 52:15Speaker 1: that's the secret of success in service. A loud knocking
- 52:19Speaker 1: with a whip handle on a wooden door outside on
- 52:22Speaker 1: the left is heard male voice outside, Hello, Hello there,
- 52:27Speaker 1: nikolaw Luca Master back from the war, Nikola, quickly, my
- 52:35Speaker 1: word for it, Luca. The war is over. Off with
- 52:37Speaker 1: you and get some fresh coffee. He runs into the
- 52:40Speaker 1: stable yard, Luca as she puts the coffee pot and
- 52:44Speaker 1: the cups upon the tray and carries it into the house.
- 52:48Speaker 1: You'll never put the soul of a servant into me.
- 52:52Speaker 1: Major pet Cough comes from the stable yard, followed by Niccola.
- 52:56Speaker 1: He is a cheerful, excitable, insignificant, unpolished man of about fifty,
- 53:02Speaker 1: naturally unambitious except as to his income and his importance
- 53:06Speaker 1: in local society, but just now greatly pleased with the
- 53:10Speaker 1: military rank which the war has thrust on him. As
- 53:13Speaker 1: a man of consequence in his town. The fever of
- 53:17Speaker 1: plucky patriotism which the Servian attack roused in all the
- 53:21Speaker 1: Bulgarians has pulled him through the war, but he is
- 53:24Speaker 1: obviously glad to be home again. Pet Kough, pointing to
- 53:29Speaker 1: the table with his whip, breakfast out here, eh, Nikola, Yes, sir,
- 53:35Speaker 1: the Mistress and Miss Rain have just gone in. Pet Cough,
- 53:39Speaker 1: sitting down and taking a roll. Go in and say
- 53:43Speaker 1: I've come and get me some fresh coffee. Nicola, it's coming, sir.
- 53:48Speaker 1: He goes to the house door Luca with fresh coffee,
- 53:51Speaker 1: a clean cup and a brandy bottle on her tray,
- 53:54Speaker 1: meets him. Have you told the mistress, Luca? Yes, she's coming.
- 53:59Speaker 1: Nicola goes into the house. Luca brings the coffee to
- 54:02Speaker 1: the table. Pet cough. Well, the servians haven't run away
- 54:07Speaker 1: with you, have they, Luca, No, sir pet cough, that's right.
- 54:12Speaker 1: Have you brought me some cognac? Luca putting the bottle
- 54:15Speaker 1: on the table. Here, sir pet cough, that's right. He
- 54:20Speaker 1: pours some into his coffee. Katherine, who has at this
- 54:25Speaker 1: early hour made only a very perfunctory toilet and wears
- 54:29Speaker 1: a bulgarian apron over a once brilliant but now half
- 54:33Speaker 1: worn out, red dressing gown and a colored handkerchief tied
- 54:36Speaker 1: over her thick black hair, with Turkish slippers on her
- 54:39Speaker 1: bare feet, comes from the house looking astonishingly handsome and
- 54:44Speaker 1: stately under all the circumstances. Luca goes into the house. Catherine,
- 54:50Speaker 1: my dear Paul, What a surprise for us. She stoops
- 54:55Speaker 1: over the back of his chair to kiss him. Have
- 54:57Speaker 1: they brought you fresh coffee? Pet Kau, Yes, Luca's been
- 55:01Speaker 1: looking after me. The war's over. The treaty was signed
- 55:05Speaker 1: three days ago at Bucharist, and the decree for our
- 55:08Speaker 1: army to demobilize was issued yesterday. Catherine, springing erect with
- 55:13Speaker 1: flashing eyes, the war over, Paul. Have you let the
- 55:19Speaker 1: Austrians force you to make peace? Petkof submissively, my dear,
- 55:24Speaker 1: they didn't consult me. What could I do? She sits
- 55:29Speaker 1: down and turns away from him. But of course we
- 55:32Speaker 1: saw to it that the treaty was an honorable one.
- 55:35Speaker 1: It declares peace. Catherine outraged peace pet kof appeasing her,
- 55:42Speaker 1: but not friendly relations. Remember that they wanted to put
- 55:46Speaker 1: that in, but I insisted on it being struck out.
- 55:49Speaker 1: What more could I do, Catherine? You could have annexed
- 55:54Speaker 1: Servia and made Prince Alexander Emperor of the Balkans. That
- 55:57Speaker 1: what I would have done, Petkof. I don't doubt it
- 56:02Speaker 1: in the least, my dear, But I should have had
- 56:04Speaker 1: to subdue the whole Austrian Empire first, and that would
- 56:08Speaker 1: have kept me too long away from you. I missed
- 56:11Speaker 1: you greatly, Catherine, relenting Ah stretches her hand affectionately across
- 56:18Speaker 1: the table to squeeze his pet cough. And how have
- 56:22Speaker 1: you been, my dear Katherine? Oh, my usual sore throats,
- 56:27Speaker 1: that's all pet Cough, with conviction that comes from washing
- 56:33Speaker 1: your neck every day. I've often told you so, Catherine. Nonsense,
- 56:38Speaker 1: Paul pet cough over his coffee and cigarette. I don't
- 56:43Speaker 1: believe in going too far with these modern customs. All
- 56:47Speaker 1: this washing can't be good for the health. It's not natural.
- 56:51Speaker 1: There was an Englishman at Philipopoulos who used to wet
- 56:54Speaker 1: himself all over with cold water every morning when he
- 56:57Speaker 1: got up. Disgusting. It all comes from the English. Their
- 57:01Speaker 1: climate makes them so dirty that they have to be
- 57:04Speaker 1: perpetually washing themselves. Look at my father. He never had
- 57:09Speaker 1: a bath in his life, and he lived to be
- 57:11Speaker 1: ninety eight, the healthiest man in Bulgaria. I don't mind
- 57:15Speaker 1: a good wash once a week to keep up my position,
- 57:19Speaker 1: but once a day is carrying the thing to a
- 57:21Speaker 1: ridiculous extreme. Catherine, you are a barbarian at Hartsteel, Paul.
- 57:29Speaker 1: I hope you behaved yourself before all those Russian officers,
- 57:33Speaker 1: pet Cough. I did my best. I took care to
- 57:37Speaker 1: let them know that we had a library, Catherine, Ah,
- 57:42Speaker 1: but you didn't tell them that we have an electric
- 57:44Speaker 1: bell in it. I have had one put up peckough.
- 57:48Speaker 1: What's an electric bell, Katherine? You touch a button, something
- 57:53Speaker 1: tinkles in the kitchen, and then Nikola comes up, pekough,
- 57:58Speaker 1: why not shout for him? Civilized people never shout for
- 58:02Speaker 1: their servants. I've learned that while you were away, pet cough. Well,
- 58:07Speaker 1: I'll tell you something I've learned too. Civilized people don't
- 58:11Speaker 1: hang out there washing to dry where visitors can see it.
- 58:15Speaker 1: So you'd better have all that indicating the clothes on
- 58:18Speaker 1: the bushes put somewhere else. Catherine, Oh, that's absurd, Paul.
- 58:25Speaker 1: I don't believe really refined people notice such things. Someone
- 58:29Speaker 1: is heard knocking at the stable gates, pet cough. They're
- 58:33Speaker 1: Sergius shouting hello Nikola. Catherine, Oh, don't shout, Paul, it
- 58:39Speaker 1: really isn't nice. Pet cough. Bosh, he shouts louder than before.
- 58:45Speaker 1: Nikola Nicola appearing at the house door. Yes, sir, pet cough.
- 58:53Speaker 1: If that is Major Saranoff, bring him round this way.
- 58:56Speaker 1: He pronounces the name with a stress on the second syllable,
- 59:00Speaker 1: Saranov Nikola, Yes, sir. He goes into the stable yard, petkof.
- 59:10Speaker 1: You must talk to him, my dear, until Raina takes
- 59:13Speaker 1: him off our hands. He bores my life out about
- 59:17Speaker 1: our not promoting him over my head, mind you, Catherine,
- 59:23Speaker 1: he certainly ought to be promoted when he marries Raina. Besides,
- 59:27Speaker 1: the country should insist on having at least one native
- 59:30Speaker 1: general petkof Yes, so that he could throw away whole
- 59:34Speaker 1: brigades instead of regiments. It's no use, my dear. He
- 59:39Speaker 1: has not the slightest chance of promotion until we are
- 59:42Speaker 1: quite sure that the peace will be a lasting one.
- 59:45Speaker 1: Nikola at the gate, announcing Major Sergius Saranov. He goes
- 59:50Speaker 1: into the house and returns presently with a third chair,
- 59:54Speaker 1: which he places at the table. He then withdraws Major
- 59:59Speaker 1: Sergius Saranov, the original of the portrait and ray in
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: his room is a tall, romantically handsome man with the
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: physical hardihood, the high spirit, and the susceptible imagination of
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: an untamed mountaineer chieftain. But his remarkable personal distinction is
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: of a characteristically civilized type. The ridges of his eyebrows
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: curving with a ramshorn twist round the marked projections at
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: the outer corners, his jealously observant eye, his nose thin,
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: keen and apprehensive in spite of the pugnacious high Bridge
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: and large nostril, his assertive chin would not be out
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: of place in a Paris salon. In short, the clever,
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: imaginative Barbarian has an acute critical faculty which has been
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: thrown into intense activity by the arrival of Western civilization
- 1:00:57Speaker 1: in the Balkans, and the result is precisely what the
- 1:01:01Speaker 1: advent of nineteenth century thought first produced in England. To
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: wit Byronism, by his brooding on the perpetual failure not
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: only of others but of himself to live up to
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: his imaginative ideals, his consequent cynical scorn for humanity, the
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: jejune credulity as to the absolute validity of his ideals,
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: and the unworthiness of the world in disregarding them, his
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: wincings and mockeries. Under the sting of the petty dissillusions
- 1:01:34Speaker 1: which every hour spent among men bring to his infallibly
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: quick observation, he has acquired the half tragic, half ironic air,
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: the mysterious moodiness, the suggestion of a strange and terrible
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: history that has left him nothing but undying remorse by
- 1:01:53Speaker 1: which child Harold fascinated the grandmothers of his English contemporaries. Altogether,
- 1:01:59Speaker 1: it is clear that here are nowhere is Raina's ideal hero.
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: Catherine is hardly less enthusiastic and much less reserved in
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: showing her enthusiasm. As he enters from the stable gate,
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: she rises effusively to greet him. Pet Cough is distinctly
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: less disposed to make a fuss about him. Pet Cough
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: here already, Sergius, glad to see you, Catherine, My dear Sergius.
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: She holds out both her hands, Sergius, kissing them with
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: scrupulous gallantry. My dear mother, if I may call you so,
- 1:02:41Speaker 1: Petkoff dryly, mother in law, Sergius, mother in law, sit
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: down and have some coffee. Sergius, thank you none for me.
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: He gets away from the table with a certain distaste
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: for Petkoff's enjoyment of it, and posts himself with conscious
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: grace against the rail of the steps leading to the house. Catherine,
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: you look superb splendid. The campaign has improved you. Everyone
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: here is mad about you. We are all wild with
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: enthusiasm about that magnificent cavalry charge. Sergius with grave irony, Madam,
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: it was the cradle and the grave of my military reputation, Catherine,
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: How so, Sirchius, I won the battle the wrong way
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: when our worthy Russian generals were losing it the right way.
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: That have set their plans and wounded their self esteem.
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: Two of their colonels got their regiments driven back on
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: the correct principles of scientific warfare. Two major generals got
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: killed strictly according to military etiquette. Those two colonels are
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: now major generals. And I am still a simple Catherine.
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: You shall not remain so surgious. The women are on
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: your side, and they will see that justice has done you. Sergius.
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: It is too late. I have only waited for the
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: peace to send in my resignation. Petkof dropping his cup
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: in his amazement your resignation, Catherine, Oh, you must withdraw it, Sergius,
- 1:04:27Speaker 1: with resolute, measured emphasis, folding his arms. I never withdraw
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: Petkough vexed now, who could have supposed you were going
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: to do such a thing, Sergius, with fire everyone that
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: knew me. But enough of myself and my affairs. How
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: is Reina and where is Raina? Reyina suddenly coming round
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: the corner of the house and standing at the top
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: of the steps in the path. Reina is here. She
- 1:05:01Speaker 1: makes a charming picture as they all turn to look
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: at her. She wears an underdress of pale green silk,
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: draped with an over dress of thin or crew canvas
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: embroidered with gold. On her head, she wears a pretty,
- 1:05:15Speaker 1: pretty in cap of gold tinsel. Sergius, with an exclamation
- 1:05:20Speaker 1: of pleasure, goes impulsively to meet her. She stretches out
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: her hand. He drops chivalrously on one knee and kisses it.
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: Petkof a sigh to Catherine, beaming with parental pride. Pretty,
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: isn't it? She always appears at the right moment. Catherine impatiently, yes,
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: she listens for it. It is an abominable habit. Sergius
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: leads Rhina forward with splendid gallantry, as if she were
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: a queen. When they come to the table, she turns
- 1:05:54Speaker 1: to him with a bend of the head. He bows,
- 1:05:57Speaker 1: and thus they separate, he coming to his place, she
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: going behind her father's chair, Raina stooping and kissing her father.
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: Dear father, welcome home, pet cough, patting her cheek, my
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: little pet girl. He kisses her. She goes to the
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: chair left by Nicola for Sergius and sits down, Catherine,
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: And so you're no longer a soldier, Sergius. Sergius, I
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: am no longer a soldier. Soldiering, my dear Madam, is
- 1:06:32Speaker 1: the coward's art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong,
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: and keeping out of harm's way when you are weak.
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: enemy at a disadvantage, and never, on any account fight
- 1:06:47Speaker 1: him on equal terms. A major pet cough. They wouldn't
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: let us make a fair stand up fight of it. However,
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: I suppose soldiering has to be a trade like any
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: other trade, Sergius, precisely. But I have no ambition to
- 1:07:05Speaker 1: succeed as a tradesman. So I have taken the advice
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: of that bag man of a captain that settled the
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: exchange of prisoners with us at Pirot and given it
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: up petkaugh. What that Swiss fellow, Sergius. I have often
- 1:07:22Speaker 1: thought of that exchange, since he overreached us about those horses. Sergius,
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: of course he overreached us. His father was a hotel
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: and livery stable keeper, and he owed his first step
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: to his knowledge of horse dealing with mock enthusiasm. Ah,
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: he was a soldier, every inch a soldier. If only
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: I had bought the horses from my regiment instead of
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: foolishly leading it into danger, I should have been a
- 1:07:50Speaker 1: field marshal. Now, Catherine, a Swiss. What was he doing
- 1:07:56Speaker 1: in the Servian army? Petkaf a volunteer of course? Keen
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: on picking up his profession, chuckling, he we shouldn't have
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: been able to begin fighting if these foreigners hadn't shown
- 1:08:11Speaker 1: us how to do it. We knew nothing about it,
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: and neither did the Servians. He gad, there'd have been
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: no war without them, Ryena. Are there many Swiss officers
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: in the Servian army, Petkov No, all Austrians, just as
- 1:08:29Speaker 1: our officers were all Russians. This was the only Swiss
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: I came across. I'll never trust a Swiss again. He
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: cheated us, humbugged us into giving him fifty able bodied
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: men for two hundred confounded, worn out charges. They weren't
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: even etible, Sergius. We were two children in the hands
- 1:08:51Speaker 1: of that conces of its soldier major, simply two innocent
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: little children. Ryena, What was he like, Oh, Rady, you
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: know what a silly question, Sergius. He was like a
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: commercial traveler in uniform, bousche wa to his boots, pet cough, grinning. Sergius,
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: tell Catherine that queer story his friend told us about him,
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: how he escaped after Slivnitzai. You remember about his being
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: hit by two women, Sergius with bitter irony. Oh, yes,
- 1:09:29Speaker 1: quite a romance. He was serving in the very battery eye,
- 1:09:33Speaker 1: so unprofessionally charged. Being a thorough soldier, he ran away
- 1:09:38Speaker 1: like the rest of them, with our cavalry at his heels,
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: to escape their attentions. He had the good taste to
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: take refuge in the chamber of some patriotic young Bulgarian lady.
