Night Must Fall : a Play in Three Acts - LightNovelsOnl.com
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MRS. BRAMSON: No, I can stand it.
OLIVIA _comes back from the sun-room_.
(_Pursing her lips, reflectively_) I've taken a liking to you.
DAN: Well ... (_looking round at OLIVIA_) That's very kind of you, Mrs. Bramson ...
MRS. BRAMSON: It's the way you talked about your mother. That's what it was.
DAN: Was it?
OLIVIA (_at the left window_): Shall I pack these books?
DAN (_going to her with alacrity, taking the parcel from her_): I'll post them for you.
OLIVIA: Oh ...
DAN: I'm pa.s.sing Shepperley post office on the bike before post time to-morrow morning. With pleasure!
MRS. BRAMSON: Have you got to go back?
DAN: Now? Well, no, not really ... I've finished on duty now I done that errand, and this is my half day.
MRS. BRAMSON (_imperiously_): Stay to lunch.
DAN (_apparently taken aback, after a look at_ OLIVIA): Well--I don't like to impose myself--
MRS. BRAMSON: In the kitchen, of course.
DAN: Oh, I know--
MRS. BRAMSON: There's plenty of food! Stay to lunch!
DAN: Well--I don't know ... all right, so long as you let me help a bit this morning ... Don't you want some string for this? Where's it kep'?
MRS. BRAMSON: That woman knows. In the kitchen somewhere.
DAN: Through here?
_He tosses the books on the sofa and hurries into the kitchen_.
MRS. BRAMSON _holds out her hands and studies them with a new interest_.
MRS. BRAMSON: That boy's got understanding.
OLIVIA: Enough to marry Dora?
MRS. BRAMSON: You ought to learn to be a little less bitter, my dear.
Never hook a man if you don't. With him and that Dora, I'm not so sure it wasn't six of one and half a dozen of the other. I know human nature, and, mark my word, that boy's going to do big things.
_A scurry in the garden_. MRS. TERENCE _rushes in from the front door, madly excited_.
MRS. TERENCE: The paper-boy's at the back gate, and says there's a placard in Shepperley, and it's got "News of the World--Shepperley Mystery" on it!
MRS. BRAMSON: What!
OLIVIA: They've got it in the papers!
MRS. TERENCE: They've got it in the papers! D'ye want any? (_Beside herself_.)
MRS. BRAMSON: Catch him quick!
MRS. TERENCE: First time I ever 'eard of Shepperley being in print before--hi!
_She races out of the front door_.
MRS. BRAMSON: Running around the house shouting like a lunatic!
Sensation mad! Silly woman!
DORA _runs in from kitchen_.
DORA: They've got it in the papers!
MRS. BRAMSON: Go away!
MRS. TERENCE (_off_): I've bought three!
MRS. BRAMSON (_shouting_): Be QUIET!
MRS. TERENCE _runs back with three Sunday newspapers and gives one to_ OLIVIA _and one to_ MRS. BRAMSON.
OLIVIA (_sitting left of the table_): I expect it is a bit of an event.
MRS. TERENCE (_leaning over the table, searching in her paper_): 'E says they're sellin' like ninepins--
MRS. BRAMSON (_turning pages over, impatiently_): Where is it?...
MRS. TERENCE: Oh, I expect it's nothing after all....
OLIVIA: Here it is.... (_Reading_) "Disappeared mysteriously ...
woods round the village being searched" ... then her description ...
tall ... blonde....
MRS. TERENCE: Blonde? I should think she is ... I can't find it!
OLIVIA: Here's something ... "A keeper in the Shepperley woods was closely questioned late last night, but he had heard nothing, beyond a woman's voice in the woods on the afternoon in question, and a man's voice, probably with her, singing 'Mighty Lak a Rose.' Enquiries are being pursued...."
MRS. BRAMSON: "Mighty Lak a Rose." What rubbis.h.!.+...
MRS. TERENCE: Oh yes.... It's the 'eadline in this one. (_Humming the tune absently as she reads_) "Don't know what to call you, but you're mighty lak a rose." ... Those men have done rummaging in the garden, anyway.
