Six Plays by Lady Florence Henrietta Fisher Darwin Part 65

ROSE. Let the girl bide. It makes no difference to me. There'll be no marrying for me to-day.

[JOHN comes in at the door.

KITTY. [Running to him.] O John, John--do you quiet down Rose and tell her to get upstairs and dress. She's a-saying that she won't marry Robert because of his goings on with the new servant--But, O, you'll talk her into reason again, won't you, dear John?

JOHN. Come, come, what's all this cackle about, Rose?

ROSE. I'm breaking off with Robert, that's all, John.

JOHN. Robert, can't you take and explain a bit what 'tis.

ROBERT. [Sullenly.] A little bit of play 'twixt me and the wench there, and that's about all, I reckon.

JOHN. Now that's an unsensible sort of thing to get doing on your marriage day, to my thinking.

KITTY. 'Twasn't Robert's fault, I know. 'Twas the maid off the road who started it.

[Here ISABEL sinks down on a chair by the window, leaning her arms on the table and bowing her head, in tears.

JOHN. [Going to the door.] Jeremy--Jeremy--come you in here a minute.

[Instead of JEREMY, LUBIN comes in.

JOHN. 'Twas Jeremy I did call--not you.

LUBIN. He's gone off the place for a few minutes.

JOHN. [Vexedly.] Ah, 'tis early for the Red Bull.

LUBIN. Can I--can I do anything for you, master?

JOHN. Not unless you can account for the sort of serving wench off the roadside what Jerry has put upon us.

LUBIN. What is there to account for in her, master?

ROSE. [Pa.s.sionately.] O I don't particular mind about what's happened. Let her kiss with Robert if she has the mind. 'Tis always the man who commences.

JOHN. 'Tis not. There are some wenches who don't know how to leave anyone alone. Worser than cattle flies, that sort.

ISABEL. [Going across the room to LUBIN'S side.] O you shame me by them words, I bain't that sort of maid--you'll answer for me-- William?

[LUBIN silently takes her hand.

ROSE. [Her eyes fixed on LUBIN.] I'll tell you what, John; I'll tell you, Kitty. I wish I'd held me to my first lover and I wish 'twas with Lubin that I was a-going to the church to-day.

ROBERT. [Sullenly.] Then I'll say sommat, Rose. I wish 'twas with Isabel that I was getting wed.

JOHN. Now, now--'Tis like two children a quarrelling over their playthings. Suppose you was to go and get yourself dressed, Rose- Anna--And you too, Robert. Why, the traps will be at the door afore you're ready if you don't quicken yourselves up a bit. Kitty, you go and help your sister.

ROSE. [With a jealous glance at Isabel.] No, I'll have Lucy with me.

JOHN. That's it, you keep her out of mischief

KITTY. I've got my own dress to put on.

JOHN. And Robert, you and me will have a drink after all this caddle. 'Tis dry work getting ready for marriage so it appears.

ROBERT. 'Tis fiery dry to my thinking.

ROSE. [Crossing the room and going up to LUBIN.] I have no flowers to take to church with me, William; go you to the waterside, I have a mind to carry some of the blue things what grow there.

KITTY. Forget-me-nots, you mean!

ROSE. Forget-me-nots, I mean. And none but you to gather them for me, William. Because--because--well, you do put me in thoughts of someone that I once held and now have lost. That's all.

[Curtain.

ACT III.--Scene 2.

The same room half an hour later. ISABEL is picking up the scattered orange blossom which she ties together and lays on the window sill.

LUBIN comes in with a large bunch of river forget-me-nots.

LUBIN. I didn't think to find you here, Isabel.

ISABEL. O but that is a beautiful blue flower. I will take the bunch upstairs. She is all dressed and ready for it.

LUBIN. [Putting it on the table.] No--do you bide a moment here with me.

[ISABEL looks helplessly at LUBIN who takes her hands slowly in his.

LUBIN. What are we going to do?

ISABEL. I wish as we had never touched the seeds.

LUBIN. O cursed seeds of love--Far better to have left all as 'twas yesterday in the morning.

ISABEL. He has followed me like my shadow, courting and courting me hard and all the time, Lubin.

LUBIN. She sought me out in the yard at day-break, and what I'd have given twenty years of life for yester eve I could have thrown into the stream this morning.

ISABEL [Sadly.] So 'tis with my feelings.

LUBIN. She has altered powerful, to my fancy, in these years.