- 1:09:50Speaker 1: The young lady was enchanted by his persuasive commercial traveling manners.
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: She very modestly entertained him for an hour or so,
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: then called in her mother, lest her conduct should appear unmaidenly.
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: The old lady was equally fascinated, and the fugitive was
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: sent on his way in the morning, disguised in an
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: old coat belonging to the master of the house, who
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: was away at the war raina rising with marked stateliness.
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: Your life in the camp has made you course, Sergius,
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: I did not think you would have repeated such a
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: story before me. She turns away coldly, Catherine also rising,
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: She is right, Surgius. If such women exist, we should
- 1:10:38Speaker 1: be spared the knowledge of them. Pet cough, pooh nonsense.
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: What does it matter? Sergius ashamed, No, petkof I was
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: wrong to Raina. With earnest humility. I beg your pardon.
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: I have behaved abominably. Forgive me Ray She bows reservedly,
- 1:11:03Speaker 1: and you too, Madam. Catherine bows graciously and sits down.
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: He proceeds solemnly, again addressing Raina. The glimpses I have
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: had of the seamy side of life during the past
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: few months have made me cynical. But I should not
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: have brought my cynicism here, least of all into your presence.
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: Rayina I here turning to the others, he is evidently
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: about to begin a long speech when the major interrupts him. Petkough,
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: stuff and nonsense. Sergius, that's quite enough fuss about nothing.
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: A soldier's daughter should be able to stand up without
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: flinching to a little strong conversation. He rises, calm, It's
- 1:11:49Speaker 1: time for us to get to business. We have to
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: make up our minds how those three regiments are to
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: get back to Philipopoulos. There's no forage for them on
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: the sofia rot. He goes toward the house. Come along.
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: Sergius is about to follow him when Catherine rises and intervenes. Catherine, Oh, Paul,
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: can't you spare Sergius for a few moments? Rayena has
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: hardly seen him yet. Perhaps I can help you to
- 1:12:18Speaker 1: settle about the regiments. Sergius protesting, my dear Madam. Impossible, you, Catherine,
- 1:12:26Speaker 1: stopping him playfully. You stay here, my dear Sergius. There
- 1:12:30Speaker 1: is no hurry. I have a word or two to
- 1:12:32Speaker 1: say to Paul. Sergius instantly bows and steps back. Now, dear,
- 1:12:39Speaker 1: taking Petcov's arm, come and see the electric bell, pet cough,
- 1:12:45Speaker 1: Oh very well, very well. They go into the house
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: together affectionately. Sergius, left alone with Rayena, looks anxiously at her,
- 1:12:54Speaker 1: fearing that she may still be offended. She smiles and
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: stretches out her arms to him. Exit right into house,
- 1:13:02Speaker 1: followed by Catherine. Sergius hastening to her, but refraining from
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: touching her without express permission. Am I forgiven? Reena? Placing
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: her hands on his shoulders as she looks up at
- 1:13:16Speaker 1: him with admiration and worship. My hero, my King, Sergius,
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: my Queen. He kisses her on the forehead with holy
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: awe Reena, How I have envied you, Sergius. You have
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: been out in the world, on the field of battle,
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: able to prove yourself there worthy of any woman in
- 1:13:39Speaker 1: the world, whilst I have had to sit at home, inactive, dreaming, useless,
- 1:13:45Speaker 1: doing nothing that could give me the right to call
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: myself worthy of any man. Sergius, dearest, all my deeds
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: have been yours. You inspired me. I have gone through
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: the war like a knight had a tournament, with his
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: lady looking on at him, Raina, and you have never
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: been absent from my thoughts for a moment. Very solemnly, Sergius,
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: I think we too have found the higher love. When
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: I think of you, I feel that I could never
- 1:14:19Speaker 1: do a base deed or think an ignoble thought, Sergius,
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: My lady and my saint. Clasping her reverently, Raina returning
- 1:14:32Speaker 1: his embrace. My lord and my Sergius, sh let me
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: be the worshiper. Dear you little know how unworthy even
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: the best man is of a girl's pure passion. Raina,
- 1:14:48Speaker 1: I trust you, I love you. You will never disappoint me.
- 1:14:52Speaker 1: Sergius Luca is heard singing within the house. They quickly
- 1:14:56Speaker 1: release each other. Hush. I can't pretend to talk indifferently
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: before her. My heart is too full. Luca comes from
- 1:15:06Speaker 1: the house with her tray. She goes to the table
- 1:15:08Speaker 1: and begins to clear it with her back turned to them.
- 1:15:12Speaker 1: I will go and get my hat and then we
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: can go out into lunchtime. Wouldn't you like that, Sergius?
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: Be quick. If you are away five minutes, it will
- 1:15:23Speaker 1: seem like five hours. Raina runs to the top of
- 1:15:27Speaker 1: the steps and turns there to exchange a look with
- 1:15:30Speaker 1: him and wave him a kiss with both hands. He
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: looks after her with emotion for a moment, then turns
- 1:15:38Speaker 1: slowly away, his face radiant with the exultation of the
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: scene which has just passed. The movement shifts his field
- 1:15:47Speaker 1: of vision into the corner of which there now comes
- 1:15:51Speaker 1: the tail of Luca's double apron. His eye gleams at once.
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: He takes a stealthy look at her and begins to
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: twirl his mustache nervously with his left hand, akimbo on
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: his hip, finally striking the ground with both heels in
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: something of a cavalry swagger, strolls over to the left
- 1:16:11Speaker 1: of the table opposite her and says, Luca, do you
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: know what the Higher Love is? Luca astonished, No, sir, Sergius,
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: very fatiguing thing to keep up for any length of time, Luca,
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: one feels the need of some relief after it, Luca innocently,
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: Perhaps you would like some coffee, sir. She stretches her
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: hand across the table for the coffee pot, Sergius taking
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: her hand. Thank you, Luca, Luca, pretending to pull. Oh, sir,
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: you know I didn't mean that. I'm surprised at you,
- 1:16:50Speaker 1: Sergius coming clear of the table and drawing her with him.
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: I am surprised at myself, Luca. What with Sergius, the
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: hero of Slivedneta say, if he saw me now? What
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: would Sergius, the apostle of the Higher Love say if
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: he saw me? Now? What would the half dozen Sergius's
- 1:17:11Speaker 1: who keep popping in and out of this handsome figure
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: of mine say if they caught us here? Letting go
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: her hand and slipping his arm dexterously round her waist.
- 1:17:21Speaker 1: Do you consider my figure, handsome, Luca? Luca, let me go, sir,
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: I shall be disgraced. She struggles. He holds her inexorably.
- 1:17:32Speaker 1: Oh will you let go, Sergius, looking straight into her eyes. No, Luca,
- 1:17:41Speaker 1: then stand back where we can't be seen. Have you
- 1:17:44Speaker 1: no common sense? Sergius? Ah, that's reasonable. He takes her
- 1:17:50Speaker 1: into the stable yard gateway, where they are hidden from
- 1:17:53Speaker 1: the house, Luca complaining, I may have been seen from
- 1:17:57Speaker 1: the windows. Miss Rain is sure to be spying about
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: after you, Sergius, stung, letting her go. Take care, Luca.
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: I may be worthless enough to betray the horror of love,
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: but do not you insult it? Luca demurely, not for
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: the world, sir, I'm sure. May I go on with
- 1:18:18Speaker 1: my work? Please now, Sergius again, putting his arm around her.
- 1:18:24Speaker 1: You are a provoking little witch, Luca. If you were
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: in love with me, would use spy out of windows
- 1:18:31Speaker 1: on me? Luca, Well, you see, sir, since you say
- 1:18:36Speaker 1: you are a half dozen different gentlemen all at once,
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: I should have a great deal to look after. Sergius, charmed,
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: witty as well as pretty, He tries to kiss her,
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: Luca avoiding him. No, I don't want your kisses. Gentle
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: folk are all alike you making love to me behind
- 1:18:58Speaker 1: Miss rain is back, and she doing the same behind yours.
- 1:19:02Speaker 1: Sergius recarding a step Luca, Luca, it shows how little
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: you really care, Sergius, dropping his familiarity and speaking with
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: freezing politeness. If our conversation is to continue, Luca, you
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: will please remember that a gentleman does not discuss the
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: conduct of the lady he is engaged to with her, maid, Luca,
- 1:19:30Speaker 1: It's so hard to know what a gentleman considers, right,
- 1:19:34Speaker 1: I thought from your trying to kiss me that you
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: had given up being so particular. Sergius, turning from her
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: and striking his forehead as he comes back into the
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: garden from the gateway. Devil, devil, Luca, ha, I expect
- 1:19:52Speaker 1: one of the six of you is very like me, sir,
- 1:19:56Speaker 1: though I am only Miss rains Maid. She goes back
- 1:19:59Speaker 1: to her work at the table, taking no further notice
- 1:20:02Speaker 1: of him. Sergius speaking to himself, which of the six
- 1:20:08Speaker 1: is the real man? That's the question that torments me.
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: One of them is a hero, another a buffoon, another
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: a humbug another, perhaps a bit of a blackuird. He
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: pauses and looks furtively at Luca as he adds, with
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: deep bitterness, and one at least is a coward, jealous
- 1:20:31Speaker 1: like all cowards. He goes to the table. Luca, Luca, Yes, Sergius,
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: who is my rival? Luca? You shall never get that
- 1:20:44Speaker 1: out of me for love or money? Sergius. Why, Luca?
- 1:20:51Speaker 1: Never mind? Why? Because you would tell that I told you,
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: and I should lose my place. Sergius, holding up his
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: right hand in affirmation. No, on the honor of a
- 1:21:04Speaker 1: He checks himself and his hand drops nervelessly as he
- 1:21:08Speaker 1: concludes sardonically, of a man capable of behaving as I
- 1:21:13Speaker 1: have been behaving for the last five minutes. Who is he, Luca,
- 1:21:19Speaker 1: I don't know. I never saw him. I only heard
- 1:21:22Speaker 1: his voice through the door of her room, Sergius, damn nation.
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: How dare you, Luca retreating? Oh? I mean no harm.
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: You've no right to take up my words like that.
- 1:21:36Speaker 1: The mistress knows all about it. And I tell you
- 1:21:39Speaker 1: that if that gentleman ever comes here again, Miss Raina
- 1:21:43Speaker 1: will marry him, whether he likes it or not. I
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: know the difference between the sort of manner you and
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: she put on before one another and the real manner.
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: Sergius shivers as if she has stabbed him. Then, setting
- 1:21:58Speaker 1: his face like iron, he strides grimly to her and
- 1:22:02Speaker 1: grips her above the elbows with both hands. Sergius, Now
- 1:22:07Speaker 1: listen you to me, Luca wincing, not so tight. You're
- 1:22:13Speaker 1: hurting me, Sergius, that doesn't matter. You have stained my
- 1:22:19Speaker 1: honor by making me a party to your eavesdropping, and
- 1:22:24Speaker 1: you have betrayed your mistress. Luca writhing, Please, Sergius, that
- 1:22:31Speaker 1: shows that you are an abominable little clod of common
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: clay with the soul of a servant. He lets her
- 1:22:39Speaker 1: go as if she were an unclean thing, and turns away,
- 1:22:43Speaker 1: dusting his hands of her, to the bench by the wall,
- 1:22:46Speaker 1: where he sits down with averted head, meditating gloomily. Luca
- 1:22:52Speaker 1: whimpering angrily with her hands up her sleeves, feeling her
- 1:22:55Speaker 1: bruised arms. You know how to hurt with your tongue
- 1:22:59Speaker 1: as well as with your hands. But I don't care.
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: Now I've found out that whatever clay I'm made of,
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: you're made of the same. As for her, She's a liar,
- 1:23:10Speaker 1: and her fine airs are a cheat, and I'm worth
- 1:23:13Speaker 1: six of her. She shakes the pain off heartily, tosses
- 1:23:18Speaker 1: her head, and sets to work to put the things
- 1:23:21Speaker 1: on the tray. He looks doubtfully at her once or twice.
- 1:23:25Speaker 1: She finishes packing the tray and laps the cloth over
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: the edges so as to carry all out together. As
- 1:23:32Speaker 1: she stoops to lift it, he rises, Sergius. Luca, She
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: stops and looks defiantly at him, with the tray in
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: her hands. A gentleman has no right to hurt a
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: woman under any circumstances. With profound humility, uncovering his head,
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: I beg your pardon, Luca. That sort of apology may
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: satisfy a lady, of what use is it to a servant. Sergius,
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: thus rudely crossed in his chivalry, throws it off with
- 1:24:08Speaker 1: a bitter lap and says slightingly, Oh, you wish to
- 1:24:11Speaker 1: be paid for the hurt? He puts on his shako
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: and takes some money from his pocket. Luca, her eyes
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: filling with tears in spite of herself, no, I want
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: my hurt made well. Sergius, sobered by her tone, how
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: she rolls up her left sleeve, clasps her arm with
- 1:24:34Speaker 1: the thumb and fingers of her right hand, and looks
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: down at the bruise. Then she raises her head and
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: looks straight at him. Finally, with a superb gesture, she
- 1:24:46Speaker 1: presents her arm to be kissed. Amazed, he looks at her,
- 1:24:51Speaker 1: at the arm, at her again, hesitates, and then, with
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: shuddering intensity, exclaims, Sergius never and gets away as far
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: as possible from her. Her arm drops without a word
- 1:25:07Speaker 1: and with unaffected dignity. She takes her tray and it's
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: approaching the house when Reina returns, wearing a hat and
- 1:25:14Speaker 1: jacket in the height of the Vienna fashion of the
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: previous year eighteen eighty five. Luca makes way proudly for
- 1:25:22Speaker 1: her and then goes into the house. Reina, I'm ready.
- 1:25:28Speaker 1: What's the matter, Gaily? Have you been flirting with Luca
- 1:25:32Speaker 1: Sergius hastily? No, No, how can you think such a thing? Reina,
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: ashamed of herself. Forgive me, dear, it was only a jest.
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: I am so happy today. He goes quickly to her
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: and kisses her hand remorsefully. Catherine comes out and calls
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: to them from the top of the steps, Catherine, coming
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: down to them. I am sorry to disturb you, children,
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: but Paul is distracted over those three regiments. He does
- 1:26:01Speaker 1: not know how to get them to Philipopoulos, and he
- 1:26:04Speaker 1: objects to every suggestion of mine. You must go and
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: help him, Sergius. He is in the library, Reina disappointed.
- 1:26:12Speaker 1: But we were just going out for a walk. Sergius,
- 1:26:17Speaker 1: I shall not be long. Wait for me, just five minutes.
