The Mousetrap and Other Plays

ACT ONE

Scene I

SCENE: The living room of PROFESSOR HENDRYK’s flat in Bloomsbury. An afternoon in early spring.

The flat is the upper floor of one of the old houses in Bloomsbury. It is a well-proportioned room with comfortable, old-fashioned furniture. The main feature that strikes the eye is books; books everywhere, in shelves against the wall, lying on tables, on chairs, on the sofa and piled up in heaps on the floor. Double doors up C lead to an entrance door is R and a passage leads off L to the kitchen. In the room the door to ANYA’s bedroom is down R and there is a sash window L leading on to a small balcony with ivy-covered railings, overlooking the street below and a row of houses opposite. KARL’s desk is in front of the window with a chair in front of it. The desk is filled with books as well as the telephone, blotter, calendar, etc. Below the desk is a record cabinet, filled with records, more books and odd lecture papers. There is a record player on top. Built into the walls either side of the double doors are bookcases. Below the left one is ANYA’s small work-table. Between the doors and the bookcase L of it there is a three-tiered, round table with books in each tier and a plant on the top one. Against the wall below the door R is a small console table with a plant on top and books piled below. Hanging on the wall above the door down R is a small set of shelves with more books and ANYA’s medicine in one corner. Under the shelves is a small cupboard with further books. The cupboards underneath. In front of these shelves, there is a library ladder. A sofa is RC with a circular table behind it. Chairs stand above and L of the table. All three pieces of furniture have books on them. A large red armchair is LC, with still more books on it. At night the room is lit by wall-bracket each side of the window and table-lamps on the desk, on the table RC and on the cupboard R. There are switches L of the double doors. In the hall there is a chair R of the bedroom door.

When the CURTAIN rises, the double doors are open. The stage is in darkness. When the lights come up LESTER COLE is precariously balanced on the library ladder. He is a clumsy but likeable young man of about twenty-four, with a tousled head of hair. He is shabbily dressed. There is a pile of books on the top of the ladder. LESTER reaches up to the top shelf, selects a book now and again, pauses to read a passage and either adds it to the pile on the ladder or replaces it on the shelf.

MRS. ROPER. (off L in the Hall) All right, Miss Koletzky, I’ll see to it before I go home.

MRS. ROPER enters the hall from L. She is a rather shifty and unpleasant cleaning woman. She is carrying her outdoor clothes and a shopping bag. She crosses to R of the hall then returns with great stealth, entering the room with her back against the right-hand door. She obviously does not see LESTER who is engrossed in a book. She creeps towards the downstage end of the desk where there is a packet of cigarettes. She is just about to pocket them when LESTER shuts his book with a bang. MRS. ROPER, startled out of her wits, spins round.

Oh, Mr. Cole—I didn’t know you were still here.

LESTER goes to return the book to the top shelf and nearly overbalances.

Do be careful. (She crosses above the armchair LC to R of it and puts her bag on the floor) That thing’s not safe, really it isn’t. (She puts on her hat) Come to pieces any minute, it might, and where would you be then, I’d like to know? (She puts on her coat)

LESTER. Where indeed?

The lights begin to fade slowly for sunset.

MRS. ROPER. Only yesterday I read in the papers of a gentleman as fell off a pair of steps in his library. Thought nothing of it at the time—but later he was took bad and they rushed him to hospital. (She puts her scarf around her neck) Broken rib what had peneterated the lung. (With satisfaction) And the next day he was—(She gives her scarf a final pull round her throat) dead.

LESTER. What jolly papers you read, Mrs. Roper. (He becomes engrossed in a book and ignores MRS. ROPER)

MRS. ROPER. And the same will happen to you if you go stretching over like that. (She glances at the desk where the cigarettes are, then back at LESTER again. Seeing that he is taking no notice of her she starts to sidle over to the desk, humming quietly to herself and keeping an eye on LESTER. She empties the cigarettes from the packet into her pocket then moves C holding the empty packet) Oh, look! The professor’s run out of cigarettes again.

A clock strikes five somewhere outside the window.

I’d better slip out and get him another twenty before they shut. Tell Miss Koletzky I won’t be long fetching back that washing. (She picks up her bag, goes into the hall and calls) ’Bye!

MRS. ROPER exits in the hall to R. The front door is heard opening and closing.

LESTER. (without taking his nose out of the book) I’ll tell her.

A door is heard to slam off L in the hall. LESTER jumps, knocking the pile of books off the top of the steps. LISA KOLETZKY enters up C from L. She is a tall, handsome, dark woman of thirty-five, with a strong and rather enigmatic personality. She is carrying a hot-water bottle.

Sorry, Miss Koletzky, I’ll pick ’em up. (He comes down the ladder and picks up the books)

LISA. (moving C) It does not matter. A few more books here and there are of no consequence.

LESTER. (placing the books on the table RC) You startled me, you see. How is Mrs. Hendryk?

LISA. (tightening the stopper on the bottle) The same as usual. She feels the cold. I have a fresh bottle here for her.

LESTER. (moving to R of the sofa) Has she been ill for a very long time?

LISA. (sitting on the left arm of the sofa) Five years.

LESTER. Will she ever get any better?

LISA. She has her bad and her good days.

LESTER. Oh, yes, but I mean really better. I say, that’s tough going, isn’t it?

LISA. (rather foreign) As you say, it is “tough going.”

LESTER. (climbing up the ladder and falling up before reaching the top) Can’t the doctors do anything?

LISA. No. She has one of these diseases for which at present there is no known cure. Some day perhaps they will discover one. In the meantime—(She shrugs her shoulders) she can never get any better. Every month, every year, she gets a little weaker. She may go on like that for many, many years.

LESTER. Yes, that is tough. It’s tough on him. (He comes down the ladder)

LISA. As you say, it is tough on him.

LESTER. (moving to R of the sofa) He’s awfully good to her, isn’t he?

LISA. He cares for her very much.

LESTER. (sitting on the right arm of the sofa) What was she like when she was young?

LISA. She was very pretty. Yes, a very pretty girl, fair-haired and blue-eyed and always laughing.

LESTER. (bewildered by life) You know, it gets me. I mean, time—what it does to you. How people change. I mean, it’s hard to know what’s real and what isn’t—or if anything is real.

LISA. (rising and crossing to the door down R) This bottle seems to be real.

LISA exits down R leaving the door open. LESTER rises, collects his satchel from the table RC, crosses to the armchair LC and puts some books from the chair into the satchel. LISA can be heard talking to ANYA, but the words are indistinguishable. LISA reenters down R.

LESTER. (guiltily) The professor said it would be all right to take anything I wanted.

LISA. (moving to R of the table RC and glancing at the books) Of course, if he said so.

LESTER. He’s rather wonderful, isn’t he?

LISA. (absorbed in a book) Hmm?

LESTER. The Prof., he’s wonderful. We all think so, you know. Everybody’s terrifically keen. The way he puts things. All the past seems to come alive. (He pauses) I mean, when he talks about it you see what everything means. He’s pretty unusual, isn’t he?

LISA. He has a very fine brain.

LESTER. (sitting on the right arm of the armchair) Bit of luck for us that he had to leave his own country and came here. But it isn’t only his brain, you know, it’s something else.

LISA selects a “Walter Savage Landor,” moves and sits on the sofa at the left end.

LISA. I know what you mean. (She reads)

LESTER. You just feel that he knows all about you. I mean, that he knows just how difficult everything is. Because you can’t get away from it—life is difficult, isn’t it?

LISA. (still reading) I do not see why it should be so.

LESTER. (startled) I beg your pardon?

LISA. I don’t see why you say—and so many people say—that life is difficult. I think life is very simple.

LESTER. Oh, come now—hardly simple.

LISA. But, yes. It has a pattern, the sharp edges, very easy to see.

LESTER. Well, I think it’s just one unholy mess. (Doubtfully, but hoping he is right) Perhaps you’re a kind of Christian Scientist?

LISA. (laughing) No, I’m not a Christian Scientist.

LESTER. But you really think life’s easy and happy?

LISA. I did not say it was easy or happy. I said it was simple.

LESTER. (rising and crossing to L of the sofa) I know you’re awfully good—(Embarrassed) I mean, the way you look after Mrs. Hendryk and everything.

LISA. I look after her because I want to do so, not because it is good.

LESTER. I mean, you could get a well-paid job if you tried.

LISA. Oh, yes, I could get a job quite easily. I am a trained physicist.

LESTER. (impressed) I’d no idea of that. But then, surely you ought to get a job, oughtn’t you?

LISA. How do you mean—ought?

LESTER. Well, I mean it’s rather a waste, isn’t it, if you don’t? Of your ability, I mean.

LISA. A waste of my training, perhaps, yes. But ability—I think what I am doing now I do well, and I like doing it.

LESTER. Yes, but . . .

The front door is heard opening and closing. KARL HENDRYK enters up C from R. He is a virile and good-looking man of forty-five. He is carrying a brief-case and a small bunch of spring flowers. He switches on the wall-brackets, the table-lamp R and the table-lamp RC by the switches L. of the door. He smiles at LISA who rises as he moves C, and his face lights up with pleasure to see LESTER.

KARL. Hello, Lisa.

LISA. Hello, Karl.

