Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 113

PAOLO. Look out. If--no, no, go--go--we shall see afterwards. [_Mario exits. Paolo takes a letter from the wallet, reads it attentively, accentuating the words._] "You write me that if I do not respond you will return immediately." [_Speaks._] You write me! Where is that letter? [_Reads._] "I love my husband, that is my response. This and only this forever. I beg you not to torment me." [_Speaks._] I beg you not to torment me. Ummm!

MADDALENA. Here I am.

PAOLO. I do not want you. It is not necessary now. If I need you I will call you.

MADDALENA. Excuse me, Mr. Paolo, is it true what they say in the village?

PAOLO. What?

MADDALENA. That the Syndic brought the wallet of Mr. Luciano this morning with a lot of money in it for the poor!

PAOLO. Why--no.

MADDALENA. The servant of the Syndic said so just now at the wash-house.

PAOLO. There was nothing in it, the Syndic also knows that.

MADDALENA. Oh, it would not have been a surprise. Mr. Luciano came here rarely, but when he did he spent.

PAOLO. I am glad to hear it.

MADDALENA. Last year, to Liberata, the widow of the miner who went to America to join his son and to whom you gave fifty lire, well, Mr.

Luciano gave her a hundred.

PAOLO. What a story! He wasn't even here at that time.

MADDALENA. Wasn't even here? I saw him--

PAOLO. Nonsense. That woman received word that her husband was killed in the mine and that the son wanted her to come to America, the day I left for Switzerland, a year ago yesterday or to-day; I remember it because I gave her a little money in gold which I had been able to procure. She was to leave two days later....

MADDALENA. There you are.

PAOLO. There you are nothing. Luciano was not there. I know.

MADDALENA. He arrived the day Liberata started on the trip.

PAOLO. Oh, two days after we left.

MADDALENA. Yes it was. He arrived in the morning.

PAOLO. At his villa.

MADDALENA. No, no, here; but he found only Mr. Mario; he was annoyed, poor man, and left immediately.

PAOLO. Ah, I did not know that.... Then you are right. Ah, so he came?

You are right. Oh, he was generous! He left all to the hospital.

MADDALENA. Yes, yes. But what hospital?

MARIO [_off stage calls_]. Maddalena!

MADDALENA. Here I am.

MARIO [_entering_]. Go to Madame, she needs you. [_Maddalena exits._]

[_To Paolo._] I have persuaded her.

PAOLO. How fortunate to have a good lawyer.

MARIO. And as you see, it did not take long.

PAOLO. Want to bet I know how you convinced her?

MARIO. Oh, it was very easy--I said....

PAOLO. No, let me tell you. I want my little triumph. You gave up the business which held you here and decided to leave with us.

MARIO. Even that.

PAOLO. Eh? Didn't I know it? When you went away I was just about to tell you and then I wanted to wait and see. So now Anna is disposed to go?

MARIO. Are you sorry?

PAOLO. I should say not! All the more as we are--are we not going to amuse ourselves? The place, the trip, the hotels,--yes, it is better.

But the company! To run away there should be few of us.

MARIO. What are you saying?

PAOLO [_putting his two hands on Mario's shoulders and facing him._] To run away--do you understand? We must be a few. To run away as Anna and I did last year.

MARIO. I do not understand.

PAOLO. You did not tell me that Luciano had been here last year, nor the day that he was here.

MARIO. I don't know. I do not remember....

PAOLO. There you are--there--there--I knew it! And you knew that Anna went away from here to avoid him. And I went with her all unconscious.

You saw the husband take a train and run away before the other could arrive!

MARIO. And if it is true. It does not tell you more or less than the letters did.

PAOLO. No, a little more. Everything tells a little more. One grain of sand piles up upon another, then another until it makes the mill-stone which crushes you. It tells a little more. It is one thing to keep away and another to run away. One can keep away a trouble without begging it to keep its distance. But one runs away for fear.

MARIO. Uh-h!

PAOLO. And look here--look--look, let us examine the case. Let us see.

It is improbable that he wrote her he was coming. It is sure he did not or she would have responded: "You write me that you are coming.... I love my husband--I beg you to remain away."

MARIO. Oh!