- 1:26:21Speaker 1: He runs up the steps to the door, Reina following
- 1:26:25Speaker 1: him to the foot of the steps and looking up
- 1:26:27Speaker 1: at him with timid coquetry. I shall go round and
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: wait in full view of the library windows. Be sure
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: you draw father's attention to me. If you are a
- 1:26:37Speaker 1: moment longer than five minutes, I shall go in and
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: fetch you regiments or no regiments. Sergius, laughing very well,
- 1:26:48Speaker 1: he goes in. Reina watches him until he is out
- 1:26:51Speaker 1: of her sight. Then, with a perceptible relaxation of manner,
- 1:26:56Speaker 1: she begins to pace up and down about the garden
- 1:26:58Speaker 1: in a brown stud Catherine, imagine their meeting. That's Swiss,
- 1:27:05Speaker 1: and hearing the whole story. The very first thing your
- 1:27:08Speaker 1: father asked for was the old coat. We sent him
- 1:27:11Speaker 1: off in a nice mess. You've got us into, Raina,
- 1:27:17Speaker 1: gazing thoughtfully at the gravel as she walks. The little beast, Catherine,
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: little beast, What little beast? Raina to go and tell? Oh?
- 1:27:30Speaker 1: If I had him here, I'd stuff him with chocolate
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: creams till he couldn't ever speak again. Catherine, don't talk nonsense.
- 1:27:39Speaker 1: Tell me the truth, Raina. How long was he in
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: your room before you came to me? Raina whisking round
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: and recommencing her march in the opposite direction. Oh, I forget, Catherine,
- 1:27:52Speaker 1: you cannot forget. Did he really climb up after the
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: soldiers were gone? Or was he there when that officer
- 1:28:00Speaker 1: search the room? Reina? No, yes, I think he must
- 1:28:04Speaker 1: have been there, then, Catherine, you think, oh, Reina, Raina,
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: will anything ever make you straightforward? If Sergius finds out,
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: it is all over between you, Reina, with cool impertinence. Oh,
- 1:28:20Speaker 1: I know, Sergius is your pet. I sometimes wish you
- 1:28:24Speaker 1: could marry him instead of me. You would just suit him,
- 1:28:28Speaker 1: You would pet him and spoil him and mother him
- 1:28:31Speaker 1: to perfection. Catherine, opening her eyes very wildly, indeed, well
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: upon my word, Reina capriciously after herself. I always feel
- 1:28:45Speaker 1: a longing to do or say something dreadful to him,
- 1:28:48Speaker 1: to shock his propriety, to scandalize the five senses out
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: of him. To Catherine, perversely, I don't care whether he
- 1:28:58Speaker 1: finds out about the chocolate creams soldier or not. I
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: half hope he may. She again turns flippantly away and
- 1:29:06Speaker 1: strolls up the path to the corner of the house. Catherine,
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: and what should I be able to say to your father?
- 1:29:14Speaker 1: Pray Reina over his shoulder from the top of the
- 1:29:17Speaker 1: two steps. Oh, poor father, as if he could help himself.
- 1:29:23Speaker 1: She turns the corner and passes out of sight, Catherine
- 1:29:27Speaker 1: looking after her, her fingers itching, Oh, if you were
- 1:29:32Speaker 1: only ten years younger. Luca comes from the house with
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: a salver, which she carries hanging down by her side. Well, Luca,
- 1:29:42Speaker 1: there's a gentleman just called madam, a servian officer, Catherine
- 1:29:48Speaker 1: flaming a servian? How dare he checking herself? Bitterly? Oh,
- 1:29:54Speaker 1: I forgot we are at peace. Now I suppose we
- 1:29:58Speaker 1: shall have them calling every day to pay their compliments. Well,
- 1:30:02Speaker 1: if he is an officer, why don't you tell your
- 1:30:04Speaker 1: master he is in the library with Major Saranov. Why
- 1:30:08Speaker 1: do you come to me, Luca? But he asks for you, Madam,
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: and I don't think he knows who you are. He
- 1:30:17Speaker 1: said the lady of the house. He gave me this
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: little ticket for you. She takes a card out of
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: her bosom, puts it on the salver, and offers it
- 1:30:26Speaker 1: to Catherine. Catherine, reading Captain Blunchley, that's a German name,
- 1:30:34Speaker 1: Luca Swiss, Madam, I think, Katherine with a bound. That
- 1:30:39Speaker 1: makes Luca jump back, Swiss. What is he like? Luca? Timidly?
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: He has a big carpet bag, Madam Katherine. Oh, heavens,
- 1:30:51Speaker 1: he's come to return the coat. Send him away, Say
- 1:30:54Speaker 1: we're not at home. Ask him to leave his address
- 1:30:57Speaker 1: and I'll write to him. Oh stop, will never do. Wait.
- 1:31:02Speaker 1: She throws herself into a chair to think it out.
- 1:31:05Speaker 1: Luca waits. The Master and Major saddan Off are busy
- 1:31:09Speaker 1: in the library, aren't they, Luca, Yes, Madam Catherine, decisively,
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: bring the gentleman out here at once, imperatively, and be
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: very polite to him. Don't delay here impatiently snatching the
- 1:31:25Speaker 1: salver from her, Leave that here and go straight back
- 1:31:27Speaker 1: to him. Luca. Yes, Madam going, Catherine, Luca, Luca stopping. Yes,
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: Madam Catherine. Is the library door shut, Luca, I think so,
- 1:31:42Speaker 1: Madam Catherine, if not shut it as you pass through, Luca, yes,
- 1:31:47Speaker 1: Madam going, Catherine, stop. Luca stops. He will have to
- 1:31:54Speaker 1: go out that way, indicating the gait of the stable yard.
- 1:31:58Speaker 1: Tell Nicolott to bring his bag here after him. Don't forget, Luca,
- 1:32:03Speaker 1: surprised his spag Catherine, yes, here as soon as possible, vehemently,
- 1:32:10Speaker 1: be quick. Luca runs into the house. Catherine snatches her
- 1:32:15Speaker 1: apron off and throws it behind a bush. She then
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: takes up the salver and uses it as a mirror,
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: with the result that the handkerchief tied round her head
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: follows the apron. A touch to her hair and a
- 1:32:27Speaker 1: shake to her dressing gown makes her presentable. Oh how,
- 1:32:32Speaker 1: how how can a man be such a fool? Such
- 1:32:35Speaker 1: a moment to select? Luca appears at the door of
- 1:32:39Speaker 1: the house, announcing Captain Blunchly and standing aside at the
- 1:32:44Speaker 1: top of the steps to let him pass before she
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: goes in again. He is the man of the adventure
- 1:32:51Speaker 1: in Raina's room. He is now clean, well brushed, smartly
- 1:32:56Speaker 1: uniformed and out of trouble, but still unmistakeably the same man.
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: The moment Luca's back is turned, Catherine swoops on him
- 1:33:06Speaker 1: with hurried, urgent, coaxing appeal. Captain Blunchley, I am very
- 1:33:12Speaker 1: glad to see you, but you must leave this house
- 1:33:15Speaker 1: at once, He raises his eyebrows. My husband has just
- 1:33:19Speaker 1: returned with my future son in law, and they know nothing.
- 1:33:24Speaker 1: If they did, the consequences would be terrible. You are
- 1:33:28Speaker 1: a foreigner. You do not feel our national animosities as
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: we do. We still hate the Serbians. The only effect
- 1:33:35Speaker 1: of the peace on my husband is to make him
- 1:33:38Speaker 1: feel like a lion balked of his prey. If he
- 1:33:41Speaker 1: discovered our secret, he would never forgive me, and my
- 1:33:44Speaker 1: daughter's life would hardly be safe. Will you, like these
- 1:33:48Speaker 1: chivalrous gentlemen and soldier you are leave it once before
- 1:33:51Speaker 1: he finds you here. Blunchley disappointed but philosophical at once.
- 1:33:57Speaker 1: Gracious lady, I only came to thank you and return
- 1:34:01Speaker 1: the coat you lent me. If you will allow me
- 1:34:04Speaker 1: to take it out of my bag and leave it
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: with your servant as I pass out, I need detain
- 1:34:08Speaker 1: you no further. He turns to go into the house,
- 1:34:12Speaker 1: Catherine catching him by the sleeve. Oh you must not
- 1:34:16Speaker 1: think of going back that way, coaxing him across to
- 1:34:19Speaker 1: the stable gates. This is the sharpest way out. Many thanks,
- 1:34:24Speaker 1: so glad to have been of service to you. Goodbye, Blunchly.
- 1:34:28Speaker 1: But my bag, Catherine, it will be sent on. You
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: will leave me your address, Blunchly, true, allow me. He
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: takes out his card case and stops to write his address,
- 1:34:41Speaker 1: keeping Katherine in an agony of impatience. As he hands
- 1:34:45Speaker 1: her the card. Pet Cough, hatless rushes from the house,
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: and a fluster of hospitality, followed by Sergius pet Cough
- 1:34:54Speaker 1: as he hurries down the steps. My dear captain Blenchlely. Catherine, Oh,
- 1:35:00Speaker 1: oh heavens, She sinks on the seat against the wall.
- 1:35:05Speaker 1: Petkoff too preoccupied to notice her as he shakes Blunchley's
- 1:35:09Speaker 1: hand heartily. Those stupid people of mine thought I was
- 1:35:12Speaker 1: out here instead of in the library. He cannot mention
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: the library without betraying how proud he is of it.
- 1:35:21Speaker 1: I saw you through the window. I was wondering why
- 1:35:24Speaker 1: you didn't come in. So Ronov is with me. You
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: remember him, don't you? Sergius, saluting humorously and then offering
- 1:35:32Speaker 1: his hand with great charm of manner. Welcome our friend,
- 1:35:36Speaker 1: the enemy, Petkough no longer the enemy, happily, rather anxiously.
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: I hope you've come as a friend and not on business. Catherine, oh,
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: quite as a friend. Paul I was just asking Captain
- 1:35:51Speaker 1: Blunchley to stay to lunch, but he declares he must
- 1:35:54Speaker 1: go at once. Sergius sardonically impossible, blunche. We want you
- 1:36:01Speaker 1: here badly. We have to send on three cavalry regiments
- 1:36:06Speaker 1: to Philipopoulos, and we don't in the least know how
- 1:36:09Speaker 1: to do it. Blunchley suddenly attentive and businesslike Philip Popoulos.
- 1:36:16Speaker 1: The forage is the trouble, eh pet Cough eagerly, yes,
- 1:36:21Speaker 1: that's it. To Sergius, he sees the whole thing at once, Blunchlely,
- 1:36:27Speaker 1: I think I can show you how to manage that. Sergius,
- 1:36:32Speaker 1: invaluable man, come along, Towering over Blunchley, he puts his
- 1:36:37Speaker 1: hand on his shoulder and takes him to the steps.
- 1:36:39Speaker 1: Pet Cough following as Blunchlely puts his foot on the
- 1:36:43Speaker 1: first step, Raina comes out of the house. Raina, completely
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: losing her presence of mind. Oh, the chocolate cream soldier.
- 1:36:53Speaker 1: Blunchley stands rigid sergius amazed, looks at Reina, then it
- 1:36:59Speaker 1: pet Cough, who looks back at him, and then at
- 1:37:02Speaker 1: his wife Catherine, with commanding presence of mind. My dear Reina,
- 1:37:07Speaker 1: don't you see that we have a guest here, Captain Blenchley,
- 1:37:10Speaker 1: one of our new servian friends. Raina bows. Blenchley bows Reina.
- 1:37:17Speaker 1: How silly of me? She comes down into the center
- 1:37:21Speaker 1: of the group between Blenchley and pet Cough. I made
- 1:37:25Speaker 1: a beautiful ornament this morning for the ice pudding, and
- 1:37:28Speaker 1: that stupid Nikola has just put down a pile of
- 1:37:31Speaker 1: plates on it and spoiled it. To Blunchley, winningly, I
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: hope you didn't think that you were the chocolate cream soldier,
- 1:37:39Speaker 1: Captain Blenchley Blunchley laughing, I assure you I did, stealing
- 1:37:46Speaker 1: a whimsical glance at her. Your explanation was a relief.
- 1:37:51Speaker 1: Pet Cough suspiciously to Reina. And since when, pray, have
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: you taken to cooking? Katherine? Oh, whilst you are away?
- 1:38:01Speaker 1: It's her latest fancy pet Cough testling and has Nikola
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: taken to drinking? He used to be careful enough. First
- 1:38:11Speaker 1: he shows Captain Blenchley out here when he knew quite
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: well I was in the hum library. And then he
- 1:38:18Speaker 1: goes downstairs and breaks rein his chocolate soldier. He must.
- 1:38:22Speaker 1: At this moment, Nikola appears at the top of the
- 1:38:24Speaker 1: steps right with a carpet bag. He descends, places it
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: respectfully before Blenchley and waits for further orders general amazement. Nicola,
- 1:38:36Speaker 1: unconscious of the effect he is producing, looks perfectly satisfied
- 1:38:40Speaker 1: with himself. When pet Cough recovers his power of speech,
- 1:38:45Speaker 1: he breaks out at him with are you mad Nikola?
- 1:38:50Speaker 1: Nicola taken aback? Sir Petkough? What have you brought that for? Nikola?
- 1:38:58Speaker 1: My lady's orders, Sir Luca told me that Katherine interrupting
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: him my orders? Why should I order you to bring
- 1:39:06Speaker 1: Captain Blenchley's luggage out here? What were you thinking of, Niccola? Nikola,
- 1:39:12Speaker 1: after a moment's bewilderment, picking up the bag as he
- 1:39:15Speaker 1: addresses Blunchly with the very perfection of servile discretion, I
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: beg your pardon, sir. I am sure to Catherine my fault, Madam.
- 1:39:24Speaker 1: I hope you'll overlook it. He bows and is going
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: to the steps with the bag when Petkof addresses him angrily. Petkough,
- 1:39:33Speaker 1: you'd better go and slam that bag too down on
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: miss rain as ice pudding. This is too much for Nicola.
- 1:39:40Speaker 1: The bag drops from his hands on Petkoff's corns, eliciting
- 1:39:45Speaker 1: a roar of anguish from him. Begone, you, butter fingered donkey, Nikola,
- 1:39:51Speaker 1: snatching up the bag and escaping into the house. Yes,
- 1:39:55Speaker 1: sir Katherine, Oh, never mind, Paul, don't be angry Petkof,
- 1:40:01Speaker 1: muttering scoundrel. He's got out of hand while I was away.
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: I'll teach him recollecting his guests. Oh well, never mind,
- 1:40:10Speaker 1: Come Blenchley, let us have no more nonsense about you
- 1:40:13Speaker 1: having to go away. You know very well you're not
- 1:40:16Speaker 1: going back to Switzerland yet. Until you do go back,
- 1:40:20Speaker 1: you'll stay with us, Reina, Oh do Captain Blenchely Petkof
- 1:40:26Speaker 1: to Catherine. Now, Catherine, it's of you that he's afraid.
- 1:40:30Speaker 1: Press him and he'll stay. Catherine. Of course, I shall
- 1:40:34Speaker 1: be only too delighted if appealingly Captain Blenchley really wishes
- 1:40:40Speaker 1: to stay. He knows my wishes. Blenchly in his driest
- 1:40:45Speaker 1: military manner. I am at Madame's orders, Sergius cordially. That
- 1:40:53Speaker 1: settles it. Petcough heartily, of course, Raina, you see you
- 1:40:59Speaker 1: must stay blunchly smiling. Well. If I must, I must
- 1:41:05Speaker 1: gesture of despair from Catherine. End of Act two, Act three.