KARL. Look—spring. (He hands her the flowers)

LISA. How lovely. (She moves round below the sofa, puts the flowers on the table RC, then continues round the table and takes KARL’s coat and hat.)

LISA exits of C to L with the hat and coat.

KARL. So you have come for more books? Good. Let me see what you are taking.

They look over the books together.

Yes, Loshen is good—very sound. And the Verthmer. Salzen—I warn you—he is very unsound.

LESTER. Then, perhaps, sir, I’d better not . . .

KARL. No. No, take it. Read it. I warn you out of my own experience, but you must make your own judgements.

LESTER. Thank you, sir. I’ll remember what you say. (He crosses above KARL to the table RC and picks up a book) I brought the Loftus back. It is just as you said—he really makes one think. (He replaces the book on the table)

KARL crosses above the armchair to the desk, takes some books from his brief-case and puts them on the desk.

KARL. Why not stay and have some supper with us? (He switches on the desk lamp)

LESTER. (putting books in his satchel) Thank you so much, sir, but I’ve got a date.

KARL. I see. Well, good-bye till Monday, then. Take care of the books.

LISA enters up C from L and crosses to R of the table RC.

LESTER. (flushing guiltily) Oh, I will, sir. I’m awfully sorry—more sorry than I can tell you—about losing that other one.

KARL. (sitting at the desk) Think no more about it. I have lost books myself in my time. It happens to all of us.

LESTER. (moving to the doors up C) You’ve been awfully good about it. Awfully good. Some people wouldn’t have lent me any more books.

KARL. Tcha! That would have been foolish. Go on, my boy.

LESTER exits rather unwillingly by the hall to R.

(To LISA) How is Anya?

LISA. She has been very depressed and fretful this afternoon, but she settled down for a little sleep. I hope she is asleep, now.

KARL. I won’t wake her if she is asleep. My poor darling, she needs all the sleep she can get.

LISA. I’ll get some water for the flowers.

LISA takes a vase from the shelf R and comes back into the room. He glances quickly round, makes sure he is alone with Karl and moves to R of the armchair.

LESTER. (with a rush) I’ve got to tell you, sir, I must. I—I didn’t lose that book.

LISA enters from up C and L with the flowers in the vase, crosses very quietly to L of the table and RC and puts the vase on it.

I—I sold it.

KARL. (not turning and not really surprised but kindly nodding his head) I see. You sold it.

LESTER. I never meant to tell you. I don’t know why I have. But I just felt you’d got to know. I don’t know what you’ll think of me.

KARL. (turning round; thoughtfully) You sold it. For how much?

LESTER. (slightly pleased with himself) I got two pounds for it. Two pounds.

KARL. You wanted the money?

LESTER. Yes, I did. I wanted it badly.

KARL. (rising) What did you want the money for?

LESTER. (giving KARL a rather shifty glance) Well, you see, my mother’s been ill lately and . . . (He breaks off and moves away from KARL down C) No, I won’t tell you any more lies. I wanted it—you see, there was a girl. I wanted to take her out, and . . .

KARL suddenly smiles at LESTER and crosses below the armchair to L of him.

KARL. Ah! You wanted it to spend on a girl. I see. Good. Very good—very good, indeed.

LESTER. Good? But . . .

KARL. So natural. Oh, yes, it was very wrong of you to steal my book and to sell it and to lie to me about it. But if you have to do bad things I am glad that you do them for a good motive. And at your age there is no better motive than that—to go out with a girl and enjoy yourself. (He pats LESTER on the shoulder) She is pretty, your girl?

LESTER. (self-consciously) Well, naturally, I think so. (He gains confidence) Actually, she’s pretty marvellous.

KARL. (with a knowing chuckle) And you had a good time on the two pounds?

LESTER. In a way. Well, I mean, I began by enjoying it awfully. But—but I did feel rather uncomfortable.

KARL. (sitting on the right arm of the armchair) You felt uncomfortable—yes, that’s interesting.

LESTER. Do believe me, sir, I am terribly sorry and ashamed, and it won’t happen again. And I’ll tell you this, too, I’m going to save up and buy that book back and bring it back to you.

KARL. (gravely) Then you shall do so if you can. Now, cheer up—that’s all over and forgotten.

LESTER throws KARL a grateful glance and exits by the hall to R. LISA comes slowly forward towards KARL.

(He nods his head) I’m glad he came and told me about it himself. I hoped he would, but of course I wasn’t at all sure.

LISA. (moving RC) You knew, then, that he’d stolen it?

KARL. Of course I knew.

LISA. (puzzled) But you didn’t let him know that you knew.

KARL. No.

LISA. Why?

KARL. Because, as I say, I hoped he would tell me about it himself.

LISA. (after a pause) Was it a valuable book?

KARL. (rising and moving to the desk) Actually, it’s quite irreplaceable.

LISA. (turning away) Oh, Karl.

KARL. Poor devil—so pleased to have got two pounds for it. The dealer who bought it off him will probably have sold it for forty or fifty pounds by now.

LISA. So he won’t be able to buy it back?

KARL. (sitting at the desk) No.

LISA. (crossing to R of the armchair) I don’t understand you, Karl. (She begins to lose her temper) It seems to me sometimes you go out of your way to let yourself be played upon—you allow yourself to have things stolen from you, to be deceived . . .

KARL. (gently but amused) But, Lisa, I wasn’t deceived.

LISA. Well, that makes it worse. Stealing is stealing. The way you go on positively encourages people to steal.

KARL. (becoming thoughtful) Does it? I wonder. I wonder.

LISA is very angry now and starts pacing below the sofa and back up C.

LISA. How angry you make me.

KARL. I know. I always make you angry.

LISA. (moving up R) That miserable boy . . .

KARL. (rising and standing up LC) That miserable boy has the makings of a very fine scholar—a really fine scholar. That’s rare, you know, Lisa. That’s very rare. There are so many of these boys and girls, earnest, wanting to learn, but not the real thing.

LISA sits on left arm of the sofa.

(He moves to L. of LISA) But Lester Cole is the real stuff of which scholars are made.

LISA has calmed down by now and she puts her arm affectionately on KARL’s arm.

(He smiles ruefully. After a pause) You’ve no idea of the difference one Lester Cole makes to a weary professor’s life.

LISA. I can understand that. There is so much mediocrity.

KARL. Mediocrity and worse. (He gives LISA a cigarette, lights it, then sits C of the sofa) I’m willing to spend time on the conscientious plodder, even if he isn’t very bright, but the people who want to acquire learning as a form of intellectual snobbery, to try it on as you try on a piece of jewellery, who want just a smattering and only a smattering, and who ask for their food to be pre-digested, that I won’t stand for. I turned one of them down today.

LISA. Who was that?

KARL. A very spoiled young girl. Naturally she’s at liberty to attend classes and waste her time, but she wants private tuition—special lessons.

LISA. Is she prepared to pay for them?

KARL. That is her idea. Her father, I gather, has immense wealth and has always bought his daughter everything she wanted. Well, he won’t buy her private tuition from me.

LISA. We could do with the money.

KARL. I know. I know, but it’s not a question of money—it’s the time, you see, Lisa. I really haven’t got the time. There are two boys, Sydney Abrahamson—you know him—and another boy. A coal miner’s son. They’re both keen, desperately keen, and I think they’ve got the stuff in them. But they’re handicapped by a bad superficial education. I’ve got to give them private time if they’re to have a chance.

LISA rises, crosses above the armchair and flicks her cigarette ash into the ashtray on the desk.

And they’re worth it, Lisa, they’re worth it. Do you understand?

LISA. I understand that one cannot possibly change you, Karl. You stand by and smile when a student helps himself to a valuable book, you refuse a rich pupil in favour of a penniless one. (She crosses to C) I’m sure it is very noble, but nobility doesn’t pay the baker and the butcher and the grocer.

KARL. But surely, Lisa, we are really not so hard up.

LISA. No, we are not really so hard up, but we could always do with some more money. Just think what we could do with this room.

The thumping of a stick is heard off R.

Ah! Anya is awake.

KARL. (rising) I’ll go to her.

KARL exits down R. LISA smiles, sighs and shakes her head, then collects the books from the armchair and puts them on the table RC. The music of a barrel organ is heard off. LISA picks up the “Walter Savage Landor” from the table RC, sits on the left arm of the sofa and reads, MRS. ROPER enters the hall from R. She carries a large parcel of washing. She exits in the hall to L, deposits the parcel, then re-enters and comes into the room with her shopping bag.

MRS. ROPER. I got the washing. (She goes to the desk) And I got a few more fags for the professor—he was right out again. (She takes a packet of cigarettes from her shopping bags and puts them on the desk) Oh! Don’t they carry on when they run out of fags? You should have heard Mr. Freemantel at my last place. (She puts her bag on the floor R of the armchair) Screamed blue murder he did if he hadn’t got a fag. Always sarcastic to his wife, he was. They were incompatible—you know, he had a secretary. Saucy cat! When the divorce came up, I could have told them a thing or two, from what I saw. I would have done, too, but for Mr. Roper. I thought it was only right, but he said, “No, Ivy, never spit against the wind.”

The front door bell rings.

Shall I see who it is?

LISA. (rising) If you please, Mrs. Roper.

