Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of HonourMaugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
General
Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
English drama
From the bar as well. Henceforth I shall cultivate only such arts and
graces as are proper to the man of leisure. My fellow men are a great
deal too strenuous, and I propose to offer them the spectacle of a
complete idler who demands from the world neither honours nor profit,
but only entertainment.
MRS. CROWLEY.
D'you mean to say you're going to give up a large practice and a
position which may be very important merely to gratify a foolish whim?
DICK.
I haven't time to work. Life is so much too short. A little while ago it
occurred to me that I was nearly forty. [_To_ MRS. CROWLEY.] D'you know
the feeling?
MRS. CROWLEY.
No, of course not. Don't be so uncivil.
DICK.
By the way, how old are you?
MRS. CROWLEY.
Twenty-nine!
DICK.
Nonsense! There's no such age.
MRS. CROWLEY.
I beg your pardon, upper parlourmaids are always twenty-nine.
DICK.
For years I've spent eight hours a day meddling with silly persons'
silly quarrels, and eight hours more governing the nation. I've never
been able to spend more than half my income. I'm merely working myself
to death in order to leave a fortune to my nieces, two desperately plain
girls with red noses.
LADY KELSEY.
But what are you going to do?
DICK.
Oh, I don't know. Perhaps I'll try my hand at big game shooting, if Alec
will take me on this expedition of his. I've always thought shooting
would be an agreeable pastime if partridges were the size of well-grown
sheep and pheasants a little larger than a cow.
MRS. CROWLEY.
Then the breakdown in your health is all humbug?
DICK.
Absolute humbug. If I were to tell the truth people would shut me up in
a lunatic asylum. I've come to the conclusion that there's only one game
in the world worth playing, and that's the game of life. I'm rich enough
to devote myself to it entirely.
MRS. CROWLEY.
But you'll get bored to death.
DICK.
Not I! Why, I'm growing younger every day. My dear Mrs. Crowley, I don't
feel a day more than eighteen.
MRS. CROWLEY.
You certainly look quite twenty-five.
DICK.
I haven't a white hair in my head.
MRS. CROWLEY.
I suppose your servant plucks them out every morning.
DICK.
Oh, very rarely. One a month at the outside.
MRS. CROWLEY.
I think I see one on the left temple.
DICK.
Really! How careless of Charles! I must speak to him.
MRS. CROWLEY.
Let me pluck it out.
DICK.
I shall allow you to do nothing so familiar.
[GEORGE _comes hurriedly into the room_.
GEORGE.
There's Alec Mackenzie. He's just driven up in a cab.
DICK.
He must have come from the trial. Then it's all over.
LADY KELSEY.
Quick! Go to the stairs, or Miller won't let him up.
[GEORGE _runs across the room and opens the door_.
GEORGE.
[_Calling._] Miller, Miller, Mr. Mackenzie's to come up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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