- 1:41:13Speaker 1: In the library after lunch, it is not much of
- 1:41:18Speaker 1: a library, its literary equipment consisting of a single fixed
- 1:41:22Speaker 1: shelf stocked with old paper covered novels broken back to
- 1:41:26Speaker 1: coffee stained, torn and thumbed, and a couple of little
- 1:41:30Speaker 1: hanging shelves with a few gift books on them, the
- 1:41:34Speaker 1: rest of the wall space being occupied by trophies of
- 1:41:37Speaker 1: war and the chase. But it is a most comfortable
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: sitting room. A row of three large windows in the
- 1:41:45Speaker 1: front of the house show a mountain panorama, which is
- 1:41:48Speaker 1: just now seen in one of its softest aspects, in
- 1:41:51Speaker 1: the mellowing afternoon light. In the left hand corner a
- 1:41:56Speaker 1: square earthenware stove. A perfect tower of colored pop rises
- 1:42:01Speaker 1: nearly to the ceiling and guarantees plenty of warmth. The
- 1:42:06Speaker 1: ottoman in the middle is a circular bank of decorated cushions,
- 1:42:10Speaker 1: and the window seats are well upholstered divans, little Turkish tables,
- 1:42:16Speaker 1: one of them with an elaborate hookah on it, and
- 1:42:18Speaker 1: a screen to match them. Complete the handsome effect of
- 1:42:22Speaker 1: the furnishing. There is one object, however, which is hopelessly
- 1:42:27Speaker 1: out of keeping with its surroundings. This is a small
- 1:42:31Speaker 1: kitchen table, much the worse for wear, fitted as a
- 1:42:35Speaker 1: writing table, with an old canister full of pins, an
- 1:42:39Speaker 1: egg cup filled with ink, and a deplorable scrap of
- 1:42:42Speaker 1: severely used pink blotting paper. At the side of this table,
- 1:42:47Speaker 1: which stands on the right, Blutchley is hard at work,
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: with a couple of maps before him, writing orders. At
- 1:42:55Speaker 1: the head of it sits Sergius, who is also supposed
- 1:42:58Speaker 1: to be at work, but it was he actually gnawing
- 1:43:01Speaker 1: the feather of a pin and contemplating Blenchley's quick, sure,
- 1:43:05Speaker 1: businesslike progress, with a mixture of envious irritation at his
- 1:43:08Speaker 1: own incapacity and awe struck wonder at an ability which
- 1:43:13Speaker 1: seems to him almost miraculous, though its prosaic character forbids
- 1:43:17Speaker 1: him to esteem it. The Major is comfortably established on
- 1:43:21Speaker 1: the ottoman, with a newspaper in his hand and the
- 1:43:24Speaker 1: tube of the hookah within his reach. Catherine sits at
- 1:43:28Speaker 1: the stove with her back to them, embroadering. Rhina reclining
- 1:43:32Speaker 1: on the divan under the left hand window, is gazing
- 1:43:36Speaker 1: in a daydream out at the Balkan landscape, with a
- 1:43:39Speaker 1: neglected novel in her lap. The door is on the left.
- 1:43:44Speaker 1: The button of the electric bell is between the door
- 1:43:46Speaker 1: and the fireplace. Petkoff, looking up from his paper to
- 1:43:51Speaker 1: watch how they are getting on at the table. Are
- 1:43:54Speaker 1: you sure I can't help you in any way, Blunchley Blunchley,
- 1:43:59Speaker 1: without interrupting his writing or looking up, quite sure, Thank you, Saranoff,
- 1:44:04Speaker 1: And I will manage it. Sergius grimly, Yes, we'll manage it.
- 1:44:10Speaker 1: He finds out what to do, draws up the orders,
- 1:44:13Speaker 1: and I sign him the vision of Labor. Major. Blunchley
- 1:44:17Speaker 1: passes him a paper, another one. Thank you. He plants
- 1:44:22Speaker 1: the paper squarely before him, sets his chair carefully parallel
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: to them, and signs with the air of a man
- 1:44:29Speaker 1: resolutely performing a difficult and dangerous feet. This hand is
- 1:44:33Speaker 1: more accustomed to the sword than to the pen. Petkough,
- 1:44:38Speaker 1: It's very good of you, Blunchly. It is indeed to
- 1:44:41Speaker 1: let yourself be put upon in this way. Are you
- 1:44:44Speaker 1: quite sure I can do nothing? Catherine, in a low
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: warning tone, you can stop interrupting, Paul pet Kough starting
- 1:44:55Speaker 1: and looking round at her. Eh. Oh, quite right, my love,
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: quite right. He takes his newspaper off, but lets it
- 1:45:02Speaker 1: drop again. Ah, you haven't been campaigning, Katherine. You don't
- 1:45:06Speaker 1: know how pleasant it is for us to sit here
- 1:45:08Speaker 1: after a good lunch with nothing to do but enjoy ourselves.
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: There's only one thing I want to make me thoroughly comfortable, Katherine.
- 1:45:18Speaker 1: What is that? Petkof my old coat? I'm not at
- 1:45:24Speaker 1: home in this one. I feel as if I were
- 1:45:27Speaker 1: on parade, Katherine, my dear, Paul, how absurd you are
- 1:45:33Speaker 1: about that old coat. It must be hanging in the
- 1:45:36Speaker 1: blue closet where you left it. Pekof my dear, Catherine.
- 1:45:40Speaker 1: I tell you I've looked there. Am I to believe
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: my own eyes or not? Katherine quietly rises and presses
- 1:45:47Speaker 1: the button of the electric bell by the fireplace. What
- 1:45:51Speaker 1: are you showing off that bell for? She looks at
- 1:45:54Speaker 1: him majestically and silently resumes her chair and her needlework.
- 1:46:00Speaker 1: My dear, if you think the obstinacy of your sex
- 1:46:03Speaker 1: can make a coat out of two old dressing gowns
- 1:46:06Speaker 1: of Rhina's. You're a waterproof in my macintosh. You're mistaken.
- 1:46:10Speaker 1: That's exactly what the blue closet contains at the present.
- 1:46:14Speaker 1: Nikola presents himself Katherine, unmoved by Petcoff's Sally, Nikola, go
- 1:46:22Speaker 1: to the blue closet and bring your master's old coat here,
- 1:46:25Speaker 1: the braided one he usually wears in the house. Nikola, yes, Madam.
- 1:46:31Speaker 1: Nikola goes out Peckough Katherine. Katherine, yes, Paul, Pekof I
- 1:46:40Speaker 1: bet you any piece of jewelry you like to order
- 1:46:43Speaker 1: from Sophia against a week's housekeeping money. That the coat
- 1:46:48Speaker 1: isn't there. Katherine done. Paul Petkoff excited by the prospect
- 1:46:55Speaker 1: of a gamble, Come, here's an opportunity for some sport
- 1:46:59Speaker 1: who bet on it. Blunchly. I'll give you six to one, Blunchley, imperturbably,
- 1:47:07Speaker 1: it would be robbing you. Major, Madame is sure to
- 1:47:10Speaker 1: be right. Without looking up, he passes another batch of
- 1:47:14Speaker 1: papers to Sergius. Sergius also excited. Bravo Switzerland, Major, I
- 1:47:21Speaker 1: bet my best charger against an Arab mayor for Raina.
- 1:47:26Speaker 1: That Nicola finds the coat in the blue closet. Petcough
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: eagerly your best, Chuck, Katherine hastily interrupts him. Don't be foolish, Paul,
- 1:47:38Speaker 1: an Arabian mayor will cost you fifty thousand lev Us. Raina,
- 1:47:43Speaker 1: suddenly coming out of her picturesque Revere, Really, mother, if
- 1:47:47Speaker 1: you are going to take the jewelry, I don't see
- 1:47:49Speaker 1: why you should grudge me my arab Nikola comes back
- 1:47:53Speaker 1: with the coat and brings it to Petcough, who can
- 1:47:56Speaker 1: hardly believe his eyes. Katherine, was it Nicola? Nicola hanging
- 1:48:03Speaker 1: in the blue closet, Madame pet Cough, Well, I am dick,
- 1:48:09Speaker 1: Catherine stopping him. Paul pet Cough, I could have sworn
- 1:48:15Speaker 1: it wasn't there. Hag is beginning to tell on me.
- 1:48:19Speaker 1: I'm getting hallucinations to Nicola here, help me change excuse
- 1:48:24Speaker 1: me bluntly, he begins changing coats. Nicola acting as valet.
- 1:48:30Speaker 1: Remember I didn't take that bet of yours. Sergius, you'd
- 1:48:34Speaker 1: better give Reina that Arab steed yourself, since you've roused
- 1:48:38Speaker 1: her expectations. Ah Reina, He looks round at her, but
- 1:48:42Speaker 1: she is again wrapped in the landscape with a little
- 1:48:45Speaker 1: gush of paternal affection and pride. He points her out
- 1:48:49Speaker 1: to them and says she's dreaming as usual. Sergius assuredly
- 1:48:57Speaker 1: she shall not be the loser. Pet Cough. So much
- 1:49:02Speaker 1: the better for her. I shan't come off so cheap.
- 1:49:05Speaker 1: I expect change is now complete. Nikola goes out with
- 1:49:10Speaker 1: a discarded coat. Ah, now I feel at home at last.
- 1:49:15Speaker 1: He sits down and takes his newspaper. With a grunt
- 1:49:18Speaker 1: of relief, Blunchley to Sergius, handing a paper that's the
- 1:49:23Speaker 1: last order, pet Cough jumping up, What finished? Blunchley finished?
- 1:49:31Speaker 1: Pet Cough goes beside Sergius looks curiously over his left
- 1:49:35Speaker 1: shoulder as he signs, and says, with childlike envy. Haven't
- 1:49:41Speaker 1: you anything for me to sign? Blenchley? Not necessary his signature,
- 1:49:46Speaker 1: will do, pet Cough. Ah, Well, I think we've done
- 1:49:50Speaker 1: a thundering good day's work. He goes away from the table.
- 1:49:54Speaker 1: Can I do anything more? Blenchley? You had better both
- 1:49:59Speaker 1: see the fellows that are to take these to Sergius,
- 1:50:02Speaker 1: pack them off at once and show them that I've
- 1:50:04Speaker 1: marked on the arders the time they should hand them
- 1:50:07Speaker 1: in by tell them that if they stop to drink
- 1:50:10Speaker 1: or tell stories, if they're five minutes late, they'll have
- 1:50:13Speaker 1: the skin taken off their backs. Sergius rising indignantly, I'll
- 1:50:20Speaker 1: say so, And if one of them is man enough
- 1:50:22Speaker 1: to spit in my face for insulting him, I'll buy
- 1:50:25Speaker 1: his discharge and give him a pension. He strides out
- 1:50:29Speaker 1: his humanity, deeply outraged. Blunchley confidentially, just see that he
- 1:50:35Speaker 1: talks to them properly, Major, will you, pet Cough officiously?
- 1:50:40Speaker 1: Quite right, Blenchley, quite right, I'll see to it. He
- 1:50:44Speaker 1: goes to the door importantly, but hesitates on the threshold.
- 1:50:47Speaker 1: By the bye, Catherine, you may come as well to
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: they'll be far more frightened of you than of me, Catherine,
- 1:50:55Speaker 1: putting down her embroidery, I dare say I had better.
- 1:50:59Speaker 1: You will only splutter at them. She goes out, pet
- 1:51:03Speaker 1: Cough holding the door for her, and following her blunchly,
- 1:51:08Speaker 1: what a country They make cannons out of cherry trees,
- 1:51:13Speaker 1: and the officers send for their wives to keep discipline.
- 1:51:16Speaker 1: He begins to fold and dock the papers. Raina, who
- 1:51:20Speaker 1: has risen from the divan, strolls down the room with
- 1:51:23Speaker 1: her hands clasped behind her and looks mischievously at him. Raina,
- 1:51:29Speaker 1: you look ever so much nicer than when we last met.
- 1:51:33Speaker 1: He looks up, surprised. What have you done to yourself? Blunchly,
- 1:51:39Speaker 1: washed brushed, good night's sleep and breakfast, that's all, Raina.
- 1:51:44Speaker 1: Did you get back safely that morning? Bluchly, quite thanks, Raina.
- 1:51:51Speaker 1: Were they angry with you for running away from Sergius's charge?
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: Blunchly No, they were glad because that I'll just away themselves, Raina,
- 1:52:02Speaker 1: going to the table and leaning over it toward him.
- 1:52:05Speaker 1: It must have made a lovely story for them, all
- 1:52:08Speaker 1: that about me and my room. Blenchley, capital story. But
- 1:52:14Speaker 1: I only told it to one of them, a particular friend, Raina,
- 1:52:19Speaker 1: on whose discretion you could absolutely rely Blenchley absolutely, Raina. Humh.
- 1:52:27Speaker 1: He told it to my father and Sergius the day
- 1:52:30Speaker 1: you exchanged the prisoners. She turned away in strolls carelessly
- 1:52:35Speaker 1: across to the other side of the room. Blenchley, deeply
- 1:52:39Speaker 1: concerned and half incredulous. No, you don't mean that, do you, Raina,
- 1:52:45Speaker 1: turning with sudden eagerness. I do, indeed, But they don't
- 1:52:50Speaker 1: know that it was in this house that you hid.
- 1:52:52Speaker 1: If Sergius knew, he would challenge you and kill you
- 1:52:55Speaker 1: in a jewel Blinchley, bless me, then, don't tell Rain.
- 1:53:02Speaker 1: Full of reproach for his levity. Can you realize what
- 1:53:05Speaker 1: it is to me to deceive him? I want to
- 1:53:09Speaker 1: be quite perfect with Sergius. No meanness, no smallness, no deceit.
- 1:53:14Speaker 1: My relation to him is the one really beautiful and
- 1:53:18Speaker 1: noble part of my life. I hope you can understand that.
- 1:53:22Speaker 1: Blunchlely skeptically, you mean that you wouldn't like him to
- 1:53:26Speaker 1: find out that the story about the ice pudding was
- 1:53:29Speaker 1: a a you know, RAINA wincing ah. Don't talk of
- 1:53:35Speaker 1: it in that flippant way. I lied, I know it,
- 1:53:39Speaker 1: but I did it to save your life. He would
- 1:53:42Speaker 1: have killed you. That was the second time I ever
- 1:53:45Speaker 1: uttered a falsehood. Blunchley rises quickly and looks doubtfully and
- 1:53:49Speaker 1: somewhat severely at her. Do you remember the first time, Blunchley,
- 1:53:56Speaker 1: I know, was I present? Rain? Yes? And I told
- 1:54:02Speaker 1: the officer who was searching for you that you were
- 1:54:04Speaker 1: not present? Blunchly true, I should have remembered it. RAINA
- 1:54:10Speaker 1: greatly encouraged ah. It is natural that you should forget
- 1:54:14Speaker 1: it first. It cost you nothing. It cost me a lie,
- 1:54:19Speaker 1: a lie. She sits down on the ottoman, looking straight
- 1:54:24Speaker 1: before her, with her hands clasped on her knee. Blenchley,
- 1:54:29Speaker 1: quite touched, goes to the ottoman with a particularly reassuring
- 1:54:32Speaker 1: and considerate air, and sits down beside her. Blunchley, My
- 1:54:38Speaker 1: dear young lady, don't let this worry you. Remember I'm
- 1:54:42Speaker 1: a soldier. Now. What are the two things that happened
- 1:54:45Speaker 1: to a soldier so often that he comes to think
- 1:54:48Speaker 1: nothing of him? One is hearing people tell lies. Raina recoils.