MRS. ROPER exits by the hall to R.

DOCTOR. (off) Good evening, Mrs. Roper.

MRS. ROPER re-enters. DOCTOR STONER follows her on. He is a typical family doctor of the old school, aged about sixty. He is affectionately at home.

MRS. ROPER. (as she enters) It’s the doctor.

DOCTOR. Good evening, Lisa, my dear. (He stands up R and looks around the room at the masses of books everywhere)

LISA. (moving to R of the table RC) Hello, Doctor Stoner.

MRS. ROPER. (picking up her bag) Well, I must be off. Oh, Miss Koletzky, I’ll bring in another quarter of tea in the morning, we’re right out again. ’Bye!

MRS. ROPER exits up C, closing the doors behind her. The DOCTOR crosses below the sofa to R of it.

DOCTOR. Well, Lisa, and how goes it?

LISA moves about the table RC and marks her place in the book, with a piece of flower wrapping paper.

Has Karl been buying books again, or is it only my fancy that there are more than usual? (He busies himself clearing the books from the sofa and putting them on the table RC)

LISA picks up the remainder of the wrapping paper, crosses to the wastepaper basket above the desk and drops the paper in it.

LISA. (moving to L of the sofa) I have forbidden him to buy more, Doctor. Already there is practically nowhere to sit down.

DOCTOR. You are quite right to read him the riot act, Lisa, but you won’t succeed. Karl would rather have a book for dinner than a piece of roast beef. How is Anya?

LISA. She has been very depressed and in bad spirits today. Yesterday she seemed a little better and more cheerful.

DOCTOR. (sitting on the sofa at the right end) Yes, yes, that’s the way it goes. (He sighs) Is Karl with her now?

LISA. Yes.

DOCTOR. He never fails her.

The barrel organ music ceases.

You realize, my dear, don’t you, that Karl is a very remarkable man? People feel it, you know, they’re influenced by him.

LISA. He makes his effect, yes.

DOCTOR. (sharply) Now, what do you mean by that, young woman?

LISA. (taking the book from under her arm) “There are no fields of amaranth this side of the grave.”

The DOCTOR takes the book from LISA and looks at the title.

DOCTOR. H’m. Walter Savage Landor. What’s your exact meaning, Lisa, in quoting him?

LISA. Just that you know and I know that there are no fields of amaranth this side of the grave. But Karl doesn’t know. For him the fields of amaranth are here and now, and that can be dangerous.

DOCTOR. Dangerous—to him?

LISA. Not only to him. Dangerous to others, to those who care for him, who depend on him. Men like Karl . . . (She breaks off)

DOCTOR. (after a pause) Yes?

Voices are heard off down R, and as LISA hears them she moves to the work-table up L and sets it R of the armchair. KARL enters down R pushing ANYA HENDRYK in a wheelchair. ANYA is a woman of about thirty-eight, fretful and faded with a trace of former prettiness. On occasions her manner shows she has at one time been a coquettish and pretty young girl. Mostly she is a querulous and whining invalid.

KARL. (as he enters) I thought I heard your voice, Doctor.

DOCTOR. (rising) Good evening, Anya, you look very well this evening.

KARL pushes the wheelchair to C and sets it R of the work-table.

ANYA. I may look well, Doctor, but I don’t feel it. How can I feel well cooped up here all day?

DOCTOR. (Cheerfully) But you have that nice balcony outside your bedroom window. (He sits on the sofa) You can sit out there and get the air and the sunshine and see what’s going on all around you.

ANYA. As if there’s anything worth looking at going on round me. All these drab houses and all the drab people who live in them. Ah, when I think of our lovely little house and the garden and all our nice furniture—everything gone. It’s too much, Doctor, it’s too much to lose everything you have.

KARL. Come, Anya, you still have a fine upstanding husband.

LISA brings the flowers from the table RC and puts them on the work-table.

ANYA. Not such an upstanding husband as he was—(To LISA) is he?

LISA laughs at ANYA’s little joke and exits up C.

You stoop, Karl, and your hair is grey.

KARL. (sitting on the left arm of the sofa) That is a pity, but you must put up with me as I am.

ANYA. (miserably) I feel worse every day, Doctor. My back aches and I’ve got a twitching in this left arm. I don’t think that last medicine suits me.

DOCTOR. Then we must try something else.

ANYA. The drops are all right, the ones for my heart, but Lisa only gives me four at a time. She says that you said I mustn’t take more. But I think I’ve got used to them and it would be better if I took six or eight.

DOCTOR. Lisa is carrying out my orders. That is why I have told her not to leave them near you in case you should take too many. They are dangerous, you know.

ANYA. It’s just as well you don’t leave them near me. I’m sure if you did, one day I should take the whole bottle and finish it all.

DOCTOR. No, no, my dear. You wouldn’t do that.

ANYA. What good am I to anyone, just lying there, ill and a nuisance to everyone? Oh, I know they’re kind enough, but they must feel me a terrible burden.

KARL. (rising and affectionately patting ANYA’s shoulder) You are not a burden to me, Anya.

ANYA. That’s what you say, but I must be.

KARL. No, you’re not.

ANYA. I know I am. It’s not as though I am gay and amusing like I used to be. I’m just an invalid now, fretful and cross with nothing amusing to say or do.

KARL. No, no, my dear.

ANYA. If I were only dead and out of the way, Karl could marry—a young handsome wife who would help him in his career.

KARL. You would be surprised if you knew how many men’s careers have been ruined by marrying young handsome wives when they themselves are middle-aged.

ANYA. You know what I mean. I’m just a burden on you.

KARL shakes his head at ANYA, gently smiling.

DOCTOR. (writing a prescription on his pad) We’ll try a tonic. A new tonic.

LISA enters up C. She carries a tray of coffee for four which she puts on the table RC.

LISA. Have you seen your flowers, Anya? Karl brought them for you. (She pours the coffee)

KARL moves above the work-table and picks up the vase for ANYA to see.

ANYA. I don’t want to be reminded of spring. Spring in this horrible city. You remember the woods and how we went and picked the little wild daffodils? Ah, life was so happy, then, so easy. We didn’t know what was coming. Now, the world is hateful, horrible, all drab grey, and our friends are scattered, and most of them are dead, and we have to live in a foreign country.

LISA hands a cup of coffee to the doctor.

DOCTOR. Thank you, Lisa.

KARL. There are worse things.

ANYA. I know you think I complain all the time, but—if I were well I should be brave and bear it all.

ANYA puts her hand out and KARL kisses it. LISA hands a cup of coffee to ANYA.

KARL. I know, my dear, I know. You have a lot to bear.

ANYA. You don’t know anything about it.

The front door bell rings. LISA exits in the hall to R.

You’re well and strong and so is Lisa. What have I ever done that this should happen to me?

KARL. (taking her hand in his) Dearest—dearest—I understand.

LISA. (off) Good afternoon.

HELEN. (off) Could I see Professor Hendryk, please?

LISA. (off) Would you come this way, please.

LISA enters up C from R. HELEN ROLLANDER follows her on. HELEN is a beautiful and self-assured girl of about twenty-three. KARL moves above the armchair.

(She stands L of the doors) Miss Rollander to see you, Karl.

HELEN goes straight toward KARL. Her manner is assured and charming. LISA watches her sharply. The DOCTOR rising, is intrigued and interested.

HELEN. I do hope you don’t mind my butting in like this. I got your private address from Lester Cole.

LISA crosses to the table RC and pours more coffee.

KARL. (moving up L of ANYA) Of course I do not mind. May I introduce you to my wife—Miss Rollander.

HELEN stands R of ANYA. LISA gives KARL a cup of coffee.

HELEN. (with great charm) How do you do, Mrs. Hendryk?

ANYA. How do you do? I am, you see, an invalid. I cannot get up.

HELEN. Of course not. I’m so sorry. I hope you don’t mind my coming, but I’m a pupil of your husband’s. I wanted to consult him about something.

KARL. (indicating them in turn) This is Miss Koletzky and Dr. Stoner.

HELEN. (to LISA) How do you do? (She crosses to the DOCTOR and shakes hands) How do you do? (She moves up C)

DOCTOR. How do you do?

HELEN. (looking round the room) So this is where you live. Books, books, and books. (She moves down to the sofa, then sits on it)

DOCTOR. Yes, Miss Rollander, you are very fortunate in being able to sit down. I cleared that sofa only five minutes ago.

HELEN. Oh, I’m always lucky.

KARL. Would you like some coffee?

HELEN. No, thank you. Professor Hendryk, I wonder if I could speak to you for a moment alone?

LISA looks up sharply from her coffee at KARL.

KARL. (rather coldly) I’m afraid our accommodation is rather limited. This is the only sitting-room.

HELEN. Oh, well, I expect you know what I’m going to say. You told me today that your time was so taken up that you couldn’t accept any more private pupils. I’ve come to ask you to change your mind, to make an exception in my favour.

KARL crosses above ANYA to L of HELEN, looks at LISA as he passes and hands her his cup and saucer.

KARL. I’m very sorry, Miss Rollander, but my time is absolutely booked up.

HELEN speaks with great pace and assurance, almost gabbling.

HELEN. You can’t put me off like that. I happen to know that after you refused me you agreed to take Sydney Abrahamson privately, so you see you had got time. You preferred him to me. Why?

