Anna Christie Part 16

BURKE--I have.

ANNA--[Startled.] What--then you're going--honest?

BURKE--I signed on to-day at noon, drunk as I was--and she's sailing to-morrow.

ANNA--And where's she going to?

BURKE--Cape Town.

ANNA--[The memory of having heard that name a little while before coming to her--with a start, confusedly.] Cape Town? Where's that. Far away?

BURKE--'Tis at the end of Africa. That's far for you.

ANNA--[Forcing a laugh.] You're keeping your word all right, ain't you?

[After a slight pause--curiously.] What's the boat's name?

BURKE--The Londonderry.

ANNA--[It suddenly comes to her that this is the same s.h.i.+p her father is sailing on.] The Londonderry! It's the same--Oh, this is too much!

[With wild, ironical laughter.] Ha-ha-ha!

BURKE--What's up with you now?

ANNA--Ha-ha-ha! It's funny, funny! I'll die laughing!

BURKE--[Irritated.] Laughing at what?

ANNA--It's a secret. You'll know soon enough. It's funny. [Controlling herself--after a pause--cynically.] What kind of a place is this Cape Town? Plenty of dames there, I suppose?

BURKE--To h.e.l.l with them! That I may never see another woman to my dying hour!

ANNA--That's what you say now, but I'll bet by the time you get there you'll have forgot all about me and start in talking the same old bull you talked to me to the first one you meet.

BURKE--[Offended.] I'll not, then! G.o.d mend you, is it making me out to be the like of yourself you are, and you taking up with this one and that all the years of your life?

ANNA--[Angrily a.s.sertive.] Yes, that's yust what I do mean! You been doing the same thing all your life, picking up a new girl in every port. How're you any better than I was?

BURKE--[Thoroughly exasperated.] Is it no shame you have at all? I'm a fool to be wasting talk on you and you hardened in badness. I'll go out of this and lave you alone forever. [He starts for the door--then stops to turn on her furiously] And I suppose 'tis the same lies you told them all before that you told to me?

ANNA--[Indignantly.] That's a lie! I never did!

BURKE--[Miserably.] You'd be saying that, anyway.

ANNA--[Forcibly, with growing intensity.] Are you trying to accuse me--of being in love--really in love--with them?

BURKE--I'm thinking you were, surely.

ANNA--[Furiously, as if this were the last insult--advancing on him threateningly] You mutt, you! I've stood enough from you. Don't you dare. [With scornful bitterness.] Love 'em! Oh, my Gawd! You d.a.m.n thick-head! Love 'em? [Savagely.] I hated 'em, I tell you! Hated 'em, hated 'em, hated 'em! And may Gawd strike me dead this minute and my mother, too, if she was alive, if I ain't telling you the honest truth!

BURKE--[Immensely pleased by her vehemence--a light beginning to break over his face--but still uncertain, torn between doubt and the desire to believe--helplessly.] If I could only be believing you now!

ANNA--[Distractedly.] Oh, what's the use? What's the use of me talking?

What's the use of anything? [Pleadingly.] Oh, Mat, you mustn't think that for a second! You mustn't! Think all the other bad about me you want to, and I won't kick, 'cause you've a right to. But don't think that! [On the point of tears.] I couldn't bear it! It'd be yust too much to know you was going away where I'd never see you again--thinking that about me!

BURKE--[After an inward struggle--tensely--forcing out the words with difficulty.] If I was believing--that you'd never had love for any other man in the world but me--I could be forgetting the rest, maybe.

ANNA--[With a cry of joy.] Mat!

BURKE--[Slowly.] If 'tis truth you're after telling, I'd have a right, maybe, to believe you'd changed--and that I'd changed you myself 'til the thing you'd been all your life wouldn't be you any more at all.

ANNA--[Hanging on his words--breathlessly.] Oh, Mat! That's what I been trying to tell you all along!

BURKE--[Simply.] For I've a power of strength in me to lead men the way I want, and women, too, maybe, and I'm thinking I'd change you to a new woman entirely, so I'd never know, or you either, what kind of woman you'd been in the past at all.

ANNA--Yes, you could, Mat! I know you could!

BURKE--And I'm thinking 'twasn't your fault, maybe, but having that old ape for a father that left you to grow up alone, made you what you was.

And if I could be believing 'tis only me you--

ANNA--[Distractedly.] You got to believe it. Mat! What can I do? I'll do anything, anything you want to prove I'm not lying!

BURKE--[Suddenly seems to have a solution. He feels in the pocket of his coat and grasps something--solemnly.] Would you be willing to swear an oath, now--a terrible, fearful oath would send your soul to the divils in h.e.l.l if you was lying?

ANNA--[Eagerly.] Sure, I'll swear, Mat--on anything!

BURKE--[Takes a small, cheap old crucifix from his pocket and holds it up for her to see.] Will you swear on this?

ANNA--[Reaching out for it.] Yes. Sure I will. Give it to me.

BURKE--[Holding it away.] 'Tis a cross was given me by my mother, G.o.d rest her soul. [He makes the sign of the cross mechanically.] I was a lad only, and she told me to keep it by me if I'd be waking or sleeping and never lose it, and it'd bring me luck. She died soon after. But I'm after keeping it with me from that day to this, and I'm telling you there's great power in it, and 'tis great bad luck it's saved me from and me roaming the seas, and I having it tied round my neck when my last s.h.i.+p sunk, and it bringing me safe to land when the others went to their death. [Very earnestly.] And I'm warning you now, if you'd swear an oath on this, 'tis my old woman herself will be looking down from Hivin above, and praying Almighty G.o.d and the Saints to put a great curse on you if she'd hear you swearing a lie!

ANNA--[Awed by his manner--superst.i.tiously] I wouldn't have the nerve--honest--if it was a lie. But it's the truth and I ain't scared to swear. Give it to me.

BURKE--[Handing it to her--almost frightenedly, as if he feared for her safety.] Be careful what you'd swear, I'm saying.

ANNA--[Holding the cross gingerly.] Well--what do you want me to swear?

You say it.

BURKE--Swear I'm the only man in the world ivir you felt love for.

ANNA--[Looking into his eyes steadily] I swear it.

BURKE--And that you'll be forgetting from this day all the badness you've done and never do the like of it again.

ANNA--[Forcibly.] I swear it! I swear it by G.o.d!

BURKE--And may the blackest curse of G.o.d strike you if you're lying.

Say it now!