- 1:54:54Speaker 1: The other is getting his life saved in all sorts
- 1:54:57Speaker 1: of ways, by all sorts of people, Raina rising in
- 1:55:01Speaker 1: indignant protest, and so he becomes a creature, incapable of
- 1:55:06Speaker 1: faith and of gratitude. Blunchley, making a wry face. Do
- 1:55:12Speaker 1: you like gratitude? I don't. If pity is akin to love,
- 1:55:17Speaker 1: gratitude is akin to the other thing, Raina gratitude, turning
- 1:55:23Speaker 1: to him. If you are incapable of gratitude, you are
- 1:55:27Speaker 1: incapable of any noble sentiment. Even animals are grateful. Oh,
- 1:55:33Speaker 1: I see now exactly what you think of me. You
- 1:55:36Speaker 1: were not surprised to hear me lie to you. It
- 1:55:39Speaker 1: was something I probably did every day, every hour. That
- 1:55:44Speaker 1: is how men think of women. She walks up the
- 1:55:47Speaker 1: room melodramatically, blunchly dubiously. There is reason in everything you said.
- 1:55:55Speaker 1: You told only two lies in your whole life, dear
- 1:55:59Speaker 1: young lady. Isn't that rather a short allowance? I'm quite
- 1:56:03Speaker 1: a straightforward man myself, but it wouldn't last me a
- 1:56:06Speaker 1: whole morning. Raina staring haughtily at him. Do you know, sir,
- 1:56:12Speaker 1: that you are insulting me? Bluchely. I can't help it
- 1:56:17Speaker 1: when you get into that noble attitude and speak with
- 1:56:21Speaker 1: that thrilling voice. I admire you, but I find it
- 1:56:25Speaker 1: impossible to believe a single word you say, Reina, superbly,
- 1:56:31Speaker 1: Captain Blunchlely, Blunchley unmoved. Yes, Raina, coming a little towards him,
- 1:56:39Speaker 1: as if she could not believe her senses. Do you
- 1:56:42Speaker 1: mean what you said just now? Do you know what
- 1:56:46Speaker 1: you said just now? Blenchley? I do, Raina, gasping I
- 1:56:54Speaker 1: I she points to herself, incredulously, meaning I Raina petcock
- 1:57:00Speaker 1: tell lies. He meets her gaze unflinchingly. She suddenly sits
- 1:57:05Speaker 1: down beside him, and adds, with a complete change of
- 1:57:09Speaker 1: manner from the heroic to the familiar. How did you
- 1:57:12Speaker 1: find me out, Blenchley promptly, instinct, dear young lady, instinct
- 1:57:18Speaker 1: and experience of the world, Raina, wonderingly, do you know
- 1:57:24Speaker 1: you are the first man I ever met who did
- 1:57:27Speaker 1: not take me seriously? Blinchley, you mean, don't you that
- 1:57:33Speaker 1: I am the first man that has ever taken you
- 1:57:35Speaker 1: quite seriously? Raina? Yes, I suppose I do mean that
- 1:57:42Speaker 1: cozily quite at her ease with him. How strange it
- 1:57:45Speaker 1: is to be talked to in such a way. You know,
- 1:57:48Speaker 1: I've always gone on like that. I mean, the noble
- 1:57:50Speaker 1: attitude and the thrilling voice. I did it when I
- 1:57:53Speaker 1: was a tiny child to my nurse. She believed in it.
- 1:57:58Speaker 1: I do it before my parents they believe in it.
- 1:58:01Speaker 1: I do it before Sergius. He believes in it. Blunchly. Yes,
- 1:58:06Speaker 1: he's a little in that line himself, isn't he? Reina startled?
- 1:58:11Speaker 1: Do you think so? Blenchley? You know him better than
- 1:58:16Speaker 1: I do, Reina. I wonder, I wonder is he if
- 1:58:22Speaker 1: I thought that discouraged? Ah? Well, what does it matter?
- 1:58:27Speaker 1: I suppose now that you've found me out, you despise me,
- 1:58:31Speaker 1: Blunchly warmly rising. No, my dear young lady, No, no, no,
- 1:58:37Speaker 1: a thousand times. It's part of your youth, part of
- 1:58:41Speaker 1: your charm. I'm like all the rest of them, the nurse,
- 1:58:45Speaker 1: your parents, Sergius, I'm your infatuated admirer, Reina pleased, Really,
- 1:58:53Speaker 1: Blunchley slapping his breast smartly with his hand, German fashion,
- 1:58:58Speaker 1: hung off huts, Really and truly, Raina very happy? But
- 1:59:05Speaker 1: what did you think of me for giving you my portrait?
- 1:59:09Speaker 1: Blnchley astonished your portrait? You never gave me your portrait,
- 1:59:15Speaker 1: Raina quickly Do you mean to say you never got it? Blunchley? No.
- 1:59:23Speaker 1: He sits down beside her with renewed interest and says,
- 1:59:25Speaker 1: with some complacency, when did you send it to me? Reina? Indignantly,
- 1:59:31Speaker 1: I did not send it to you. She turns her
- 1:59:34Speaker 1: hat away and adds reluctantly, it was in the pocket
- 1:59:38Speaker 1: of that coat, Blunchley, pursing his lips and rounding his eyes. Oh,
- 1:59:45Speaker 1: I never found it. It must be there still, Reina,
- 1:59:51Speaker 1: springing up there still for my father to find the
- 1:59:55Speaker 1: first time he puts his hand in his pocket. Oh,
- 1:59:58Speaker 1: how could you be so stupid? Blunchley rising. Also, it
- 2:00:03Speaker 1: doesn't matter, it's only a photograph. How can he tell
- 2:00:06Speaker 1: who it was intended for? Tell him he put it
- 2:00:09Speaker 1: there himself, Raina impatiently. Yes, that is so clever, so clever.
- 2:00:16Speaker 1: What shall I do, Blunchley? Ah? I see you wrote
- 2:00:22Speaker 1: something on it that was rash, Raina annoyed, almost to tears.
- 2:00:31Speaker 1: Oh to have done such a thing for you, who
- 2:00:34Speaker 1: care no more except to laugh at me? Oh are
- 2:00:38Speaker 1: you sure nobody has touched it? Blunchley? Well I can't
- 2:00:43Speaker 1: be quite sure. You see. I couldn't carry it about
- 2:00:46Speaker 1: with me all the time. One can't take much luggage
- 2:00:49Speaker 1: on active service, Raina? What did you do with it? Blunchley?
- 2:00:55Speaker 1: When I got through to Peter Wrought, I had to
- 2:00:58Speaker 1: put it in safe keeping somehow. I thought of the
- 2:01:01Speaker 1: railway cloak room, But that's the surest place to get
- 2:01:04Speaker 1: looted in modern warfare. So I pawned it. Raina pawned it, Blenchley.
- 2:01:12Speaker 1: I know it doesn't sound nice, but it was much
- 2:01:15Speaker 1: the safest plan. I redeemed it the day before yesterday.
- 2:01:19Speaker 1: Heaven only knows whether the pawnbroker cleared out the pockets
- 2:01:23Speaker 1: or not, Raina, furious, throwing the words right into his face.
- 2:01:29Speaker 1: You have a low shop keeping mind. You'd think of
- 2:01:34Speaker 1: things that would never come into a gentleman's head. Blenchley phlegmatically.
- 2:01:40Speaker 1: That's the Swiss national character. Dear lady Raina, Oh, I
- 2:01:45Speaker 1: wish I had never met you. She flounces away and
- 2:01:49Speaker 1: sits at the window, fume. Luca comes in with a
- 2:01:53Speaker 1: heap of letters and telegrams on her salver and crosses
- 2:01:57Speaker 1: with her bold free gate to the table. Her left
- 2:02:01Speaker 1: sleeve is looped up to the shoulder with a brooch
- 2:02:03Speaker 1: showing her naked arm, with a broad gilt bracelet covering
- 2:02:07Speaker 1: the bruise. Luca, too blunchly for you. She empties the
- 2:02:14Speaker 1: salver recklessly on the table. The messenger is waiting. She
- 2:02:18Speaker 1: is determined not to be civil to a servian, even
- 2:02:22Speaker 1: if she must bring him his letters. Blunchley to Rhinea.
- 2:02:27Speaker 1: Will you excuse me? The last postal delivery that reached
- 2:02:30Speaker 1: me was three weeks ago. These are these subsequent accumulations.
- 2:02:35Speaker 1: Four telegrams a week old. He opens one, Oh who
- 2:02:40Speaker 1: bad news, Raina rising and advancing a little remorsefully bad
- 2:02:47Speaker 1: news Blunchley, my father's dead. He looks at the telegram
- 2:02:53Speaker 1: with his lips pursed, musing on the unexpected change in
- 2:02:57Speaker 1: his arrangements. Raina, Oh, how very sad Blunchley. Yes, I
- 2:03:03Speaker 1: shall have to start for home in an hour. He
- 2:03:06Speaker 1: has left a lot of big hotels behind him to
- 2:03:09Speaker 1: be looked after. Takes up a heavy letter in a
- 2:03:12Speaker 1: long blue envelope. Here's a whacking letter from the family solicitor.
- 2:03:18Speaker 1: He pulls out the enclosures and glances over them. Great
- 2:03:22Speaker 1: heavens seventy two hundred, in a crescendo of dismay, four hundred,
- 2:03:29Speaker 1: four thousand, nine thousand, six hundred, What on earth shall
- 2:03:34Speaker 1: I do with them all? Reina timidly nine thousand hotels,
- 2:03:41Speaker 1: Blunchley hotels, nonsense, if you only knew. Oh it's too ridiculous.
- 2:03:47Speaker 1: Excuse me, I must give my fellow orders about starting.
- 2:03:51Speaker 1: He leaves the room hastily with the documents in his hand,
- 2:03:55Speaker 1: Luca taunting ling he has not much heart, that's Swiss.
- 2:04:00Speaker 1: Though he is so fond of the Servians, he has
- 2:04:03Speaker 1: not a word of grief for his poor father. Raina
- 2:04:07Speaker 1: bitterly grief. A man who has been doing nothing but
- 2:04:12Speaker 1: killing people for years? What does he care? What does
- 2:04:15Speaker 1: any soldier care? She goes to the door, evidently restraining
- 2:04:20Speaker 1: her tears with difficulty. Luka, major Soaranov has been fighting too,
- 2:04:26Speaker 1: and he has plenty of heart left. Raina at the door,
- 2:04:29Speaker 1: looks haughtily at her and goes out. Ah, I thought
- 2:04:34Speaker 1: you wouldn't get much feeling out of your soldier. She
- 2:04:38Speaker 1: is following Rena when Nikola comes with an armful of
- 2:04:41Speaker 1: logs for the fire. Nikola, grinning amorously at her, I've
- 2:04:47Speaker 1: been trying all the afternoon to get a minute alone
- 2:04:49Speaker 1: with you, my girl. His countenance changes as he notices
- 2:04:54Speaker 1: her arm Why what fashion is that of wearing your sleeve, child,
- 2:05:00Speaker 1: Luca proudly my own fashion, Nikola. Indeed, if the mistress
- 2:05:07Speaker 1: catches you, she'll talk to you. He throws the logs
- 2:05:10Speaker 1: down on the ottoman and sits comfortably beside them. Luca,
- 2:05:15Speaker 1: is that any reason why you should take it on
- 2:05:17Speaker 1: yourself to talk to me? Nicola? Calm, don't be so
- 2:05:22Speaker 1: contrary with me. I've some good news for you. He
- 2:05:26Speaker 1: takes out some paper money. Luca, with an eager gleam
- 2:05:30Speaker 1: in her eyes, comes close to look at it. See
- 2:05:34Speaker 1: a twenty live bill. Sergius gave me that out of
- 2:05:37Speaker 1: pure swagger. A fool and his money are soon parted.
- 2:05:42Speaker 1: There's tim leave us more. The Swiss gave me that
- 2:05:45Speaker 1: for backing up the mistresses, and rain Is lies about him.
- 2:05:49Speaker 1: He's no fool, he isn't. You should have heard old
- 2:05:53Speaker 1: Catherine downstairs, as polite as you please, to me, telling
- 2:05:57Speaker 1: me not to mind the major being a little patient,
- 2:06:00Speaker 1: for they knew what a good servant I was, after
- 2:06:03Speaker 1: making a fool and a liar of me before them.
- 2:06:06Speaker 1: All the twenty will go to our savings, and you
- 2:06:10Speaker 1: shall have the ten to spend, if you'll only talk
- 2:06:13Speaker 1: to me so as to remind me I'm a human being.
- 2:06:16Speaker 1: I get tired of being a servant occasionally, Luca scornfully. Yes,
- 2:06:23Speaker 1: sell your manhood for thirty lev us and buy me
- 2:06:27Speaker 1: for ten. Keep your money. You were born to be
- 2:06:31Speaker 1: a servant. I was not. When you set up your shop.
- 2:06:35Speaker 1: You will only be everybody's servant instead of somebody's servant.
- 2:06:39Speaker 1: Nikola picking up his logs and going to the stove. Ah,
- 2:06:44Speaker 1: wait till you see. We shall have our evenings to ourselves,
- 2:06:48Speaker 1: and I shall be master in my own house, I
- 2:06:51Speaker 1: promise you. He throws the logs down and kneels at
- 2:06:55Speaker 1: the stove. Luca, you shall never be master in mind,
- 2:07:00Speaker 1: and she sits down on Sergeus's chair, Nikola turning still
- 2:07:05Speaker 1: on his knees and squatting down rather forlornly on his calves,
- 2:07:09Speaker 1: daunted by her implacable disdain. You have a great ambition
- 2:07:14Speaker 1: in you, Luca. Remember if any luck comes to you,
- 2:07:17Speaker 1: it was I that made a woman of you, Luca,
- 2:07:22Speaker 1: you Nikola with dogged self assertion. Yes, me? Who was it?
- 2:07:28Speaker 1: Made you? Give up wearing a couple of pounds of
- 2:07:31Speaker 1: false black hair on your head and reddening your lips
- 2:07:34Speaker 1: and cheeks like any other Bulgarian girl? I did? Who
- 2:07:39Speaker 1: taught you to trim your nails and keep your hands
- 2:07:41Speaker 1: clean and be dainty about yourself like a fine Russian lady? Me?