KARL. If you want an honest answer . . .

HELEN. I do. I hate beating about the bush.

KARL. I think Sydney is more likely to profit than you are.

HELEN. Do you mean you think he’s got a better brain than I have?

KARL. No, I would not say that, but he has, shall I say, a greater desire for learning.

HELEN. Oh, I see. You think I’m not serious?

KARL does not answer.

But I am serious. The truth is you’re prejudiced. You think that because I’m rich, because I’ve been a deb, and done all the silly things that debs do—you think I’m not in earnest.

ANYA. (finding HELEN’s chatter is too much; interrupting) Karl.

HELEN. But, believe me, I am.

ANYA. Oh, dear—I wonder—Karl!

KARL. (moving to R of ANYA) Yes, my darling?

ANYA. My head—I don’t feel terribly well.

HELEN is put out by ANYA’s interruption, and takes some cigarettes and a lighter from her handbag.

I’m sorry—er—Miss Rollander, but if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll go back to my own room.

HELEN. (rather bored) Of course, I quite understand.

KARL pushes the chair towards the door down R. The DOCTOR moves to the door, opens it and takes charge of the chair. KARL stands R of the sofa.

ANYA. My heart feels—very odd tonight. Doctor, don’t you think you could . . . ?

DOCTOR. Yes, yes, I think we can find something that will help you. Karl, will you bring my bag?

The DOCTOR wheels ANYA off down R. KARL picks up the DOCTOR’s bag.

KARL. (to HELEN) Excuse me please.

KARL exits down R.

Poor Mrs. Hendryk, has she been an invalid long? (She lights her cigarette)

LISA. (drinking her coffee and watching HELEN) Five years.

HELEN. Five years! Poor man.

LISA. Poor man?

HELEN. I was thinking of him dancing attendance on her all the time. She likes him to dance attendance, doesn’t she?

LISA. He’s her husband.

HELEN. (rising, crossing below the armchair and standing down L) He’s a very kind man, isn’t he? But one can be too kind. Pity is weakening, don’t you think? I’m afraid I’m not in the least kind. I never pity anybody. I can’t help it, I’m made that way. (She sits on the left arm of the armchair)

LISA moves to the work-table and takes ANYA’s cup and saucer to the tray.

Do you live here, too?

LISA. I look after Mrs. Hendryk and the flat.

HELEN. Oh, you poor dear, how awful for you.

LISA. Not at all. I like it.

HELEN. (vaguely) Don’t they have household helps or something who go around and do that sort of thing for invalids? (She rises and moves above the armchair) I should have thought it would be much more fun for you to train for something and take a job.

LISA. There is no need for me to train. I am already a trained physicist.

HELEN. Oh, but then you could get a job quite easily. (She stubs out her cigarette in the ashtray on the desk)

LISA. I already have a job—here.

KARL enters down R, collects the bottle of medicine and glass from the shelves by the door, then moves to the bookshelves up R. LISA picks up the coffee and tray and exits with it up C.

HELEN. (crossing below the armchair to C) Well, Professor Hendryk, can I come?

KARL. I’m afraid the answer is no. (He pours some water from the jug on the bookcase shelf into the medicine glass, then moves to the door down R)

HELEN. (crossing to KARL) You don’t understand. I want to come. I want to be taught. Oh, please, you can’t refuse me. (She comes close to him and puts a hand on his arm)

KARL. (drawing back a little) But I can refuse you, you know. (He smiles at her quite gently and kindly)

HELEN. But why, why? Daddy’ll pay you heaps if you let me come. Double the ordinary fee. I know he will.

KARL. I’m sure your father would do anything you ask him, but it’s not a question of money.

HELEN turns to C. LISA enters up C and stands above the table RC.

(He turns to LISA) Lisa, give Miss Rollander a glass of sherry, will you. I must go back to Anya. (He turns to go)

HELEN. Professor Hendryk!

KARL. My wife is having one of her bad days. I know you’ll excuse me if I go back to her now.

KARL smiles very charmingly at HELEN then exits down R. HELEN looks after him. LISA takes a bottle of sherry from the bookcase, cupboard R. HELEN, after a slight pause, makes a decision and collects her handbag and gloves from the sofa.

HELEN. No, thanks, I don’t want any sherry. I’ll be going now. (She moves towards the double doors, then pauses and looks back)

The DOCTOR enters down R and stands by the door.

I shall get my own way, you know. I always do.

HELEN sweeps out up C.

LISA. (taking some glasses from the cupboard) You will have a glass of sherry, Doctor?

DOCTOR. Thank you. (He crosses to LC and puts his bag down) That’s a very determined young woman.

LISA. (pouring two glasses of sherry) Yes. She has fallen in love with Karl, of course.

DOCTOR. I suppose that happens fairly often?

LISA. Oh, yes. I remember being frightfully in love myself with my professor of mathematics. He never even noticed me. (She crosses to the DOCTOR, hands him a glass of sherry, then sits on the left arm of the sofa)

DOCTOR. But you were probably younger than that girl.

LISA. Yes, I was younger.

DOCTOR. (sitting in the armchair) You don’t think that Karl may respond?

LISA. One never knows. I don’t think so.

DOCTOR. He’s used to it, you mean?

LISA. He’s not used to it from quite that type of girl. Most of the students are rather an unattractive lot, but this girl has beauty and glamour and money—and she wants him very badly.

DOCTOR. So you are afraid.

LISA. No, I’m not afraid, not for Karl. I know what Karl is. I know what Anya means to him and always will. If I am afraid . . . (She hesitates)

DOCTOR. Yes?

LISA. Oh, what does it matter? (She takes refuge in her sherry)

KARL enters down R.

KARL. (crossing to RC) So my importunate young lady has gone.

LISA rises and pours a glass of sherry for KARL.

DOCTOR. A very beautiful girl. Are many of your students like that, Karl?

KARL. Fortunately, no, or we should have more complications than we have already. (He sits on the sofa at the left end)

DOCTOR. (rising) You must be careful, my boy. (He sets down his glass and picks up his bag, then moves up C)

KARL. (amused) Oh, I am careful. I have to be.

LISA moves up RC.

DOCTOR. And if you do give her private lessons, have Lisa there as chaperon. Good night, Lisa.

LISA. Good night, Doctor.

The DOCTOR exits up C, closing the doors behind him. LISA moves to L of KARL and hands him the glass of sherry. There is a pause.

(She moves to the door down R) I’d better go to Anya.

KARL. No. She said she wanted to be left to rest a little. (He pauses) I’m afraid it upset her, that girl coming.

LISA. Yes, I know.

KARL. It’s the contrast between her life and—the other. And she says she gets jealous, too. Anya’s always convinced I’m going to fall in love with one of my students.

LISA. (sitting beside KARL on the sofa) Perhaps you will.

KARL. (sharply and significantly) Can you say that?

LISA. (turning away and shrugging her shoulders) It might happen.

KARL. Never. And you know it.

There is a rather constrained pause. They both stare into their glasses.

Why do you stay with us?

LISA does not answer.

(After a pause) Why do you stay with us?

LISA. You know perfectly why I stay.

KARL. I think it’s wrong for you. I think perhaps you should go back.

LISA. Go back? Go back where?

KARL. There’s nothing against you and never was. You could go back and take up your old post. They’d leap at the chance of having you.

LISA. Perhaps, but I don’t want to go.

KARL. But perhaps you should go.

LISA. Should go? Should go? What do you mean?

KARL. This is no life for you.

LISA. It’s the life I choose.

KARL. It’s wrong for you. Go back. Go away. Have a life of your own.

LISA. I have a life of my own.

KARL. You know what I mean. Marry. Have children.

LISA. I do not think I shall marry.

KARL. Not if you stay here, but if you go away . . .

LISA. Do you want me to go? (She pauses) Answer me, do you want me to go?

KARL. (with difficulty) No, I don’t want you to go.

LISA. Then don’t let’s talk about it. (She rises, takes KARL’s glass and puts it with her own on the bookcase shelf)

KARL. Do you remember the concert in the Kursaal that day? It was August and very hot. An immensely fat soprano sang the Liebestod. She did not sing it well, either. We were not impressed, either of us. You had a green coat and skirt and a funny little velvet hat. Odd isn’t it, how there are some things that one never forgets, that one never will forget? I don’t know what happened the day before that, or what happened the day after it, but I remember that afternoon very well. The gold chairs and the platform, the orchestra wiping their foreheads and the fat soprano bowing and kissing her hand. And then they played the Rachmaninoff piano concerto. Do you remember, Lisa?

LISA. (calmly) Of course.

KARL hums the tune of the “Rachmaninoff piano concerto.”

KARL. I can hear it now. (He hums)

The front door bell rings.

Now, who’s that?

LISA turns abruptly and exits up C to R.

ROLLANDER. (off) Good evening. Is Professor Hendryk in?

KARL picks up a book and glances through it.

LISA. (off) Yes. Will you come in, please?

SIR WILLIAM ROLLANDER enters up C from R. He is a tall, grey-haired man of forceful personality. LISA follows him on, closes the doors and stands behind the armchair.

