Six Plays by Lady Florence Henrietta Fisher Darwin Part 67

ROSE. [Flinging herself down on a chair by the table, in front of the bunch of forget-me-nots.] Let them be found. Let them be brought back at once.

KITTY. For my part I'm glad they've gone off. The girl was a wild, bad thing. I saw how she went on with Robert.

ROSE. [Brokenly to JEREMY.] You found them. Bring them back, Jerry.

KITTY. No--wait till you and Robert are made man and wife, Rose.

Then 'twon't matter quite so much.

ROSE. I'll never wed me to Robert, I'll only wed me to him who gathered these blue flowers here.

KITTY. Good heavens, Rose, 'twas the man William.

[KITTY looks in consternation from ROSE to the cousins and then to JEREMY, who remains impa.s.sive and uninterested, sucking a straw.

ROSE clasps her hands round the forget-me-nots and sits gazing at them, desolately unhappy. ROBERT enters. He is very grandly dressed for the wedding, but as he comes into the room he sees ISABEL'S cotton bonnet on the floor. He stoops, picks it up and laying it reverently on the table, sinks into a chair opposite ROSE and raising one of its ribbons, kisses this with pa.s.sion.

ROBERT. There--I'd not change this for a thousand sacks of gold--I swear I'd not.

KITTY. Now Robert--get up, the two of you. Are you bewitched or sommat--O Jerry, stir them, can't you.

LIZ. Robert, 'tisn't hardly suitable--with the young miss so sweetly pretty in her white gown.

JANE. And wedding veil and all. And sister and me hooked up into our new sprigs, ready for the ceremony.

JEREMY. [Looking at them with cold contempt.] Let them bide. The mush'll swim out of they same as 'twill swim off the cider vat. Just let the young fools bide.

KITTY. O this'll never do. Jerry forgetting of his manners and all.

[Calling at the garden door.] John, John, come you here quickly, there's shocking goings on. [JOHN, in best clothes comes in.

JOHN. What's the rattle now, Kitty? I declare I might be turning round on top of my own mill wheel such times as these.

KITTY. Rose says she won't wed Robert, and Robert's gone off his head all along of that naughty servant maid.

[JOHN stands contemplating ROSE and ROBERT. ROSE seems lost to the outside world and is gazing with tears at her forget-me-nots, whilst ROBERT, in sullen gloom, keeps his eyes fixed on the sun-bonnet.

JOHN. Come, Rose, 'tis time you commenced to act a bit different.

[ROSE does not answer.

JOHN. Come, Robert, if you play false to my sister at the last moment, you know with whom you'll have to reckon like. [ROBERT pays no heed to him.

JOHN. [To JEREMY.] Can you do naught to work upon them a bit, Jerry?

JEREMY. I'd have a jug of cider in, master. 'Twill settle them all.

Folks do get 'sterical and vapourish face to face with matrimony.

Put some drink afore of them, and see how 'twill act.

LIZ. O what a wise thought, Master Jerry.

JANE. Most suitable, I call it.

[Here MARY MEADOWS comes in, JOHN turns eagerly to her.

JOHN. O Mary--have you come to help us in the fix where we are? [He signs to ROSE and ROBERT.

MARY. What has happened, John?

JEREMY. I'll tell you in a couple of words, mistress.

LIZ. No--do you fetch the cider, dear Mister Jeremy.

JOHN. 'Tis more than I can do with, Mary. Rose is set against Robert, and Robert is set against Rose. Rose--well I'm fairly ashamed to mention it--Rose has lost her senses and would wed the servant William--and Robert is a-courting of the maid.

JEREMY. Ah, let each fool follow their own liking, says I.

LIZ. And sister and me all dressed in our new gowns for the church.

JANE. And Jerry had to do the hooking for we, both of the servants having runned away.

MARY. Well, now I'm here I'll lend a hand. I'll help with the dinner time you're at church. You shall not need to trouble about anything, Mr. John.

JOHN. O once I do get them to the church and the ring fixed and all I shan't trouble about nothing, Mary. But 'tis how to move them from where they be! That's the puzzle.

ROSE. I'll never move till the hand that gathered these flowers be here to raise me.

ROBERT. I'll sit here to the end of the world sooner nor go along to be wed with Miss over there.

MARY. 'Tis midsummer heat have turned their brains. But I know a cooling draught that will heal them of their sickness. Jeremy, do you step into the garden and bring me a handful of fresh violet leaves, one blossom from the heartsease and a sprig of rosemary.

JEREMY. [Sighing.] What next?

JOHN. Get gone at once, Jerry.

[JEREMY goes to the door--as he does so LIZ and JANE start up and follow him.

LIZ. Sister and me will come along and help you, dear Mr. Jeremy.

JANE. And that us will, if our new gowns bain't hooked too tight for we to bend.

[They follow JEREMY to the garden. KITTY silently leaves the room also. ROSE and ROBERT remain lost in their sorrowful reflections.

JOHN and MARY look at them for a moment and then turn to one another.

JOHN. Mary, I never thought to see such a thing as this.

MARY. You take my word for it, John, the storm will soon be blown away.

JOHN. I don't know how I should stand up against the worry of it all, wasn't it for you, Mary.

[A short silence.

JOHN. [Taking MARY'S hand.] 'Twill be a bit lonesome for me here, when they've gone off, Mary.