- 2:07:47Speaker 1: Do you hear that? Me? She tosses her head defiantly,
- 2:07:51Speaker 1: and he rises ill humoredly, adding more coolly, I've often
- 2:07:56Speaker 1: thought that if Rhena were out of the way, and
- 2:07:59Speaker 1: you just a little less of a fool, and surge
- 2:08:03Speaker 1: Us just a little more of one, you might come
- 2:08:05Speaker 1: to be one of my grandest customers instead of only
- 2:08:08Speaker 1: being my wife and costing me money. Luca, I believe
- 2:08:14Speaker 1: you would rather be my servant than my husband. You
- 2:08:17Speaker 1: would make more out of me. Oh, I know that
- 2:08:20Speaker 1: soul of yours, Nikola going up close to her for
- 2:08:24Speaker 1: greater emphasis. Never you mind my soul, but just listen
- 2:08:30Speaker 1: to my advice. If you want to be a lady,
- 2:08:33Speaker 1: your present behavior to me won't do it all a
- 2:08:37Speaker 1: less when we are alone. It's too sharp and impudent,
- 2:08:41Speaker 1: and impudence is a sort of familiarity. It shows affection
- 2:08:45Speaker 1: for me. And don't you try being high and mighty
- 2:08:49Speaker 1: with me either. You're like all country girls. You think
- 2:08:53Speaker 1: it's genteel to treat a servant the way I treat
- 2:08:55Speaker 1: a stable boy. That's only your ignorance. And don't you
- 2:09:00Speaker 1: get it. Don't be so ready to defy everybody. Act
- 2:09:04Speaker 1: as if you expected to have your own way, not
- 2:09:07Speaker 1: as if you expected to be ordered about. The way
- 2:09:10Speaker 1: to get on as a lady is the same as
- 2:09:12Speaker 1: the way to get on as a servant. You've got
- 2:09:15Speaker 1: to know your place, that's the secret of it. And
- 2:09:19Speaker 1: you may depend on me to know my place if
- 2:09:21Speaker 1: you get promoted. Think it over, my girl, I'll stand
- 2:09:25Speaker 1: by you. One servant should always stand by another, Luca,
- 2:09:30Speaker 1: rising impatiently. Oh, I must behave in my own way.
- 2:09:36Speaker 1: You take all the courage out of me with your
- 2:09:38Speaker 1: cold blooded wisdom. Go and put those logs on the fire.
- 2:09:42Speaker 1: That's the sort of thing you understand. Before Nikola can retort,
- 2:09:47Speaker 1: Sergius comes in. He checks himself a moment on seeing Luca,
- 2:09:51Speaker 1: then goes to the stove. Sergius to Nikola, I am
- 2:09:57Speaker 1: not in the way of your work, I hope glaw
- 2:10:00Speaker 1: in a smooth, elderly manner. Oh no, sir, thank you kindly.
- 2:10:05Speaker 1: I was only speaking to this foolish girl about her
- 2:10:08Speaker 1: habit of running up here to the library whenever she
- 2:10:10Speaker 1: gets a chance to look at the books. That's the
- 2:10:13Speaker 1: worst of her education, sir. It gives her habits above
- 2:10:16Speaker 1: her station. To Luca, make that table tidy, Luca for
- 2:10:20Speaker 1: the major He goes out sedately. Luca, without looking at Sergius,
- 2:10:25Speaker 1: begins to arrange the papers on the table. He crosses
- 2:10:29Speaker 1: slowly to her and studies the arrangement of her sleeve reflectively. Sergius,
- 2:10:35Speaker 1: let me see, is there a mark there? He turns
- 2:10:39Speaker 1: up the bracelet and sees the bruise made by his grasp.
- 2:10:43Speaker 1: She stands motionless, not looking at him, fascinated, but on
- 2:10:47Speaker 1: her guard. Who does it hurt, Luca? Yes, Sergius, Shall
- 2:10:55Speaker 1: I cure it? Luca instantly, withdrawing herself proudly, but still
- 2:11:00Speaker 1: not looking at him. No, you cannot cure it now,
- 2:11:05Speaker 1: Sergius masterfully, quite sure, He makes a movement as if
- 2:11:11Speaker 1: to take her in his arms. Luca, don't trifle with me, please.
- 2:11:16Speaker 1: An officer should not trifle with a servant. Sergius, touching
- 2:11:21Speaker 1: the arm with a merciless stroke of his forefinger. That
- 2:11:25Speaker 1: was no trifle, Luca, Luca, no, looking at him for
- 2:11:30Speaker 1: the first time. Are you sorry, Sergius with measured emphasis,
- 2:11:35Speaker 1: folding his arms. I am never sorry, Luca wistfully. I
- 2:11:43Speaker 1: wish I could believe a man could be so unlike
- 2:11:46Speaker 1: a woman as that. I wonder, are you really a
- 2:11:49Speaker 1: brave man? Sergius, unaffectedly, relaxing his attitude. Yes, I am
- 2:11:56Speaker 1: a brave man. My heart jumped like a woman at
- 2:12:00Speaker 1: the first shot. But in the charge I found that
- 2:12:03Speaker 1: I was brave. Yes, that at least is real about me. Luca.
- 2:12:10Speaker 1: Did you find in the charge that the men whose
- 2:12:12Speaker 1: fathers are poor like mine were any less brave than
- 2:12:16Speaker 1: the men who are rich like you, Sergius, with bitter levity,
- 2:12:20Speaker 1: not a bit. They all slashed and cursed and yelled
- 2:12:25Speaker 1: like heroes. Pshah. The courage to rage and kill is cheap.
- 2:12:31Speaker 1: I have an English bull terrier who has as much
- 2:12:33Speaker 1: of that sort of courage as the whole Bulgarian nation
- 2:12:37Speaker 1: and the whole Russian nation at its back. But he
- 2:12:40Speaker 1: lets my groom thrash him all the same. That's your
- 2:12:44Speaker 1: soldier all over. No, Luca, your poor men can cut throats,
- 2:12:49Speaker 1: but they are afraid of their officers. They put up
- 2:12:52Speaker 1: with insults and blows. They stand by and see one
- 2:12:56Speaker 1: another punished like children. Aye, and help to do it
- 2:12:59Speaker 1: when they are ordered, And the officers well with a
- 2:13:04Speaker 1: short bitter laugh. I am an officer. Oh, fervently, give
- 2:13:09Speaker 1: me the man who will defy to the death any
- 2:13:13Speaker 1: power or on earth or in Heaven, that sets hisself
- 2:13:15Speaker 1: up against his own will and conscience. He alone is
- 2:13:19Speaker 1: the brave man, Luca, How easy it is to talk.
- 2:13:25Speaker 1: Men never seem to me to grow up. They all
- 2:13:28Speaker 1: have schoolboy's ideas. You don't know what true courage is
- 2:13:33Speaker 1: Sergius ironically Indeed, I am willing to be instructed, Luca.
- 2:13:40Speaker 1: Look at me. How much am I allowed to have
- 2:13:44Speaker 1: my own? Will? I have to get your room ready
- 2:13:47Speaker 1: for you to sweep in dust, to fetch and carry.
- 2:13:51Speaker 1: How could that degrade me? If it did not degrade
- 2:13:54Speaker 1: you to have it done for you but with subdued passion.
- 2:13:59Speaker 1: If I were Empress of Russia above everyone in the world,
- 2:14:03Speaker 1: then ah, then though according to you, I could show
- 2:14:08Speaker 1: no courage at all. You should see you should see, Sergius,
- 2:14:15Speaker 1: what would you do, most noble Empress, Luca? I would
- 2:14:20Speaker 1: marry the man I loved, which no other queen in
- 2:14:24Speaker 1: Europe has the courage to do. If I loved you,
- 2:14:28Speaker 1: though you would be as far beneath me as I
- 2:14:30Speaker 1: am beneath you, I would dare to be the equal
- 2:14:34Speaker 1: of my inferior. Would you dare as much if you
- 2:14:37Speaker 1: loved me? No, if you felt the beginnings of love
- 2:14:41Speaker 1: for me, you would not let it grow. You dare
- 2:14:45Speaker 1: not You would marry a rich man, said daughter, because
- 2:14:49Speaker 1: you would be afraid of what other people would say
- 2:14:51Speaker 1: of you. Sergius carried away you lie. It is not so,
- 2:14:58Speaker 1: by all the stars. If I loved you, and I
- 2:15:01Speaker 1: with the Tsar of Russia himself, I would set you
- 2:15:04Speaker 1: on the throne by my side. You know that I
- 2:15:06Speaker 1: love another woman, a woman as high above you as
- 2:15:10Speaker 1: heaven is above earth, and you are jealous of her, Luca,
- 2:15:16Speaker 1: I have no reason to be. She will never marry you.
- 2:15:19Speaker 1: Now the man I told you of has comeback. She
- 2:15:23Speaker 1: will marry the Swiss, Sergius recalling the Swiss, Luca, a
- 2:15:30Speaker 1: man worth ten of you. Then you can come to me,
- 2:15:35Speaker 1: and I will refuse you. You are not good enough
- 2:15:37Speaker 1: for me. She turns to the door, Sergius springing after
- 2:15:42Speaker 1: her and catching her fiercely in his arms. I will
- 2:15:45Speaker 1: kill the Swiss, and afterwards I will do as I
- 2:15:48Speaker 1: please with you, Luca in his arms, passive and steadfast,
- 2:15:54Speaker 1: the Swiss will kill you. Perhaps he has beaten you
- 2:15:57Speaker 1: in love, he may beat you in war, Sergius tormentedly.
- 2:16:03Speaker 1: Do you think I believe that she, she whose worst
- 2:16:08Speaker 1: thoughts are higher than your best ones, is capable of
- 2:16:11Speaker 1: trifling with another man behind my back? Luca? Do you
- 2:16:16Speaker 1: think she would believe the Swiss if he told her
- 2:16:19Speaker 1: now that I am in your arms? Sergius releasing her
- 2:16:24Speaker 1: in despair, damnation, Oh, damnation. Mockery, mockery everywhere. Everything I
- 2:16:32Speaker 1: think is mocked by everything I do. He strikes himself
- 2:16:36Speaker 1: frantically on the breast. Coward, liar, fool. Shall I kill
- 2:16:42Speaker 1: myself like a man, or live and pretend to laugh
- 2:16:45Speaker 1: at myself? She again turns to go, Luga. She stops
- 2:16:51Speaker 1: near the door. Remember you belong to me, Luca quietly,
- 2:16:58Speaker 1: what does that mean? And insult Sergius commandingly. It means
- 2:17:04Speaker 1: that you love me, and that I have had you
- 2:17:07Speaker 1: here in my arms, and will perhaps have you there again.
- 2:17:11Speaker 1: Whether that is an insult, I neither know nor care.
- 2:17:14Speaker 1: Take it as you please, but vehemently I will not
- 2:17:18Speaker 1: be a coward and a trifler. If I choose to
- 2:17:22Speaker 1: love you, I dare marry you in spite of all bulgaria.
- 2:17:27Speaker 1: If these hands ever touch you again, they shall touch
- 2:17:31Speaker 1: my affianced bride, Luca. We shall see whether you dare
- 2:17:36Speaker 1: keep your word, but take care. I will not wait long, Sergius, again,
- 2:17:43Speaker 1: folding his arms and standing motionless in the middle of
- 2:17:46Speaker 1: the room. Yes, we shall see, and you shall wait
- 2:17:50Speaker 1: my pleasure. Blunchly, much preoccupied with his paper still in
- 2:17:55Speaker 1: his hand, enters, leaving the door open for Luca to
- 2:17:58Speaker 1: go out. He goes across to the table, glancing at
- 2:18:02Speaker 1: her as he passes. Sergius without altering his resolute attitude,
- 2:18:07Speaker 1: watches him steadily. Luca goes out, leaving the door open.
- 2:18:12Speaker 1: Blenchley absently sitting at the table as before and putting
- 2:18:16Speaker 1: down his papers. That's a remarkable looking young woman, Sergius gravely,
- 2:18:22Speaker 1: without moving, Captain Blenchlely Blnchley, Eh, Sergius, you have deceived me.
- 2:18:32Speaker 1: You are my rival. I brook no rivals. At six o'clock,
- 2:18:38Speaker 1: I shall be in the drilling ground on the Glesora Road, alone,
- 2:18:42Speaker 1: on horseback, with my saber. Do you understand Blunchley staring
- 2:18:49Speaker 1: but sitting quite at his ease. Oh, thank you, that's
- 2:18:53Speaker 1: a cowalrymn's proposal. I'm in the artillery, and I have
- 2:18:57Speaker 1: the choice of weapons. If I go, I shall take
- 2:19:00Speaker 1: a machine gun, and there shall be no mistake about
- 2:19:03Speaker 1: the cartridges. This time Sergius flushing, but with deadly coldness.
- 2:19:09Speaker 1: Take care, sir. It is not our custom in Bulgaria
- 2:19:13Speaker 1: to allow invitations of that kind to be trifled with.
- 2:19:17Speaker 1: Blunchley warmly, pooh, don't talk to me about Bulgaria. You
- 2:19:22Speaker 1: don't know what fighting is, but have it your own way.
- 2:19:26Speaker 1: Bring your saber along. I'll meet you. Sergius fiercely delighted
- 2:19:32Speaker 1: to find his opponent a man of spirit, well said Switzer.
- 2:19:36Speaker 1: Shall I lend you my best horse, Blunchley, No, damn
- 2:19:41Speaker 1: your horse. Thank you all the same, my dear fellow.
- 2:19:44Speaker 1: Raina comes in and here's the next sentence. I shall
- 2:19:47Speaker 1: fight you on foot. Horseback's too dangerous. I don't want
- 2:19:51Speaker 1: to kill you if I can help it. Raina hurrying
- 2:19:55Speaker 1: forward anxiously, I have heard what Captain Blenchley said, Sergius.
- 2:20:00Speaker 1: You are going to fight? Why? Sergius turns away in
- 2:20:04Speaker 1: silence and goes to the stove, where he stands watching
- 2:20:07Speaker 1: her as she continues to Blunchly. What about Blunchley, I
- 2:20:13Speaker 1: don't know. He hasn't told me. Better not interfere, dear
- 2:20:16Speaker 1: young lady. No harm will be done. I've often acted
- 2:20:20Speaker 1: as sword instructor. He won't be able to touch me,
- 2:20:23Speaker 1: and I'll not hurt him. It will save explanations. In
- 2:20:27Speaker 1: the morning, I shall be off home and you'll never
- 2:20:29Speaker 1: see me or hear of me again. You and he
- 2:20:32Speaker 1: will then make it up and live happily. Ever after,
- 2:20:35Speaker 1: Raina turning away deeply hurt, almost with a sob in
- 2:20:39Speaker 1: her voice. I never said I wanted to see you again, Sergius,
- 2:20:45Speaker 1: striding forward. Ah, that is a confession, Reina, haughtily, What
- 2:20:52Speaker 1: do you mean, Sergius? You love that man, Raina, scandalized Sergius, Sergius,
- 2:21:03Speaker 1: you allow him to make love to you behind my back,
- 2:21:07Speaker 1: just as you accept me as your affianced husband behind
- 2:21:11Speaker 1: his Blnchly. You knew our relations and you deceived me.
- 2:21:17Speaker 1: It is for that that I call you to account,
- 2:21:19Speaker 1: not for having received favors that I never enjoyed. Blnchley
- 2:21:23Speaker 1: jumping up indignantly, stuff rubbish. I received no favors. Why
- 2:21:30Speaker 1: the young lady doesn't even know whether I'm married or not? Raina?
- 2:21:34Speaker 1: Forgetting herself, Oh, collapsing on the ottoman. Are you, Sergius?
- 2:21:42Speaker 1: You see the young lady's concern. Captain Blenchley, denial is useless.
- 2:21:47Speaker 1: You have enjoyed the privilege of being received in her
- 2:21:50Speaker 1: own room late at night, Blenchley, interrupting him peperily, Yes,
- 2:21:55Speaker 1: you blockhead, she received me with a pistol at her head.
- 2:22:00Speaker 1: Your cavalry were at my heels. I'd have blown out
- 2:22:03Speaker 1: her brains if she'd uttered a cry. Sergius taken aback Bluchley.
- 2:22:09Speaker 1: RAINA is this true? Raina rising in wrathful majesty? Oh,
- 2:22:15Speaker 1: how dare you? How dare you? Blnchley apologized, man, apologize?