ROLLANDER. (moving down C.) Professor Hendryk? My name is Rollander. (He holds out his hand)

KARL rises, puts the book on the table RC and shakes ROLLANDER’s hand.

KARL. How do you do? This is Miss Koletzky.

ROLLANDER. How do you do?

LISA. How do you do?

ROLLANDER. I have a daughter who studies under you, Professor Hendryk.

KARL. Yes, that is so.

ROLLANDER. She feels that the attending of lectures in a class is not sufficient for her. She would like you to give her extra private tuition.

KARL. I’m afraid that is not possible. (He moves away below the right end of the sofa)

ROLLANDER. Yes, I know that she has already approached you on the matter and that you have refused. But I should like to reopen the subject if I may.

LISA sits in the desk chair.

KARL. (calmly) Certainly, Sir William, but I do not think that you will alter my decision.

ROLLANDER. I should like to understand first your reasons for refusing. They are not quite clear to me.

KARL. They are quite simple. Please do sit down. (He indicates the sofa) Your daughter is charming and intelligent, but she is not in my opinion the stuff of which true scholars are made.

ROLLANDER. (sitting on the sofa at the left end) Isn’t that rather an arbitrary decision?

KARL. (smiling) I think you have the popular belief that learning is a thing that can be stuffed into people as you put stuffing into a goose. (He sits on the right arm of the sofa) Perhaps it would be easier for you to understand if it was a question of music. If your daughter had a pretty and tuneful voice and you brought her to a singing teacher and wanted her trained for opera, a conscientious and honest teacher would tell you frankly that her voice was not suitable for opera. Would never be suitable with all the training in the world.

ROLLANDER. Well, you’re the expert. I must, I suppose, bow to your ruling on that.

KARL. Do you, yourself, really believe that your daughter wants to take up an academic career?

ROLLANDER. No, quite frankly, I do not think so. But she thinks so, Professor Hendryk. Shall we put it as simply as this, that I want my daughter to have what she wants.

KARL. A common parental weakness.

ROLLANDER. As you say, a common parental weakness. My position, however, is more uncommon than that of some parents. I am, as you may or may not know, a rich man—to put it simply.

KARL. I am aware of that, Sir William. I read the newspapers. I think it was only a few days ago that I read the description of the exotically fitted luxury car which you were having specially built as a present for your daughter.

ROLLANDER. Oh, that! Probably seems to you foolish and ostentatious. The reasons behind it, let me tell you, are mainly business ones. Helen’s not even particularly interested in the car. Her mind at the moment is set on serious subjects. That, I may say, is something for a change, for which I am thankful. She’s run around for a couple of years now with a set of people whom I don’t much care for. People without a thing in their heads except pleasure. Now she seems to want to go in for serious study and I am behind her one hundred per cent.

KARL. I can quite understand your point of view, but . . .

ROLLANDER. I’ll tell you a little more, Professor Hendryk. Helen is all that I have. Her mother died when she was seven years old. I loved my wife and I’ve never married again. All that I have left of her is Helen. I’ve always given Helen every single mortal thing she wanted.

KARL. That was natural, I’m sure, but has it been wise?

ROLLANDER. Probably not, but it’s become a habit of life, now. And Helen’s a fine girl, Professor Hendryk. I dare say she’s made her mistakes, she’s been foolish, but the only way you can learn about life is by experience. The Spanish have a proverb, “ ‘Take what you want and pay for it,’ says God.” That’s sound, Professor Hendryk, very sound.

KARL. (rising and crossing to R of the work-table) The payment may be high.

ROLLANDER. Helen wants private tuition from you. I want to give it to her. I’m prepared to pay your price.

KARL. (coldly) It’s not a question of price, Sir William. I’m not in the market for the highest fees I can get. I have a responsibility to my profession. My time and energy are limited. I have two good scholars, poor men, but they rate with me in priority above your daughter. You will forgive me for speaking frankly.

ROLLANDER. I appreciate your point of view, but I am not so insensitive as you may think. I quite realize it isn’t just a question of money. But in my belief, Professor Hendryk—and I’m a business man—every man has his price.

KARL shrugs his shoulders and sits in the armchair.

KARL. You are entitled to your opinion.

ROLLANDER. Your wife is, I believe, suffering from disseminated sclerosis.

KARL. (surprised) That is quite true. But how—did you . . . ?

ROLLANDER. (interrupting) When I approach a proposition I find out all about it beforehand. That disease, Professor Hendryk, is one about which very little is known. It responds to palliatives but there is no known cure, and although the subject of it may live for many years, complete recovery is unknown. That, I think, speaking in non-medical terms, is fairly correct?

KARL. Yes, that is correct.

ROLLANDER. But you may have heard or read of a sensational new treatment started in America, of which there are great hopes. I don’t pretend to speak with any kind of medical knowledge or accuracy, but I believe that a new expensively produced antibiotic has been discovered which has an appreciable effect upon the course of the disease. It is at present unprocurable in England, but a small quantity of the drug—or whatever you call it—has been sent to this country and will be used on a few specially selected cases. I have influence in that direction, Professor Hendryk. The Franklin Institute, where this work is going on, will accept your wife as a patient if I exert my influence there.

LISA rises and moves to L of KARL.

KARL. (quietly) Bribery and corruption.

ROLLANDER. (unoffended) Oh, yes, just as you say. Bribery and corruption. Not personal bribery, it wouldn’t work in your case. You would turn down any financial offer I made you. But can you afford to turn down a chance of your wife’s recovering her health?

There is a pause, then KARL rises and goes to the double doors up C. He stands there for quite a while, then turns and comes down C.

KARL. You are quite right, Sir William. I will accept your daughter as a pupil. I will give her private tutition and as much care and attention as I would my best pupil. Does that satisfy you?

ROLLANDER. It will satisfy her. She is the kind of girl who doesn’t take no for an answer. (He rises and faces KARL C) Well, you have my word for it that when they are ready at the Franklin Institute, your wife will be accepted as a patient. (He shakes hands with KARL) That will probably be in about two months’ time.

LISA moves to the doors C, opens them, then stands to one side.

It only remains for me to hope the treatment will be as successful as these cases in the United States seem to have been, and that I may congratulate you in a year’s time on your wife’s being restored to health and strength. Good night, Professor Hendryk. (He starts to go then stops and turns) By the way my daughter is waiting in the car downstairs to hear the result of my embassy. Do you mind if she comes up for a moment or two? I know she’d like to thank you.

KARL. Certainly, Sir William.

ROLLANDER exits up C to R. LISA follows him off. KARL moves to the desk chair and leans on the back of it.

ROLLANDER. (off) Good night.

LISA. (off) Good night, Sir William.

LISA re-enters, leaving the doors open. She stands up LC.

So the girl wins.

KARL. Do you think I should have refused?

LISA. No.

KARL. I have made Anya suffer so much already. For sticking to my principles I was turned out of the university at home. Anya has never really understood why. She never saw my point of view. It seemed to her that I behaved foolishly and quixotically. She suffered through it far more than I did. (He pauses) So now there is a chance of recovery and she must have it. (He sits at the desk)

LISA. What about those two students? Won’t one of them have to go to the wall?

KARL. Of course not. I shall make the time. I can sit up late at night to do my own work.

LISA. You’re not so young as you were, Karl. You’re already overworking yourself.

KARL. Those two boys mustn’t suffer.

LISA. If you have a breakdown, everybody will suffer.

KARL. Then I mustn’t have a breakdown. It’s fortunate that no principle is involved here.

LISA. Very fortunate—(She looks towards the door down R) for Anya.

KARL. What do you mean by that, Lisa?

LISA. Nothing, really.

KARL. I don’t understand. I’m a very simple man.

LISA. Yes. That’s what’s so frightening about you.

The thump of ANYA’s stick is heard off R.

KARL. (rising) Anya is awake. (He moves towards the door down R)

LISA. (moving down C) No, I’ll go. Your new pupil will want to see you. (She goes towards the door down R)

KARL. (as she passes him) You do believe that I have done right? (He moves and stands below the armchair)

HELEN enters up C from R.

LISA. (pausing at the doorway and turning to KARL) What is right? How do we ever know till we see the result?

LISA exits down R.

HELEN. (in the doorway) The door was open so I came straight in. Is that all right?

KARL. (rather far away and staring after LISA) Of course.

HELEN. (moving to R of the armchair) I do hope you’re not angry. I dare say you feel I’m not much good as a scholar. But you see, I’ve never had any proper training. Only a silly sort of fashionable education. But I will work hard, I will, really.

KARL. (coming back to earth) Good. (He goes to the desk and makes some notes on a sheet of paper) We will commence a serious life of study. I can lend you some books. You shall take them away and read them, then you will come at an hour that we fix and I shall ask you certain questions as to the conclusions you draw from them. (He turns to HELEN) You understand?

HELEN. (moving up C) Yes. May I take the books now? Daddy’s waiting for me in the car.

KARL. Yes. That is a good idea. You’ll need to buy these. (He gives her the list he has written) Now, let me see. (He goes to the bookcase R of the double doors and picks out two large volumes, murmuring under his breath as he does so.)

HELEN watches KARL.

KARL. (Almost to himself as he picks the volumes) You must have Lecomte, yes, and possibly Wertfor. (To HELEN) Do you read German? (He moves to L of the table RC)

HELEN. (moving to L of KARL) I know a little hotel German.

