Night Must Fall : a Play in Three ActsWilliams, Emlyn
General
Night Must Fall : a Play in Three Acts
Williams, Emlyn
English drama -- 20th century; Murder -- Drama
OLIVIA: A clean pair of socks ... packet of razor-blades ...
HUBERT: We shouldn't be doing this--I feel as if I were at school
again--
MRS. TERENCE: Singlet ...
OLIVIA: Half ticket to Shepperley Palais de Danse ...
MRS. TERENCE: Oh, it's a proper 'aunt!
DORA: Oh, 'ere's a pocket-book. With a letter.
(_She gives the letter to_ MRS. TERENCE _and the pocket-book
to_ OLIVIA.)
HUBERT: Look here, this is going a bit too far--you can't do this to a
chap--
MRS. TERENCE (_taking the letter from the envelope_): Don't be
silly, dear, your wife'll do it to you 'undreds of times....
(_Sniffing the note-paper_) Pooh.... (_Reading, as they crane
over her shoulder_) "Dear Baby-Face my own ..." Signed Lil....
OLIVIA: What awful writing....
MRS. TERENCE (_reading, heavily_): "... Next time you strike
Newcastle, O.K. by me, baby...." Ooh!
HUBERT: Just another servant-girl.... Sorry, Dora....
DORA (_lugubriously_): O.K.
OLIVIA (_rummaging in the pocket-book_): Bus ticket to Thorburton,
some snaps ...
MRS. TERENCE: Look at 'er _bust_!
OLIVIA: Here's a group.... Look, Hubert....
HUBERT _joins her in front of the table._
HUBERT: This wench is rather fetching.
MRS. TERENCE (_crowding between them_): Look at _'er_!... The
impudence, 'er being taken in a bathing-suit!...
DORA: He's not in this one, is 'e?
HUBERT (_impressed_): Oh, I say ... there _she_ is!
MRS. TERENCE and DORA: who?
HUBERT: The missing female! In front of the tall man.... You remember
the photograph of her in the _Mirror_?
DORA: It's awful to think she may be dead. Awful....
MRS. TERENCE: Looks ever so sexy, doesn't she?
DORA: 'Ere's one of a little boy--
OLIVIA: How extraordinary....
HUBERT: What?
OLIVIA: It's himself.
DORA: The little Eton collar.... Oh, dear ... ever so sweet, isn't it?
MRS. TERENCE: Now that's what I call a real innocent face....
HUBERT (_going to the centre of the room_): Well, that's that....
OLIVIA: Wait a minute, wasn't there another one? (_Seeing the
hat-box_) Oh, yes....
HUBERT (_lifting it on to a chair_): Oh, this; yes....
DORA: Old-fashioned, isn't it?
MRS. TERENCE: I should think he got it from a box-room at the
Tallboys--
OLIVIA (_puzzled_): But it looks so extraordinary--(_She gives a
sudden gasp.)
They look at her. She is staring at the box. A pause._
HUBERT: What is it?
OLIVIA: I don't know.... Suppose there is something ... inside it?
_A pause. They stare at her, fascinated by her thought. The front
door bangs. They are electrified into action: but it is too late. It
is_ DAN. _He goes briskly to the table._
DAN: She wants to sit in the sun now and have a bit of _East
Lynne_. Talk about changin' your mind--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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