Man-woman relationships -- Drama; Marriage -- Drama; Paramours -- Drama
Sitting-room in Paramore's apartments in Savile Row.
The darkly respectable furniture is, so to speak, en
suite with Paramore's frock coat and cuffs. Viewing the
room from the front windows, the door is seen in the
opposite wall near the left hand corner. Another door,
a light, noiseless partition one covered with a green
baize, is in the right hand wall toward the back,
leading to Paramore's consulting room. The fireplace is
on the left. At the nearest corner of it a couch is
placed at right angles to the wall, settlewise. On the
right the wall is occupied by a bookcase, further
forward than the green baize door. Beyond the door is a
cabinet of anatomical preparations, with a framed
photograph of Rembrandt's School of Anatomy hanging on
the wall above it. In front, a little to the right, a
tea-table.
Paramore is seated in a round-backed chair, on castors,
pouring out tea. Julia sits opposite him, with her back
to the fire. He is in high spirits: she very downcast.
PARAMORE (handing her the cup he has just filled). There! Making tea
is one of the few things I consider myself able to do thoroughly well.
Cake?
JULIA. No, thank you. I don't like sweet things. (She sets down the
cup untasted.)
PARAMORE. Anything wrong with the tea?
JULIA. No, it's very nice.
PARAMORE. I'm afraid I'm a very bad entertainer. The fact is, I'm too
professional. I only shine in consultation. I almost wish you had
something the matter with you; so that you might call out my knowledge
and sympathy. As it is, I can only admire you, and feel how pleasant
it is to have you here.
JULIA (bitterly). And pet me, and say pretty things to me! I wonder
you don't offer me a saucer of milk at once?
PARAMORE (astonished). Why?
JULIA. Because you seem to regard me very much as if I were a Persian
cat.
PARAMORE (in strong remonstrance). Miss Cra--
JULIA (cutting him short). Oh, you needn't protest. I'm used to it:
It's the only sort of attachment I seem always to inspire.
(Ironically) You can't think how flattering it is!
PARAMORE. My dear Miss Craven, what a cynical thing to say! You! who
are loved at first sight by the people in the street as you pass. Why,
in the club I can tell by the faces of the men whether you have been
lately in the room or not.
JULIA (shrinking fiercely). Oh, I hate that look in their faces. Do
you know that I have never had one human being care for me since I was
born?
PARAMORE. That's not true, Miss Craven. Even if it were true of your
father, and of Charteris, who loves you madly in spite of your dislike
for him, it is not true of me.
JULIA (startled). Who told you that about Charteris?
PARAMORE. Why, he himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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