KARL. (sternly) You must study German. It is impossible to get anywhere without knowing French and German thoroughly. You should study German grammar and composition three days a week.

HELEN makes a slight grimace.

(He looks sharply at HELEN and hands her the two books) The books are rather heavy, I’m afraid.

HELEN. (taking the books and nearly dropping them) Ooh—I should say they are. (She sits on the left arm of the sofa and glances through the books) It looks rather difficult. (She leans on KARL’s shoulder slightly as she looks at the books) You want me to read all of it?

KARL. I should like you to read it through with especial attention to chapter four and chapter eight.

HELEN. (leaning almost against him) I see.

KARL. (crossing to the desk) Shall we say next Wednesday afternoon at four o’clock?

HELEN. (rising) Here? (She puts the books on the sofa)

KARL. No. At my room in the university.

HELEN. (rather pleased) Oh, thank you, Professor Hendryk. (She crosses above the armchair to R of KARL) I really am grateful. I am indeed, and I shall try very hard. Please don’t be against me.

KARL. I’m not against you.

HELEN. Yes, you are. You feel you’ve been bullied into this by me and my father. But I’ll do you credit. I will, really.

KARL. (smiling) Then that is understood. There is no more to be said.

HELEN. It’s sweet of you. Very sweet of you. I am grateful. (She gives KARL a sudden quick kiss on the cheek, then turns away, gathers up the books, moves up C and stands in the doorway, smiling at KARL. Coyly) Wednesday. At four?

HELEN exits up C to R, leaving the doors open. KARL looks after her with some surprise. His hand goes to his cheek and he finds lipstick on it. He wipes his cheek with his handkerchief, smiles, then shakes his head a little doubtfully. He goes to the record player, puts on the record of the “Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto,” switches on, then goes to the desk and sits. He starts to do a little work, but pauses to listen to the music. LISA enters down R. She stands there a moment, listening and watching KARL, but he is not aware that she is there. Her hands go up slowly to her face as she tries to retain composure, then suddenly she breaks down, rushes to the sofa and slumps on to the right end of it.

LISA. Don’t. Don’t. Take it off.

KARL, startled, swings round.

KARL. (puzzled) It’s the Rachmaninoff, Lisa. You and I have always loved it.

LISA. I know. That’s why I can’t bear it just now. Take it off.

KARL rises and stops the music.

KARL. (crossing to L of the sofa) You know, Lisa. You’ve always known.

LISA. Don’t. We’ve never said anything.

KARL. But we’ve known, haven’t we?

LISA. (in a different, matter-of-fact voice) Anya is asking for you.

KARL. (coming out of a kind of dream) Yes. Yes, of course. I’ll go to her.

KARL crosses and exits down R. LISA stares after him in an attitude of despair.

LISA. Karl. (She beats her hands on the sofa) Karl. Oh, Karl.

LISA collapses miserably, her head in her hands, over the right arm of the sofa as the lights BLACK OUT and

the CURTAIN falls.

Scene II

SCENE: The same. A fortnight later. Afternoon.

When the CURTAIN rises, the lights come up. The right half of the double doors is open. ANYA is in her wheelchair C, with her work-table L of her. She is knitting. KARL is seated at the desk, making notes from various books. MRS. ROPER is dusting the shelves of the bookcase R. Her vacuum cleaner is below the sofa. LISA enters from her bedroom, comes into the room and picks up her handbag from the armchair. She is dressed ready for going out.

ANYA. (vexedly; half crying) I’ve dropped another stitch. Two stitches. Oh, dear!

LISA replaces her handbag on the armchair, leans over the work-table and takes the knitting.

LISA. I’ll pick them up for you.

ANYA. It’s no good my trying to knit. Look at my hands. They won’t keep still. It’s all hopeless.

MRS. ROPER moves to R of the table RC and dusts the books on it.

MRS. ROPER. Our life’s a vale of tears, they do say. Did you see that piece in the paper this morning? Two little girls drowned in a canal. Lovely children, they were. (She leaves the duster on the table RC, moves below the sofa, picks up the vacuum cleaner and moves towards the door down R) By the way, Miss Koletzky, we’re out of tea again.

MRS. ROPER exits down R. LISA has sorted out the knitting and returns it to ANYA.

LISA. There. That’s all right now.

ANYA. Shall I ever get well again?

MRS. ROPER re-enters down R, collects her duster on the table RC.

(Wistfully and rather sweetly) I want so much to get well.

MRS. ROPER. ’Course you will, dearie, of course you will. Never say die. (She dusts the chair L of the table RC) My Joyce’s eldest he has fits something shocking. Doctor says he’ll grow out of it, but I don’t know myself. (She crosses above the table RC to the door down R, giving an odd flick with the duster here and there) I’ll do the bedroom now, shall I? So that it’ll be ready for you when the doctor comes.

LISA. If you please, Mrs. Roper.

MRS. ROPER exits down R, leaving the door open.

ANYA. You’d better go, Lisa, you’ll be late.

LISA. (hesitating) If you would like me to stay . . .

ANYA. No, of course I don’t want you to stay. Your friends are only here for one day. Of course you must see them. It’s bad enough to be a helpless invalid without feeling that you’re spoiling everybody else’s pleasure.

MRS. ROPER, off, interrupts the calm with the sound of the vacuum cleaner and by singing an old music hall song in a raucous voice.

KARL. Oh, please!

LISA. (crossing to the door down R and calling) Mrs. Roper. Mrs. Roper.

The vacuum and the singing stop.

Do you mind? The Professor is trying to work.

MRS. ROPER. (off) Sorry, miss.

LISA crosses above ANYA to the armchair and picks up her handbag. She is rather amused at the incident, and KARL and ANYA join in. KARL fills his brief-case with papers and books.

ANYA. Do you remember our little Mitzi?

LISA. Ah, yes, Mitzi.

ANYA. Such a nice, willing little maid. Always laughing and such pretty manners. She made good pastry, too.

LISA. She did.

KARL. (rising and picking up his brief-case) There now, I am all ready for my lecture.

LISA. (moving to the doors up C) I’ll be back as soon as I can, Anya. Good-bye, Anya.

ANYA. Enjoy yourself.

LISA. Good-bye, Karl.

KARL. Good-bye, Lisa.

LISA exits up C to R.

(He moves below the armchair) Someday, sweetheart, you will be well and strong. (He sits in the armchair and fastens his brief-case)

ANYA. No, I shan’t. You talk to me as though I were a child or an imbecile. I’m ill. I’m very ill and I get worse and worse. You all pretend to be so bright and cheerful about it. You don’t know how irritating it is.

KARL. (gently) I am sorry. Yes, I can see it must be very irritating sometimes.

ANYA. And I irritate and weary you.

KARL. Of course you don’t.

ANYA. Oh, yes, I do. You’re so patient and so good, but really you must long for me to die and set you free.

KARL. Anya, Anya, don’t say these things. You know they are not true.

ANYA. Nobody ever thinks of me. Nobody ever considers me. It was the same when you lost your Chair at the university. Why did you have to take the Schultzes in?

KARL. They were our friends, Anya.

ANYA. You never really liked Schultz or agreed with his views. When he got into trouble with the police we should have avoided them altogether. It was the only safe thing to do.

KARL. It was no fault of his wife and children, and they were left destitute. Somebody had to help them.

ANYA. It need not have been us.

KARL. But they were our friends, Anya. You can’t desert your friends when they are in trouble.

ANYA. You can’t, I know that. But you didn’t think of me. The result of it was you were told to resign and we had to leave our home and our friends and come away to this cold, grey, horrible country.

KARL. (rising, crossing and putting his brief-case on the left arm of the sofa) Come now, Anya, it’s not so bad.

ANYA. Not for you, I dare say. They’ve given you a post at the university in London and it’s all the same to you, as long as you have books and your studies. But I’m ill.

KARL. (crossing to R of ANYA) I know, dearest.

ANYA. And I have no friends here. I lie alone day after day with no-one to speak to, nothing interesting to hear, no gossip. I knit and I drop the stitches.

KARL. There now . . .

ANYA. You don’t understand. You don’t understand anything. You can’t really care for me, or you would understand.

KARL. Anya, Anya. (He kneels beside her)

ANYA. You’re selfish, really, selfish and hard. You don’t care for anyone but yourself.

KARL. My poor Anya.

ANYA. It’s all very well to say “poor Anya.” Nobody really cares about me or thinks about me.

KARL. (gently) I think about you. I remember when I saw you first. In your little jacket all gaily embroidered in wool. We went for a picnic up the mountain. Narcissus were out. You took off your shoes and walked through the long grass. Do you remember? Such pretty little shoes and such pretty little feet.

ANYA. (with a sudden pleased smile) I always had small feet.

KARL. The prettiest feet in the world. The prettiest girl. (He gently strokes her hair)

ANYA. Now I’m faded and old and sick. No use to anybody.

KARL. To me you are the same Anya. Always the same.

The front door bell rings.

(He rises) That’s Dr. Stoner, I expect. (He goes behind the wheelchair and straightens the cushions.)

MRS. ROPER enters down R.

MRS. ROPER. Shall I see who it is?

