TREMAYNE. I'm afraid I couldn't. Thank you so much for not minding.
Well, I must be getting on, I have trespassed quite enough.
BELINDA (regretfully). And you haven't really seen the garden yet.
TREMAYNE. If you won't mind my going on this way, I shall see some more
on my way out.
BELINDA. Please do. It likes being looked at. (With the faintest
suggestion of demureness) All pretty things do.
TREMAYNE. Thank you very much. Er--(He hesitates.)
BELINDA (helpfully). Yes?
TREMAYNE. I wonder if you'd mind very much if I called one day to thank
you formally for the lesson you gave me in pronunciation?
BELINDA (gravely). Yes. I almost think you ought to. I think it's the
correct thing to do.
TREMAYNE (contentedly). Thank you very much, Mrs. Tremayne.
BELINDA. You'll come in quite formally by the front-door next time,
won't you, because--because that seems the only chance of my getting to
know your name.
TREMAYNE. Oh, I beg your pardon. My name is--er--er--Robinson.
BELINDA (laughing). How very odd!
TREMAYNE (startled). Odd?
BELINDA. Yes; we have someone called Robinson staying in the house. I
wonder if she is any relation?
TREMAYNE (hastily). Oh no, no. No, she couldn't be. I have no relations
called Robinson--not to speak of.
BELINDA (holding out her hand). You must tell me all about your
relations when you come and call, Mr. Robinson.
TREMAYNE. I think we can find something better worth talking about than
that.
BELINDA. Do you think so? (He says "Yes" with his eyes, bows, and goes
off down the garden. BELINDA stays looking after him, then gives that
happy sigh of hers, only even more so) O-oh!
[Enter BETTY.]
BETTY. If you please, ma'am, Miss Delia says, are you coming in to tea?
BELINDA (looking straight in front of her, and taking no notice of
BETTY, in a happy, dreamy voice). Betty,... about callers.... If
Mr. Robinson calls--he's the handsome gentleman who hasn't been here
before--you will say, "Not at home." And he will say, "Oh!" And you will
say, "I beg your pardon, sir, was it Mr. _Robinson_?" And he will say,
"Yes!" And you will say, "Oh, I beg your pardon, sir--" (Almost as if
she were BETTY, she begins to move towards the house.) "This way--" (she
would be smiling an invitation over her shoulder to MR. ROBINSON, if he
were there, and she were BETTY)--"please!" (And the abandoned woman goes
in to tea.)
ACT II
[It is morning in BELINDA'S hall, a low-roofed, oak-beamed place,
comfortably furnished as a sitting-room. There is an inner and an outer
front-door, both of which are open.]
[DEVENISH, who has just rung the bell, is waiting with a bouquet of
violets between the two. Midway on the right is a door leading to a
small room where hats and coats are kept. A door on the left leads
towards the living-rooms.]
BETTY. Good morning, sir.
DEVENISH. Good morning. I am afraid this is an unceremonious hour for a
call, but my sense of beauty urged me hither in defiance of convention.
BETTY. Yes, sir.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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