- 2:22:23Speaker 1: He resumes his seat at the table, Sergius with the
- 2:22:26Speaker 1: old measured emphasis, folding his arms. I never apologize, Raina, passionately.
- 2:22:36Speaker 1: This is the doing of that friend of yours, Captain Blinchley.
- 2:22:40Speaker 1: It is he who is spreading this horrible story about me.
- 2:22:44Speaker 1: She walks about excitedly Blnchley. No, he's dead, burnt alive, Raina, stopping, shocked,
- 2:22:53Speaker 1: burnt alive. Blunchley shot in the hip in a woodyard,
- 2:22:58Speaker 1: couldn't drag himself at your fellow's shells, set the timber
- 2:23:03Speaker 1: on fire, and burnt him with half a dozen other
- 2:23:05Speaker 1: poor devils. In the same predicament, RAINA, how horrible, Sergius,
- 2:23:12Speaker 1: and how ridiculous a war? War? The dream of patriots
- 2:23:16Speaker 1: and heroes? A fraud, Blenchley, A hollow sham like love,
- 2:23:22Speaker 1: Raina outraged like love? You say that before me, Blenchley,
- 2:23:30Speaker 1: Come sadan Off. That matter is explained, Sergius, a hollow sham,
- 2:23:37Speaker 1: I say, would you have come back here if nothing
- 2:23:41Speaker 1: had passed between you? Except that the muzzle of your pistol.
- 2:23:45Speaker 1: Raina is mistaken about our friend who was burnt. He
- 2:23:49Speaker 1: was not my informant, Raina, who then suddenly guessing the truth. Ah, Luca,
- 2:23:58Speaker 1: my maid, you were with her this morning, all that
- 2:24:03Speaker 1: time after Oh what sort of god is this? I
- 2:24:08Speaker 1: have been worshiping? He meets her gaze with sardonic enjoyment
- 2:24:12Speaker 1: of her disenchantment angered all the more, she goes closer
- 2:24:16Speaker 1: to him and says, in a lower intenser tone, do
- 2:24:20Speaker 1: you know that I looked out of the window as
- 2:24:23Speaker 1: I went upstairs to have another sight of my hero,
- 2:24:27Speaker 1: and I saw something that I did not understand? Then?
- 2:24:31Speaker 1: I know now that you were making love to her, Sergius,
- 2:24:36Speaker 1: with grim humor, You saw that Raina only too well.
- 2:24:43Speaker 1: She turns away and throws herself on the divan under
- 2:24:47Speaker 1: the center window. Quite overcome, Sergius, Cynically, Reina, our romance
- 2:24:54Speaker 1: is shattered, life safe force blunchley to Reina, humoredly, you
- 2:25:01Speaker 1: see he's found himself out now, Sergius, Blenchley, I have
- 2:25:06Speaker 1: allowed you to call me a blockhead. You may now
- 2:25:09Speaker 1: call me a coward as well. I refuse to fight you.
- 2:25:13Speaker 1: Do you know why, Blenchley, No, but it doesn't matter.
- 2:25:19Speaker 1: I didn't ask the reason when you cried on, and
- 2:25:21Speaker 1: I don't ask the reason now that you cry off.
- 2:25:25Speaker 1: I'm a professional soldier. I fight when I have to,
- 2:25:29Speaker 1: and am very glad to get out of it when
- 2:25:31Speaker 1: I haven't too. You're only an amateur. You think fighting
- 2:25:35Speaker 1: is an amusement. Sergius, you shall hear the reason all
- 2:25:41Speaker 1: the same, my professional. The reason is that it takes
- 2:25:45Speaker 1: two men, real men, men of heart, blood and honor,
- 2:25:49Speaker 1: to make a genuine combat. I could no more fight
- 2:25:53Speaker 1: with you than I could make love to an ugly woman.
- 2:25:57Speaker 1: You've no magnetism. You're not a man. You're a machine,
- 2:26:02Speaker 1: Blunchley apologetically, quite true, Quite true. I always was that
- 2:26:08Speaker 1: sort of chap. I'm very sorry. But now that you've
- 2:26:11Speaker 1: found that life isn't a force but something quite sensible
- 2:26:15Speaker 1: and serious, what further obstacle is there to your happiness?
- 2:26:20Speaker 1: Raina riling. You are very solicitous about my happiness and his?
- 2:26:26Speaker 1: Do you forget his new love? Luca? It is not
- 2:26:30Speaker 1: you that he must fight now, but his rival, Nicola.
- 2:26:34Speaker 1: Sergius rival, striking his forehead, Raina. Did you not know
- 2:26:40Speaker 1: that they are engaged? Sergius Nicola? Our fresh abysses opening Nicola,
- 2:26:50Speaker 1: Raina sarcastically, A shocking sacrifice. Isn't it such beauty, such intellect,
- 2:26:56Speaker 1: such modesty wasted on a middle a servant man. Really, Sergius,
- 2:27:03Speaker 1: you cannot stand by and allow such a thing. It
- 2:27:06Speaker 1: would be unworthy of your chivalry. Sergius losing all self control,
- 2:27:12Speaker 1: viper viper. He rushes to and fro raging Blenchley. Look here,
- 2:27:19Speaker 1: sir Ronolf, you're getting the worst of this, Raina getting angry.
- 2:27:24Speaker 1: Do you realize what he has done? Captain Blenchley? He
- 2:27:28Speaker 1: has set this girl as a spy on us, and
- 2:27:31Speaker 1: her reward is that he makes love to her. Sergius, false, monstrous,
- 2:27:38Speaker 1: Raina monstrous, confronting him. Do you deny that she told
- 2:27:44Speaker 1: you about Captain Blenchley being in my room? Sergius? No,
- 2:27:48Speaker 1: but Raina interrupting. Do you deny that you were making
- 2:27:53Speaker 1: love to her when she told you? Sergius, No, but
- 2:27:57Speaker 1: I tell you, Raina, cutting him sharp contentemptuously It is
- 2:28:01Speaker 1: unnecessary to tell us anything more. That is quite enough
- 2:28:06Speaker 1: for us. She turns her back on him and sweeps
- 2:28:09Speaker 1: majestically back to the window. Blunchley quietly as Sergius, in
- 2:28:15Speaker 1: an agony of mortifications, sinks on the ottoman, clutching his
- 2:28:18Speaker 1: averted head between his fists. I told you you were
- 2:28:22Speaker 1: getting the worst of its Saranov Sergius, tiger cat Reina
- 2:28:31Speaker 1: running excitedly to Blunchley. You hear this man calling me
- 2:28:35Speaker 1: names Captain Blunchley. Blunchley, what else can he do? Dear lady,
- 2:28:41Speaker 1: He must offend himself somehow, calm, very persuasively. Don't quarrel?
- 2:28:48Speaker 1: What good does it do? Reina, with a gasp, sits
- 2:28:51Speaker 1: down on the ottoman, and after a vain effort to
- 2:28:55Speaker 1: look vexedly at Blunchley, she follows a victim to her
- 2:28:58Speaker 1: own sense of humor and is attack with a disposition
- 2:29:01Speaker 1: to laugh. Sergius, engaged to Nicola, he rises ha going
- 2:29:10Speaker 1: to the stove and standing with his back to it. Ah, well, Blenchley,
- 2:29:15Speaker 1: you are right to take this huge imposture of a
- 2:29:18Speaker 1: world coolly Raina too, Bluchly with an intuitive guest at
- 2:29:23Speaker 1: his state of mind, I dare say you think us
- 2:29:26Speaker 1: a couple of grown up babies, don't you, Sergius grinning
- 2:29:31Speaker 1: a little? He does, He does, Swiss civilization nurse tending
- 2:29:36Speaker 1: bulgarian barbarism a Bluchley blushing not at all, I assure you,
- 2:29:43Speaker 1: I'm only very glad to get you too quieted there. Now,
- 2:29:47Speaker 1: let's be pleasant and talk it over in a friendly way.
- 2:29:50Speaker 1: Where is this other young lady Raina listening at the door,
- 2:29:55Speaker 1: probably Sergius, shivering as if a bullet had struck him,
- 2:29:59Speaker 1: and speaking with quiet but deep indignation. I will prove
- 2:30:04Speaker 1: that that, at least is a calumny. He goes with
- 2:30:08Speaker 1: dignity to the door and opens it. A yell of
- 2:30:11Speaker 1: fury bursts from him as he looks out. He darts
- 2:30:14Speaker 1: into the passage and returns, dragging in Luca, whom he
- 2:30:18Speaker 1: flings against the table right as he cries, judge her, Blunchly,
- 2:30:24Speaker 1: you the moderate, cautious man, judge the eavesdropper. Luca stands
- 2:30:29Speaker 1: her ground, proud and silent, Blunchly shaking his head. I
- 2:30:35Speaker 1: mustn't judge her. I once listened to myself outside a
- 2:30:40Speaker 1: tent when there was the mutiny brewing It's all a
- 2:30:42Speaker 1: question of the degree of provocation. My life was at stake, Luca,
- 2:30:48Speaker 1: My love was at stake. Sergius flinches, ashamed of her,
- 2:30:53Speaker 1: in spite of himself. I am not ashamed, Raina, contemptuously
- 2:30:58Speaker 1: your love, your curiosity, you mean Luca facing her and
- 2:31:04Speaker 1: retorting her contempt with interest. My love stronger than anything
- 2:31:10Speaker 1: you can feel, even for your chocolate creamed soldier. Sergius
- 2:31:15Speaker 1: with quick suspicion to Luca. What does that mean, Luca fiercely.
- 2:31:21Speaker 1: It means Sergius interrupting her slightly. Oh, I remember the
- 2:31:26Speaker 1: ice pudding. A paltry taunt girl. Major pet Cough enterests
- 2:31:30Speaker 1: in his shirt sleeves. Pet Cough, excuse my shirt sleeves, gentlemen, Raina,
- 2:31:36Speaker 1: somebody has been wearing this coat of mine. I'll swear it,
- 2:31:40Speaker 1: somebody with bigger shoulders than mine. It's all burst open
- 2:31:43Speaker 1: at the back. Your mother is mending it. I wish
- 2:31:47Speaker 1: she'd make haste. I shall catch cold. He looks more
- 2:31:50Speaker 1: attentively at them. Is anything the matter, Raina? No. She
- 2:31:57Speaker 1: sits down at the stove with a tranquil air. Sergius,
- 2:32:01Speaker 1: oh no, he sits down at the end of the
- 2:32:04Speaker 1: table as at first Blunchley, who is already seated. Nothing nothing, Petkough,
- 2:32:13Speaker 1: sitting down on the ottoman in its old place. That's
- 2:32:16Speaker 1: all right, he notices Luca. Anything the matter, Luca, Luca, No,
- 2:32:22Speaker 1: sir pet Cough, genially, that's all right, he sneezes. Go
- 2:32:29Speaker 1: and ask your mistress for my coat, like a good girl,
- 2:32:31Speaker 1: will you. She turns to obey, but Nikola enters with
- 2:32:35Speaker 1: the coat, and she makes the pretense of having business
- 2:32:38Speaker 1: in the room by taking the little table with the
- 2:32:40Speaker 1: hookah away to the wall near the windows. Raina rising
- 2:32:45Speaker 1: quickly as she sees the coat on Nikola's arm. Here
- 2:32:48Speaker 1: it is, Papa. Give it to me, Nikola, and do
- 2:32:50Speaker 1: you put some more wood on the fire. She takes
- 2:32:53Speaker 1: the coat and brings it to the Major, who stands
- 2:32:56Speaker 1: up to put it on. Nikola attends to the fire.
- 2:33:00Speaker 1: Pet Cough to Raina, teasing her affectionately, Aha, going to
- 2:33:05Speaker 1: be very good to poor old Papa, just for one
- 2:33:07Speaker 1: day after his return from the wars A Raina with
- 2:33:12Speaker 1: solemn reproach. Oh, how can you say that to me,
- 2:33:15Speaker 1: father pet Cough, Well, well, only a joke, little one.
- 2:33:20Speaker 1: Come give me a kiss. She kisses him. Now give
- 2:33:24Speaker 1: me the coat, Raina. Now I am going to put
- 2:33:28Speaker 1: it on for you. Turn your back. He turns his
- 2:33:31Speaker 1: back and feels behind him with his arms for the sleeves.
- 2:33:35Speaker 1: She dexterously takes the photograph from the pocket and throws
- 2:33:38Speaker 1: it on the table before Blenchley, who covers it with
- 2:33:41Speaker 1: a sheet of paper under the very nose of Sergius,
- 2:33:44Speaker 1: who looks on, amazed with his suspicions. Roused in the
- 2:33:48Speaker 1: highest degree, she then helps pet Cough on with his coat. There, dear,
- 2:33:53Speaker 1: now are you comfortable? Pet cough quite little love? Thanks,
- 2:33:59Speaker 1: he said, down, and Raina returns to her seat near
- 2:34:02Speaker 1: the stove. Oh, by the bye, I've found something funny.
- 2:34:07Speaker 1: What's the meaning of this? He puts his hand into
- 2:34:11Speaker 1: the picked pocket. Eh, hello. He tries the other pocket, Well,
- 2:34:17Speaker 1: I could have sworn much puzzled, he tries the breast pocket,
- 2:34:22Speaker 1: I wonder, tries the original pocket. Where can it? A
- 2:34:27Speaker 1: light flashes on him. He rises, exclaiming, your mother's taking it, Raina,
- 2:34:34Speaker 1: very red taken. What pet Cough your photograph with the inscription?
- 2:34:41Speaker 1: Raina to her chocolate cream soldier a souvenir. Now you
- 2:34:46Speaker 1: know there's something more in this than meets the eye,
- 2:34:48Speaker 1: and I'm going to find it out, shouting Nickola, Nicola
- 2:34:53Speaker 1: dropping a log and turning, Sir pet Cough, did you
- 2:34:58Speaker 1: spoil any pastry of mis this morning? Nikola? You heard
- 2:35:03Speaker 1: Miss rain say that I did, Sir Petcough, I know that,
- 2:35:07Speaker 1: you idiot. Was it true, Nicola? I am sure Miss
- 2:35:12Speaker 1: Raina is incapable of saying anything that is not true,
- 2:35:15Speaker 1: Sir pet Cough, Are you then? I'm not turning to
- 2:35:21Speaker 1: the others? Calm? Do you think I don't see it all?
- 2:35:26Speaker 1: Goes to Sergius and slaps him on the shoulder. Sergius,
- 2:35:30Speaker 1: you're the chocolate cream soldier, aren't you, Sergius standing up,
- 2:35:36Speaker 1: I a chocolate cream soldier. Certainly not Petkoff not. He
- 2:35:43Speaker 1: looks at them. They are all very serious and very
- 2:35:46Speaker 1: re conscious. Do you mean to tell me that Raina
- 2:35:50Speaker 1: sends photographic souvenirs to other men? Sergius enigmatically. The world
- 2:35:58Speaker 1: is not such an innocent place as we used to think.
- 2:36:00Speaker 1: Pet Cough Bletchley rising, It's all right, Major, I'm the
- 2:36:06Speaker 1: chocolate cream soldier. Pet Cough and Sergius are equally astonished.
- 2:36:12Speaker 1: The gracious young lady saved my life by giving me
- 2:36:15Speaker 1: chocolate creams when I was starving. Shall I ever forget
- 2:36:19Speaker 1: their flavor? My late friend Stoles told you the story
- 2:36:23Speaker 1: at Pirot, I was the fugitive. Pet Cough you, he gasps, Sergius,
- 2:36:32Speaker 1: do you remember how those two women went on this
- 2:36:35Speaker 1: morning when we mentioned it? Sergius smiles cynically. Pet Cough
- 2:36:40Speaker 1: confronts Rhnea severely. You're a nice young woman, aren't you?
