by Unknown
(He eyes LORD RINTOUL and CAPTAIN HALLIWELL, who groan.)
Unless — ?
HALLIWELL (eagerly). Unless?
WHAMOND. Unless YOUR lordship was JUST TO TELL THEM THAT your daughter is — what’s the word? — engaged to be married to Mr. Dishart. Then we could have a second marriage at Rintoul, and none but oursel’s standing solemnly here need ever ken about the first.
HALLIWELL. Rintoul, you must do it.
RINTOUL (rebelliously). Must, sir!
HALLIWELL. If you don’t — I shall order my men to arrest the gipsy.
GAVIN (fiercely). Sir!
HALLIWELL. I swear it!
BABBIE. Father!
(A hum of people is heard.)
WHAMOND. Which is it to be?
LORD RINTOUL. It will all leak out in any case.
WHAMOND. Which is it to be?
LORD RINTOUL. Fold up that paper. (Groans.)
(BABBIE takes the document from WHAMOND. The Congregation come crowding in excitedly, led by NANNY, some through gate, some get on walls. They are chattering — cries of ‘It’s her, it’s her ladyship—’
‘That’s RINTOUL — eh, the red-coats, lads, lads, losh,’ etc., etc.
WHAMOND signs silence. Those in front are pushed forward.)
MAN (in front). Tell them to stop shoving, Tammas.
WHAMOND. Stand back there!
(The two Soldiers shove Crowd back.)
Now, my lord. (To lord rintoul.)
LORD RINTOUL (reluctantly). My — my friends —
(Excited murmurs from Crowd.)
My daughter here and your minister — they have — you know what young people are — they —
VOICES (from the crowd). Are they to be married?
LORD RINTOUL (sulkily). Yes, that is it.
NANNY. And you are willing?
(LORD RINTOUL looks furiously at CAPTAIN HALLIWELL.)
HALLIWELL (maliciously). Lord Rintoul is delighted.
(Joyous shouts from Crowd, LORD RINTOUL is scowling at HALLIWELL, who smiles at him maliciously.)
JEAN (bursting forward). A ladyship! I’m to be a ladyship’s servant! (Turns to back, calls grandiloquently) Sanders McCormick, are you there?
VOICE (inside gate from unseen man in Crowd). Ay, I am, Jean!
JEAN. Then here ‘s my answer now, Sanders. (With a grand wave of her arms) It’s hopeless. (Curtseys to babbie.)
(Laughter from Crowd.)
LORD RINTOUL. My daughter asks me to tell you that it was Captain Halliwell who brought this match about. So three cheers for Captain Halliwell!
(HALLIWELL is furious. The Crowd cheer, HALLIWELL exits furiously at gate, followed by Soldiers and DAVIDSON. The Crowd leaves, cheering and laughing, NANNY goes down to BABBIE, shakes hands.)
GAVIN. Rob! (He grasps DOW’S hand.)
DOW. I’M GLAD. I’M GLAD.
(dow exits through gate.)
NANNY. I see the whole thing clear now! (To gavin) You kent she was a leddyship all the time!
(SILVA and ANDREW shake hands with GAVIN.)
SNECKY (gleaming — to GAVIN). Mr. Dishart, ‘Her Boy Am I.’ whamond. Mr. Dishart. I want to give you your first marriage present, the key of the Manse. (Hands key, shakes hands, and goes to babbie.) I’m Chief Elder.
(BABBIE kisses him. He stands amazed and then exits through gate, followed by Elders. Exeunt all Weavers.
GAVIN crosses and unlocks Manse door. He puts hat on seat and he and BABBIE look at LORD RINTOUL and then at each other, BABBIE signs to him to leave it to her. She takes courage by kissing marriage lines and makes GAVIN kiss them. She goes halfway to LORD RINTOUL and stops.)
BABBIE. Father — (Kneels and puts arms round his neck.)
Father, I am so sorry this has occurred. I love him so much, father, I really do — but — but — but I love my dear sweet darling father best. What did you say, father?
LORD RINTOUL (who has so far submitted without gesture). Mr. Dishart, may I go inside — out of this girl’s sight i (As LORD RINTOUL is taking a step toward Manse door, cheering is heard in distance. He grins.)
Listen to them cheering Halliwell! (Laughing.)
(The cheering turns into a snatch of the hated song, which dies away.)
BABBIE (quickly). You HAD THE BEST of IT WITH Dick, AT ALL EVENTS, FATHER! (Laughing.)
LORD RINTOUL (chuckling). Hadn’t I! (Sternly) You minx! (He has started to go to the door when he turns and looks at her curiously.) Do you understand the seriousness of it?
(She is serious and can only nod in reply. He is moved and speaks kindly.)
If you are afraid, child, and he is generous — you can perhaps leave him still.
BABBIE (going to him and putting hand in his, sweetly). Daddy dear, I am afraid — but I am not so afraid as that.
LORD RINTOUL (wondering). Not afraid for yourself, Mr. Dishart?
GAVIN. No, sir.
LORD RINTOUL. She is — an odd one, you know.