MRS. ROPER exits up C to R. KARL goes to the desk, picks up a couple of pencils and puts them in his pocket. There is a sound of the front door opening and closing and voices off. MRS. ROPER enters up C from R. HELEN follows her on. She is carrying the two books which she borrowed.

It’s a young lady to see you, sir. (She moves slowly down R)

KARL moves up LC.

HELEN. (moving to R of KARL) I’ve brought some of your books back. I thought you might be wanting them. (She stops on seeing ANYA and her face drops)

KARL. (taking the books from HELEN and moving to L of ANYA) Dearest, you remember Miss Rollander?

HELEN. (moving up R of ANYA) How are you, Mrs. Hendryk? I do hope you are feeling better.

ANYA. I never feel better.

HELEN. (devoid of feeling) I am sorry. (She goes above the table RC)

The front door bell rings. KARL goes to the desk, puts the books down, then moves up C.

KARL. That’ll be Dr. Stoner now.

KARL exits up C to R. MRS. ROPER enters down R, carrying a wastepaper basket. She goes to the shelf below the bookcase R and empties an ashtray into the basket. HELEN glances idly through a book on the table RC.

MRS. ROPER. I’ll finish the bedroom later. I’d better slip out for the tea before he shuts.

KARL. (off) Hello, Doctor. Come in.

DOCTOR. (off) Well, Karl, it’s a lovely day.

KARL enters up C from R and stands L of the doorway. The DOCTOR follows him on.

KARL. I’d like a word with you alone, Doctor.

MRS. ROPER exits up C to L, leaving the door open.

DOCTOR. Yes, of course. (He moves to L of ANYA) Well, Anya, it’s a lovely spring day.

ANYA. Is it?

KARL. (moving down C) Will you excuse us a moment? (He crosses below the sofa to the door down R)

HELEN. (moving to R of the table RC) Yes, of course.

DOCTOR. Good afternoon, Miss Rollander.

HELEN. Good afternoon, Doctor.

The DOCTOR crosses below KARL and exits down R. KARL follows him off, closing the door behind him. MRS. ROPER comes into the hall from L. She carries her coat and shopping bag. She leaves the bag in the hall, comes into the room and puts on her coat.

MRS. ROPER. It’s too hot for the time of the year—

HELEN moves around R of the sofa and sits on it at the right end, takes a cigarette case from her handbag and lights a cigarette.

—gets me in the joints it does when it’s like that. So stiff I was this morning I could hardly get out of bed. I’ll be right back with the tea, Mrs. Hendryk. Oh, and about the tea, I’ll get half a pound shall I?

ANYA. If you like, if you like.

MRS. ROPER. Ta-ta, so long.

MRS. ROPER goes into the hall, collects her shopping bag and exits to R.

ANYA. It is she who drinks the tea. She always says we need more tea, but we use hardly any. We drink coffee.

HELEN. I suppose these women always pinch things, don’t they?

ANYA. And they think we are foreigners and we shall not know.

There is a pause. ANYA knits.

I’m afraid it is very dull for you, Miss Rollander, with only me to talk to. Invalids are not very amusing company.

HELEN rises, moves up R and looks at the books in the bookcase.

HELEN. I really only came to bring back those books.

ANYA. Karl has too many books. Look at this room—look at the books everywhere. Students come and borrow the books and read them and leave them about, and then take them away and lose them. It is maddening—quite maddening.

HELEN. Can’t be much fun for you.

ANYA. I wish I were dead.

HELEN. (turning sharply to look at ANYA) Oh, you mustn’t say that.

ANYA. But it’s true. I’m a nuisance and a bore to everybody. To my cousin, Lisa, and to my husband. Do you think it is nice to know one is a burden on people?

HELEN. Do you? (She turns away to the bookcase)

ANYA. I’d be better dead, much better dead. Sometimes I think I will end it all. It will be quite easy. Just a little overdose of my heart medicine and then everybody will be happy and free and I’d be at peace. Why should I go on suffering?

HELEN crosses above the armchair to the desk and looks out of the window.

HELEN. (bored and unsympathetic; with a sigh) Must be awful for you.

ANYA. You don’t know, you can’t possibly understand. You’re young and good-looking and rich and have everything you want. And here am I, miserable, helpless, always suffering, and nobody cares. Nobody really cares.

The DOCTOR enters down R and crosses to R of ANYA. KARL follows him on and stands below the sofa. HELEN turns.

DOCTOR. Well, Anya, Karl tells me you’re going into the clinic in about two weeks’ time.

ANYA. It won’t do any good. I’m sure of it.

DOCTOR. Come, come, you mustn’t say that. I was reading a most interesting article in The Lancet the other day, which dealt with the matter. Only an outline, but it was interesting. Of course we’re very cautious in this country about the prospect of this new treatment. Afraid to commit ourselves. Our American cousins rush ahead, but there certainly seems to be a good chance of success with it.

ANYA. I don’t really believe in it, it won’t do any good.

DOCTOR. Now, Anya, don’t be a little misery. (He pushes the wheelchair towards the door down R)

KARL moves to the door down R and holds it open.

We’ll have your weekly overhaul now and I’ll see whether you’re doing me credit as a patient or not.

ANYA. I can’t knit any more, my hands shake so, I drop the stitches.

KARL takes the chair from the DOCTOR and pushes ANYA off down R.

KARL. There’s nothing in that, is there, Doctor?

DOCTOR. No, no, nothing at all.

KARL exits with ANYA down R. The DOCTOR follows them off. KARL re-enters and closes the door. He rather ignores HELEN who stubs out her cigarette in the ashtray on the desk and crosses to LC.

KARL. (collecting his brief-case) I’m afraid I have to go out, I have a lecture at half past four.

HELEN. Are you angry with me for coming?

KARL. (formally) Of course not. It is very kind of you to return the books.

HELEN. (moving to L of KARL) You are angry with me. You’ve been so brusque—so abrupt, lately. What have I done to make you angry? You were really cross yesterday.

KARL. (crossing above HELEN to the desk) Of course I was cross. (He takes a book from the desk and crosses below HELEN to L of the sofa) You say that you want to learn, that you want to study and take your diploma, and then you do not work.

HELEN. Well, I’ve been rather busy lately—there’s been a lot on . . .

KARL. You’re not stupid, you’ve got plenty of intelligence and brains, but you don’t take any trouble. How are you getting on with your German lessons?

HELEN. (very off-handedly) I haven’t arranged about them yet.

KARL. But you must, you must. It’s essential that you should be able to read German. (He crosses above the table RC to the bookcase R and takes a book) The books I give you to read, you do not read properly. I ask you questions and your answers are superficial. (He puts the books in his brief-case)

HELEN moves below the sofa.

HELEN. (kneeling on the sofa in rather a languid pose) It’s such a bore, working.

KARL. But you were eager to study, to take your diploma.

HELEN. The diploma can go to hell for all I care.

KARL. (dumping his brief-case on the left arm of the sofa in amazement) Then I don’t understand. You force me to teach you, you made your father come to me.

HELEN. I wanted to see you, to be near you. Are you quite blind, Karl? I’m in love with you.

KARL. (turning and taking a pace to C; amazed) What? But, my dear child . . .

HELEN. Don’t you like me even a little bit?

KARL. (crossing and standing down R) You’re a very desirable young woman but you must forget this nonsense.

HELEN. (rising and standing behind KARL) It’s not nonsense, I tell you I love you. Why can’t we be simple and natural about it all? I want you and you want me. You know you do—you’re the kind of man I want to marry. Well, why not? Your wife’s no good to you.

KARL. How little you understand. You talk like a child. I love my wife. (He crosses to C)

HELEN. (sitting on the sofa) Oh, I know. You’re a terribly kind person. You look after her and bring her cups of Bengers and all that, no doubt. But that isn’t love.

KARL. (crossing below the sofa to R; rather at a loss what to say) Isn’t it? I think it is. (He sits on the right arm of the sofa)

HELEN. Of course you must see that she’s properly looked after, but it needn’t interfere with your life as a man. If we have an affair together your wife needn’t know about it.

KARL. (firmly) My dear child, we’re not going to have an affair.

HELEN. I had no idea you were so straight-laced. (She is struck by an idea) I’m not a virgin, you know, if that’s what’s worrying you. I’ve had lots of experience.

KARL. Helen, don’t delude yourself. I am not in love with you.

HELEN. You may go on saying that till you’re blue in the face, but I don’t believe you.

KARL. Because you don’t want to believe me. But it is true. (He rises and moves down R) I love my wife. She is dearer to me than anyone in the world.

HELEN. (like a bewildered child) Why? Why? I mean, what can she possibly give you? I could give you everything. Money for research or for whatever you wanted.

KARL. But you would still not be Anya. (He sits on the right arm of the sofa) Listen . . .

HELEN. I dare say she was pretty and attractive once, but she’s not like that now.

KARL. She is. We don’t change. There is the same Anya there still. Life does things to us. Ill health, disappointment, exile, all these things from a crust covering over the real self. But the real self is still there.

HELEN. (rising, impatiently, moving down LC and turning to face KARL) I think you’re talking nonsense. If it were a real marriage—but it isn’t. It can’t be, in the circumstances.

KARL. It is a real marriage.