- 2:36:46Speaker 1: Raina bitterly Major Saranov has changed his mind. And when
- 2:36:52Speaker 1: I wrote that on the photograph, I did not know
- 2:36:55Speaker 1: that Captain Blenchley was married. Blenchley much startled, protesting vehemently,
- 2:37:01Speaker 1: I'm not married, Reina, with deep reproach, you said you
- 2:37:06Speaker 1: were Blunchley. I did not. I positively did not. I
- 2:37:11Speaker 1: never was married in my life. Petkof, exasperated Reina, will
- 2:37:18Speaker 1: you kindly inform me, if I am not asking too much,
- 2:37:21Speaker 1: which gentleman you are engaged to, Reina? To neither of them.
- 2:37:28Speaker 1: This young lady introducing Luca, who faces them all proudly,
- 2:37:33Speaker 1: is the object of Major Saranov's affections at present. Petkough, Luca,
- 2:37:40Speaker 1: are you mad? Sergius? Why this girl's engaged to Nikola.
- 2:37:47Speaker 1: Nicola coming forward, I beg your pardon, sir, there is
- 2:37:51Speaker 1: a mistake. Luca is not engaged to me, Petkough, not
- 2:37:57Speaker 1: engaged to you. You scount why you had twenty five
- 2:38:02Speaker 1: leave us from me on the day of your betrothal.
- 2:38:05Speaker 1: And she had that guilt bracelet from Miss rain Nicola
- 2:38:09Speaker 1: with cool unction. We gave it out, so sir, but
- 2:38:14Speaker 1: it was only to give Luca protection. She had a
- 2:38:17Speaker 1: soul above her station, and I have been no more
- 2:38:20Speaker 1: than her confidential servant. I intend, as you know, Sir,
- 2:38:24Speaker 1: to set up a shop later on in Sophia, and
- 2:38:27Speaker 1: I look forward to her custom and recommendation should she
- 2:38:30Speaker 1: marry into the nobility. He goes out with impressive discretion,
- 2:38:35Speaker 1: leaving them all staring after him, Petkough breaking the silence, Well,
- 2:38:40Speaker 1: I am sergius. This is either the finest heroism or
- 2:38:46Speaker 1: the most crawling baseness. Which is it? Blunchley Blunchley? Never
- 2:38:52Speaker 1: mind whether it's heroism or baseness. Nicola's the ablest man
- 2:38:57Speaker 1: I've met in Bulgaria. Kim manager of a hotel, if
- 2:39:01Speaker 1: he can speak French and German. Luca suddenly breaking out
- 2:39:05Speaker 1: at Sergius, I have been insulted by everyone here. You
- 2:39:10Speaker 1: set them the example. You owe me an apology. Sergius immediately,
- 2:39:16Speaker 1: like a repeating clock of which the spring has been touched,
- 2:39:19Speaker 1: begins to fold his arms lunchly before he can speak.
- 2:39:24Speaker 1: It's no use. He never apologizes. Luca, not to you,
- 2:39:29Speaker 1: his equal and his enemy, to me, his poor servant.
- 2:39:33Speaker 1: He will not refuse to apologize this, Sergius approvingly, you
- 2:39:41Speaker 1: are right. He bends his knee in his grandest manner.
- 2:39:46Speaker 1: Forgive me, Luca, I forgive you. She timidly gives him
- 2:39:53Speaker 1: her hand, which he kisses. That touch makes me your
- 2:39:57Speaker 1: affianced wife, springing up, Ah, I forgot that, Luca Coldly,
- 2:40:05Speaker 1: you can withdraw if you like, Sergius, withdraw never you
- 2:40:11Speaker 1: belong to me. He puts his arm about her and
- 2:40:14Speaker 1: draws her to him. Katherine comes in and finds Luca
- 2:40:18Speaker 1: in Sergius's arms, and all the rest gazing at them
- 2:40:21Speaker 1: in bewildered astonishment. Katherine, what does this mean? Sergius releases
- 2:40:28Speaker 1: Luca pet cough, Well, my dear, it appears that Sergius
- 2:40:32Speaker 1: is going to marry Luca instead of Raina. She is
- 2:40:35Speaker 1: about to break out indignantly at him. He stops her
- 2:40:38Speaker 1: by exclaiming testily, don't blame me. I've nothing to do
- 2:40:42Speaker 1: with it. He retreats to the stove. Katherine, marry Luca, Sergius.
- 2:40:50Speaker 1: You are bound by your word to us. Sergius folding
- 2:40:54Speaker 1: his arms, nothing binds me. Lunchley much pleased by this
- 2:41:01Speaker 1: piece of common sense. Saranov, your hand, My congratulations. These
- 2:41:06Speaker 1: heroics of yours have their practical side after all. To Luca, gracious,
- 2:41:12Speaker 1: young lady, the best wishes of a good Republican. He
- 2:41:16Speaker 1: kisses her hand, to Raina's great disgust, Catherine threateningly, Luca,
- 2:41:23Speaker 1: you have been telling stories, Luca, I have done, Reina,
- 2:41:28Speaker 1: no harm, Catherine haughtily Reina. Reina is equally indignant at
- 2:41:35Speaker 1: the liberty Luca. I have a right to call Horaina,
- 2:41:41Speaker 1: She calls me, Luca. I told Major Saranov she would
- 2:41:45Speaker 1: never marry him if the Swiss gentleman came back. Blunchley surprised, Hello, Luca,
- 2:41:53Speaker 1: turning to Reina, I thought you were fonder of him
- 2:41:56Speaker 1: than of Sergius. You know best whether I was right, Blenchley,
- 2:42:02Speaker 1: what nonsense, I assure you, my dear Major, My dear madam,
- 2:42:07Speaker 1: the gracious young lady simply saved my life. Nothing else.
- 2:42:11Speaker 1: She never cared to straws for me. Why bless my
- 2:42:15Speaker 1: heart and soul. Look at the young lady, and look
- 2:42:17Speaker 1: at me. She rich, young, beautiful, with her imagination full
- 2:42:23Speaker 1: of fairy princes and noble natures and cavalry charges, and
- 2:42:27Speaker 1: goodness knows what. And I a commonplace Swiss soldier who
- 2:42:32Speaker 1: hardly knows what a decent life is after fifteen years
- 2:42:35Speaker 1: of barracks and battles. A vagabond, a man who has
- 2:42:39Speaker 1: spoiled all his chances in life through an incurably romantic disposition.
- 2:42:44Speaker 1: A man Sergius, starting as if a needle had pricked him,
- 2:42:49Speaker 1: and interrupting Blenchley in incredulous amazement. Excuse me, Blenchley, what
- 2:42:55Speaker 1: did you say had spoiled your chances in life? Blunchley
- 2:42:59Speaker 1: promptly an incurably romantic disposition. I ran away from home
- 2:43:05Speaker 1: twice when I was a boy. I went into the
- 2:43:07Speaker 1: army instead of into my father's business. I climbed the
- 2:43:11Speaker 1: balcony of this house. When a man of sense would
- 2:43:14Speaker 1: have dived into the nearest cellar, I came sneaking back
- 2:43:18Speaker 1: here to have another look at the young lady. When
- 2:43:21Speaker 1: any other man of my age would have sent the
- 2:43:23Speaker 1: coat back petcough, my coat, Bletchley, Yes, that's the coat.
- 2:43:30Speaker 1: I mean, would have sent it back and gone quietly home.
- 2:43:34Speaker 1: Do you suppose I'm the sort of fellow a young
- 2:43:37Speaker 1: girl falls in love with? Why look at our ages?
- 2:43:40Speaker 1: I'm thirty four. I don't suppose the young lady is
- 2:43:44Speaker 1: much over seventeen. This estimate produces a marked sensation, all
- 2:43:50Speaker 1: the rest turning and staring at one another. He proceeds innocently.
- 2:43:55Speaker 1: All that adventure, which was life or death to me,
- 2:43:57Speaker 1: was only a schoolgirl's game to her chocolate creams and
- 2:44:02Speaker 1: hide and seek. Here's the proof. He takes the photograph
- 2:44:07Speaker 1: from the table. Now I ask you, would a woman
- 2:44:11Speaker 1: who took the affair seriously have sent me this and
- 2:44:14Speaker 1: written on it? Raina to her chocolate cream soldier a souvenir.
- 2:44:19Speaker 1: He exhibits the photograph triumphantly, as if it settled the
- 2:44:23Speaker 1: matter beyond all possibility of refutation. Pet cough, That's what
- 2:44:28Speaker 1: I was looking for. How the deuce did it get there?
- 2:44:32Speaker 1: Blunchley too, Raina complacently, I have put everything right. I hope,
- 2:44:37Speaker 1: gracious young lady Raina, in uncontrolled vexation, I quite agree
- 2:44:44Speaker 1: with your account of yourself. You are a romantic idiot.
- 2:44:49Speaker 1: Blunchley is unspeakably taken aback. Next time, I hope you
- 2:44:54Speaker 1: will know the difference between a schoolgirl of seventeen and
- 2:44:57Speaker 1: a woman of twenty three. Blenchley, stupefied twenty three, She
- 2:45:04Speaker 1: snaps the photograph contemptuously from his hands, tears it across,
- 2:45:09Speaker 1: and throws the pieces at his feet. Sergius with grim
- 2:45:13Speaker 1: enjoyment of Blinchley's discomfiture. Blenchley, my one last belief is gone.
- 2:45:20Speaker 1: Your sagacity is a fraud. Like all the other things.
- 2:45:23Speaker 1: You have less sense than even I have. Blenchley, overwhelmed
- 2:45:29Speaker 1: twenty three twenty three, He considers hum swiftly making up
- 2:45:37Speaker 1: his mind. In that case, Major Petkoff, I beg to
- 2:45:41Speaker 1: propose formerly to become a suitor of your daughter's hand
- 2:45:45Speaker 1: in place of Major Saranoff retired. Raina, you dare, Blinchley,
- 2:45:53Speaker 1: if you were twenty three. When you send those things
- 2:45:55Speaker 1: to me this afternoon, I shall take them seriously, loftily polite.
- 2:46:02Speaker 1: I doubt, sir, whether you quite realize either my daughter's position,
- 2:46:07Speaker 1: or that of Major Sergius Saranov, whose place you propose
- 2:46:11Speaker 1: to take. The pet Coughs and the Saranovs are known
- 2:46:15Speaker 1: as the richest and most important families in the country.
- 2:46:19Speaker 1: Our position is almost historical. We can go back nearly
- 2:46:23Speaker 1: twenty years. Petkof Oh, never mind that, Catherine to Blunchley,
- 2:46:30Speaker 1: we should be most happy, Blunchley, if it were only
- 2:46:33Speaker 1: a question of your position. But hang it. You know,
- 2:46:36Speaker 1: Rain is accustomed to a very comfortable establishment. Sergius keeps
- 2:46:41Speaker 1: twenty horses, Bluchley. But what on earth is the use
- 2:46:45Speaker 1: of twenty horses? Why it's a circus? Catherine severely, My daughter,
- 2:46:51Speaker 1: Sir is accustomed to a first rate stable Rain. Hush, mother,
- 2:46:57Speaker 1: you're making me ridiculous. Blenchley. Oh well, if it comes
- 2:47:03Speaker 1: to a question of an establishment, here goes He goes
- 2:47:07Speaker 1: impetuously to the table and seizes the papers in the
- 2:47:10Speaker 1: blue envelope. How many horses did you say, Sergius twenty nobles, Switzer, Blunchley,
- 2:47:20Speaker 1: I have two hundred horses. They are amazed. How many
- 2:47:24Speaker 1: carriages Sergius three, Blenchley, I have seventy twenty four of them?
- 2:47:31Speaker 1: Will hold twelve inside besides two in the box, without
- 2:47:35Speaker 1: counting the driver and conductor. How many tablecloths have you, Sergius?
- 2:47:41Speaker 1: How the deuce do I know? Blenchley? Have you four thousand, Sergius, No, Blenchley,
- 2:47:49Speaker 1: I have. I have nine thousand, six hundred pairs of
- 2:47:52Speaker 1: sheets and blankets, with two thousand, four hundred either down quilts.
- 2:47:56Speaker 1: I have ten thousand knives and forks, and the same
- 2:48:00Speaker 1: of dessert spoons. I have six hundred servants. I have
- 2:48:04Speaker 1: six palatial establishments, besides two livery stables, a tea garden
- 2:48:09Speaker 1: and a private house. I have four medals for distinguished services.
- 2:48:13Speaker 1: I have the rank of an officer and the standing
- 2:48:16Speaker 1: of a gentleman. And I have three native languages. Show
- 2:48:21Speaker 1: me any man in Bulgaria that can offer as much
- 2:48:25Speaker 1: Petcough with childish awe are you Emperor of Switzerland, Blunchley,
- 2:48:32Speaker 1: My rank is the highest known in Switzerland. I am
- 2:48:36Speaker 1: a free citizen, Catherine, then, Captain Blenchley. Since you are
- 2:48:41Speaker 1: my daughter's choice, I shall not stand in the way
- 2:48:44Speaker 1: of her happiness. Petkoff is about to speak. That is
- 2:48:48Speaker 1: major Petkoff's feeling. Also, Petkough, Oh, why shall be only too, glad.
- 2:48:55Speaker 1: Two hundred horses, whew, sergius, what says the lady Reina,
- 2:49:03Speaker 1: pretending to sulk. The lady says that he can keep
- 2:49:07Speaker 1: his tablecloth and his omnibuses. I am not here to
- 2:49:11Speaker 1: be sold to the highest bidder, Blunchley. I won't take
- 2:49:16Speaker 1: that answer. I appeal to you as a fugitive, a beggar,
- 2:49:20Speaker 1: and a starving man. You accepted me. You gave me
- 2:49:24Speaker 1: your hand to kiss, your bed to sleep in, and
- 2:49:27Speaker 1: your roof to shelter me. Reina, interrupting him, I did
- 2:49:31Speaker 1: not give them to the Emperor of Switzerland, Blunchley, That's
- 2:49:36Speaker 1: just what I say. He catches her hand quickly and
- 2:49:40Speaker 1: looks her straight in the face as he adds with
- 2:49:43Speaker 1: confident mastery, now tell us who you did give them to, Reina,
- 2:49:49Speaker 1: succumbing with a shy smile to my chocolate cream. Soldier
- 2:49:56Speaker 1: Blunchy with a boyish laugh of delight. That'll do, thank you,
- 2:50:01Speaker 1: looks at his watch and suddenly becomes businesslike. Time's up. Major.
- 2:50:06Speaker 1: You've managed those regiments so well that you are sure
- 2:50:09Speaker 1: to be asked to get rid of some of the
- 2:50:11Speaker 1: infantry of the Timok Division. Send them home by way
- 2:50:15Speaker 1: of long Polanka Sarranoff. Don't get married until I come back.
- 2:50:20Speaker 1: I shall be here punctually at five in the evening
- 2:50:22Speaker 1: on Tuesday, fortnight. Gracious ladies, Good evening. He makes them
- 2:50:27Speaker 1: a military bow and goes, Sergius, what a man, What
- 2:50:34Speaker 1: a man? Endo back Three End of Arms and the
- 2:50:41Speaker 1: Man by George Bernard Shaw