GAVIN. Yes, I know.
BABBIE. You do!
LORD RINTOUL. Both so confident. (He is thinking of their future.) I wonder. (More lightly) Mr. Dishart, if you would just let me bring this about her shoulders for once. I think I might forgive her in time.
(GAVIN smiles, LORD RINTOUL goes into Manse, GAVIN and BABBIE, who are some distance apart, are arrested in their desire to rush into each other’s arms by a boy-andgirl shyness.)
GAVIN. Babbie, my wife.
BABBIE (after a pause). Eleven days.
(They embrace.)
GAVIN. I do like being married.
BABBIE. So do I — to you, I mean.
GAVIN. That’s what I mean, too.
BABBIE (a little tremulously as she looks at the church). Is that it?
GAVIN. Yes, my dear church.
(Lights in Manse appear.)
BABBIE. I can’t think what father meant when he said, ‘I wonder.’ gavin. Babbie, that is the window of your drawingroom.
(She blows it a kiss.)
Just come a little nearer this way.
BABBIE. Was it from there you threw the rose?
GAVIN. Yes, it fell there; no, a little farther to the left, there.
BABBIE. I shall plant a rose-tree there. (Places her hand on his breast.)
GAVIN. My dear wife, it is a beautiful May evening and before we go indoors I should so like to walk you once round the premises as if I owned you, you know, to let the stars see us.
(He shyly crooks his arm and she puts her hand in it. They make a brief turn of the garden and he is now strutting while she is shy. They get to Manse door.)
Babbie!
(SNECKY, ANDREW, WHAMOND, SILVA, and DOW kneel behind wall, with arms on wall, GAVIN and BABBIE run into the Manse.)
THE WEDDING GUEST
Produced at the Garrick Theatre on September 27, 1900, with the following cast:
Mr. Fairbairn...Brandon Thomas
Paul Digby...H. B. Irving
The Rev. MR. Gibson...Henry Vibart
Provost Crosbie...Charles Daly
Bailie Blair...Fewlass Llewellyn
Meikle...A. E. George
Margaret Fairbairn...Dorothea Baird
Lady Janet Dunwoodie...Kate Sergeantson
Blanche Ripley...Ethelwyn Arthur-Jones
Mrs. Teviot...Augusta Dew snap
Jenny Geddes...Joan Burnett
Maid...Blanche Wilmot
Kate Ommaney...Violet Vanbrugh
Col. Farquhar...J. Corny Kavanagk
Alexander Riach...Mr. Bridges
The Shirrah... Ernest Martin
Sir Henry Dunn, BART... L. Pollock
Mr. Menzies...Langhorne Burton
The Fiscal...Mr. Stanley
Gordon of the Whaups.. Mr. Flood
Footmen...Messrs. Herbert and Vincent
The play ran for 100 performances.
CONTENTS
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT I
Drawingroom at the Old Keep. At back a large open window from which steps lead down into garden. Against the walls are narrow tables covered with wedding presents. The room is gaily decorated with flowers, and the time is noon on a summer’s day.
(The curtain rises on MARGARET in wedding dress, and BLANCHE in bridesmaid’s dress. MARGARET is -practising moving about in long train which BLANCHE solemnly holds up at end. They go round and round the room, winding in and out among the furniture. Enter PAUI DIGBY, the bridegroom.)
PAUL. Margaret, how lovely —
BLANCHE. H’sh! Don’t speak. She is rehearsing how to carry her train.
PAUL. It is like learning to bicycle. Margaret, try if you can go alone now. Margaret (bravely). Let go, Blanche.
(MARGARET nervously winds in and out by herself.)
PAUL. Splendid! (Her train catches in a chair.) Back pedal! (He has to jump train.)
BLANCHE. Now stop at the spot where YOU ARE to stand DURING THE CEREMONY.
MARGARET (triumphant and breathless). There!
BLANCHE. But is that where the bride and bridegroom stand? I thought you stood over here.
MARGARET (sitting down, almost in tears). Oh, Blanche! Oh! Oh! Oh! and we are to be married in half an hour!
(Enter MEIKLE, the butler, with flowers.)
Meikle, my chief bridesmaid does not know where we are to stand yet!
(MEIKLE looks sadly at BLANCHE.)
BLANCHE (in despair). I can’t help it. The idea of your being married in a room seems so odd to me.
MEIKLE (who is most Scotch when he is trying to be very English). Beg pardon, miss, but where might the English be married?
BLANCHE. In church, of course.
(MEIKLE smiles tolerantly.)
PAUL. We English give Meikle a good deal of amusement, Miss Ripley.
MEIKLE. Beg pardon, sir, I do my best to keep it in. (Tries not to laugh at the quaint ways of the English.)
MARGARET. Let us go through the ceremony again. Meikle, don’t go — come here. Stand there — you are the bridegroom.
PAUL. No, no, I am the bridegroom.
MARGARET. That would be unlucky. Let me see, I am the minister, and Blanche can be the bride, and you are the father giving her away. Now then, stupid, go out and bring her in on your arm.