HELEN. Oh, you’re impossible! (She moves down L)

KARL. (rising) You see, you are only a child, you don’t understand.

HELEN crosses above the armchair to L of KARL. She is losing her temper.

HELEN. You are the child, wrapped up in a cloud of sentimentality, and pretence. You even humbug yourself. If you had courage—now, I’ve got courage and I’m a realist. I’m not afraid to look at things and see them as they are.

KARL. You are a child that hasn’t grown up.

HELEN. (exasperated) Oh! (She crosses above the armchair to the desk and stares rather furiously out of the window)

The DOCTOR pushes ANYA in down R.

DOCTOR. (as they enter; cheerfully) All very satisfactory.

KARL takes over from the DOCTOR and pushes ANYA to her usual place C. The DOCTOR goes up C.

ANYA. (as she is going across) That’s what he says. All doctors are liars.

KARL collects his brief-case.

DOCTOR. Well, I must be off. I have a consultation at half-past four. Good-bye, Anya. Good afternoon, Miss Rollander. I’m going up Gower Street, Karl, I can give you a lift if you like.

KARL. Thank you, Doctor.

DOCTOR. I’ll wait downstairs in the car.

The DOCTOR exits up C, closing the door behind him. KARL closes his brief-case and moves to R of ANYA

ANYA. Karl, forgive me, Karl.

KARL. Forgive you, sweetheart? What is there to forgive?

ANYA. Everything. My moods, my bad temper. But it isn’t really me, Karl. It’s just the illness. You do understand?

KARL. (with his arm affectionately round her shoulders) I understand.

HELEN half turns her head to look at them, frowns, and turns back to the window.

Nothing you say will ever hurt me because I know your heart.

KARL claps ANYA’s hand, they look at each other, and then she kisses his hand.

ANYA. Karl, you will be late for your lecture. You must go.

KARL. I wish I didn’t have to leave you.

ANYA. Mrs. Roper will be back any minute and she will stay with me till Lisa gets back.

HELEN. I’m not going anywhere in particular, I can stay with Mrs. Hendryk till Miss Koletzky gets back.

KARL. Would you, Helen?

HELEN. Of course.

KARL. That’s very kind of you. (To ANYA) Good-bye, darling.

ANYA. Good-bye.

KARL. Thank you, Helen.

KARL exits up C, closing the door behind him. The daylight starts to fade.

HELEN. (crossing above the wheelchair to the sofa) Is Miss Koletzky a relation? (She sits on the sofa)

ANYA. Yes, she’s my first cousin. She came to England with us and has stayed with us ever since. This afternoon she has gone to see some friends who are passing through London. They are at the Hotel Russell, not very far away. It is so seldom we see friends from our own country.

HELEN. Would you like to go back?

ANYA. We cannot go back. A friend of my husband’s, another professor, fell into disgrace because of his political view—he was arrested.

HELEN. How did that affect Professor Hendryk?

ANYA. His wife and children, you see, were left quite destitute. Professor Hendryk insisted that we should take them into our house. But when the authorities got to hear about it, they forced him to resign his position.

HELEN. Really, it didn’t seem worth it, did it?

ANYA. That’s what I felt, and I never liked Maria Schultz in the least. She was a most tiresome woman, always carping and criticizing and moaning about something or other. And the children were very badly behaved and very destructive. It seems too bad that because of them we had to leave our nice home and come over here practically as refugees. This will never be home.

HELEN. It does seem rather rough luck on you.

ANYA. Men don’t think of that. They only think of their ideas of what is right, or just, or one’s duty.

HELEN. I know. Such an awful bore. But men aren’t realists like we are.

There is a pause as HELEN lights a cigarette she has taken from a case in her handbag. A clock outside strikes four.

ANYA. (looking at her watch) Lisa never gave me my medicine before she went out. She is very tiresome sometimes the way she forgets things.

HELEN. (rising) Can I do anything?

ANYA. (pointing to the shelves on the wall down R) It’s on the little shelf over there.

HELEN moves to the shelves down R.

The little brown bottle. Four drops in water.

HELEN stubs out her cigarette in the ashtray on the cupboard R, and takes the bottle of medicine and a glass from the shelves.

It’s for my heart, you know. There’s a glass over there and a dropper.

HELEN moves to the bookshelves R.

Be careful, it’s very strong. That’s why they keep it out of reach. Sometimes I feel so terribly depressed and I threaten to kill myself, and they think perhaps if I had it near me I’d yield to temptation and take an overdose.

HELEN. (taking the dropper-stopper from the bottle) You often want to, I suppose?

ANYA. (complacently) Oh, yes, one feels so often that one would be better dead.

HELEN. Yes, I can understand that.

ANYA. But, of course, one must be brave and go on.

HELEN’s back is towards ANYA. She throws a quick glance over her shoulder. ANYA is not looking her way but is engrossed in her knitting. HELEN tilts the bottle and empties all the contents into the glass, adds some water then takes the glass to ANYA.

HELEN. (R of ANYA) Here you are.

ANYA. Thank you, my dear. (She take the glass in her left hand and sips)

HELEN stands up R of ANYA.

It tastes rather strong.

HELEN. Four drops, you said?

ANYA. Yes, that’s right. (She drinks it down quickly, then leans back and puts the glass on her work-table)

HELEN, tensely strung up, stands watching ANYA.

The Professor works much too hard, you know. He takes more pupils than he ought to do. I wish—I wish he could have an easier life.

HELEN. Perhaps some day he will.

ANYA. I doubt it. (With a little tender smile) He’s so good to everyone. So full of kindness. He is so good to me, so patient. (She catches her breath) Ah!

HELEN. What is it?

ANYA. Just—I don’t seem to be able to get my breath. You’re sure you didn’t give me too much?

HELEN. I gave you the right dose.

ANYA. I’m sure—I’m sure you did. I didn’t mean—I didn’t think . . . (Her words get slower as she settles back almost as if she is about to go to sleep. Her hand comes up very slowly toward her heart) How strange—how very—strange. (Her head droops sideways on the pillow)

HELEN moves R of ANYA and watches her. She is now looking frightened. Her hand goes to her face and then down again.

HELEN. (in a low voice) Mrs. Hendryk.

There is silence.

(A little louder) Mrs. Hendryk.

HELEN moves to R of ANYA, takes her wrist and feels the pulse. When she finds that it has stopped she gasps and flings the hand down in horror, then backs slightly down R. She moves below the armchair, round it and stands above the work-table, without taking her eyes off ANYA. She stands staring for some moments at ANYA, then shakes herself back to reality, sees the glass on the work-table, picks it up and wipes it on her handkerchief, then leans over and puts it carefully into ANYA’s left hand. She then goes and leans exhausted over the left arm of the sofa. Again she pulls herself together, moves to the bookcase R and picks up the medicine bottle and dropper. She wipes her fingerprints off the bottle and crosses to R of ANYA. She gently presses ANYA’s right hand round the bottle, then moves above the work-table, puts the bottle down, takes the dropper out and leaves it beside the bottle. She moves slightly up C, looks around, then goes quickly to the sofa for her bag and gloves and moves quickly to the doors up C. She stops suddenly and dashes to the shelf for the water jug, wiping it with her handkerchief as she crosses to the work-table, where she puts down the jug. She again goes to the doors up C. The sound of a barrel organ is heard off. HELEN flings open the right door and exits in the hall to R. The front door is heard to slam. There is quite a pause, then the front door is heard opening and closing. MRS. ROPER pops her head in the doorway up C.

MRS. ROPER. I got the tea.

MRS. ROPER withdraws her head and disappears to L. She reappears in the doorway, taking off her hat and coat. These she hangs on a hook off R of the double doors.

And I got the bacon and a dozen boxes of matches. Isn’t everything a price these days? I tried to get some kidneys for young Muriel’s supper, tenpence each they were, and they looked like little shrunken heads. (She crosses above the table RC towards the door down R) She’ll have to have what the others have and like it. I keep telling her money doesn’t grow on trees.

MRS. ROPER exits down R. There is a considerable pause, then the front door opens and closes. LISA enters up C from R, putting her doorkey into her bag.

LISA. (as she enters) Have I been long? (She crosses to the desk, glances at ANYA and thinking she is asleep, smiles, turns to the window and removes her hat. After putting her hat on the desk she turns towards ANYA and begins to realize that possibly ANYA is more than asleep) Anya? (She rushes to R of ANYA and lifts her head. She takes her hand away and ANYA’s head falls again. She sees the bottle on the work-table, moves above the wheelchair, picks up the glass and then the bottle)

MRS. ROPER enters down R as LISA is holding the bottle.

MRS. ROPER. (startled) Oh, I didn’t hear you come in, miss. (She moves up R)

LISA. (putting the bottle down with a bang; startled by MRS. ROPER’s sudden appearance) I didn’t know you were here, Mrs. Roper.

MRS. ROPER. Is anything wrong?

LISA. Mrs. Hendryk—I think Mrs. Hendryk is dead. (She moves to the telephone, lifts the receiver and dials)

MRS. ROPER moves slowly up L of ANYA, sees the bottle, then turns slowly round to stare at LISA, who is waiting impatiently for someone to answer her call. She has her back to MRS. ROPER and does not see the look. The lights BLACK-OUT as—

the CURTAIN falls.