(PAUL and BLANCHE go out gaily, MEIKLE becomes entangled in train.)
MARGARET. Oh! Don’t move, Meikle! I must take it off — it will be soiled. Do you see the hook? Lift it up — gently — don’t breathe.
MEIKLE. Beg pardon, miss, but —
MARGARET. Don’t speak — your words might fall on it.
(Between them they take off train and she spreads it out lovingly on chair at back.)
PAUL (putting his head in at door). Are you ready?
MARGARET. Wait a moment till I feel more like a man. Come in when I say ‘Pop.’ (PAUL withdraws his head, MARGARET tries to look mannish — after pause:)
Pop!
(Enter PAUL, very fatherly, with BLANCHE on his arm. He puts her by MEIKLE’S side and stands behind.)
(Solemnly) I need not tell you, my young friends, that you are about to take an important step. James Meikle, do you take this —
MEIKLE. Excuse me, miss, but the certificate is read first.
MARGARET. Oh yes. (Indifferently) I hereby certify that it is certified, etc. (With unction) James Meikle, do you —
MEIKLE. Then comes the prayer, then the exhortation —
BLANCHE. Do we kneel at the prayer?
MARGARET. No, we shut our eyes only. Well, consider that finished. James Meikle, do —
MEIKLE. Join hands, miss.
MARGARET (effusively). Ah! Join hands.
(MEIKLE and BLANCHE join hands.)
James Meikle, do you take this woman, Blanche Ripley, to be your lawful wedded wife?
(MEIKLE hesitates.)
BLANCHE. You are not very complimentary, Meikle.
MEIKLE (in distress). The fact is, miss, I am a married man and, according to Scotch law, if I was to say ‘I do’ before witnesses ——
BLANCHE (startled). You — you don’t mean —— !
MEIKLE. It WOULD BE BIGAMY, MISS.
(Horror of BLANCHE.)
PAUL (affecting seriousness). Shall we go on with the ceremony?
(BLANCHE rushes out.)
MEIKLE. Begging everybody’s pardon. (Exit apologetically).
(PAUL and MARGARET have been laughing, but now that they are alone they stand apart looking at each other selfconsciously and lovesick, PAUL goes nearer her and gazes with arms folded. She gazes, then modestly lets her eyes fall as if overpowered by the splendour of him. He puts his hands on her shoulders and they gaze with adoration.)
PAUL. How beautiful you look — my bride!
(They sigh, then wake up.)
Any more wedding gifts?
MARGARET (sadly). Another salad bowl!
PAUL. That makes — nine — salad bowls! But let us look on the bright side, as your father would say. Margaret, I have good news — two offers for my ‘Birth of Sorrow ‘ picture.
(He draws her on to couch.)
MARGARET (impulsively). Oh, tell me! Quick!
PAUL. I want you to decide which I should accept. The one is from a dealer who offers five hundred pounds.
MARGARET. The dear man!
PAUL. The other is from the French Government — two thousand francs.
MARGARET. How splendid! How much is that?
PAUL. About eighty pounds.
MARGARET. The impertinence!
PAUL. But, dear, it is the eighty pounds I should like you to let me take.
MARGARET. Paul!
PAUL. Think of the honour. My picture chosen by the Government of France to hang in the Luxembourg.
MARGARET. But five hundred pounds!
PAUL. Shall we accept it?
MARGARET. No, no. I am an ignorant girl, dear; but I begin to see what it is to be an artist’s wife. Paul, the picture shall go to Paris.
PAUL (delighted). My noble girl! Time enough to paint for money, dear, when I am an Academician with half a dozen chins.
MARGARET. It is you who are noble. I have heard people say, again and again, that no one could conceive such subjects as yours, much less paint them, who was not a noble character himself. So there!
PAUL (sadly). Ah, they don’t understand. It is only the best of us, Margaret, that goes into our pictures. A man may rise above himself for an hour, and yet be a poor thing enough for the rest of the day. And it has been so with me.
MARGARET. Paul, it is when you say such things that I love you most.
PAUL. Because you don’t believe them.
MARGARET. No! (He sighs and she has a sudden thought.) Paul, have you ever kept anything from me?
PAUL (after hesitating). How could I?
MARGARET. Do you know, I almost wish you had. (Shuddering) Because I have kept something from you.
PAUL. Impossible!
MARGARET. Yes, I have, about a man! I have wanted to tell you, but it was so awful. Oh, let me tell you now.
(With a rush) Paul, when I was seventeen, it was in the conservatory — his name was Jack — he kissed me!
PAUL. Is that all, dear?
MARGARET. All? Is it not enough? Could there be worse?
PAUL (FONDLY). You child!
MARGARET. And now we know everything about each other.
(He turns away with a pained face.)
And we are as much in love as ever!
PAUL (PASSIONATELY). Margaret, if you were to love me one tittle less —
MARGARET. As if! COULD!
(Enter up steps and through window CAPTAIN ARMITAGE, a gay young man.)
ARMITAGE (with the privileged importance of a best man). Aha, young man! Come with me at once and have your hair curled.