The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. StevensonStevenson, Robert Louis
General
The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Drama
LESLIE. I did that. And what’s more, I’ve sat every night in case of
his return. I promise you, Procurator, he shall not slip me twice.
Meanwhile I’m worried and put out. You understand how such a fancy will
upset a man. I’m uneasy with my friends and on bad terms with my own
conscience. I keep watching, spying, comparing, putting two and two
together, hunting for resemblances until my head goes round. It’s like a
puzzle in a dream. Only yesterday I thought I had him. And who d’you
think it was?
LAWSON. Wha? Wha was’t? Speak, Mr. Leslie, speak. I’m an auld man;
dinna forget that.
LESLIE. I name no names. It would be unjust to him; and, upon my word,
it was so silly it would be unfair to me. However, here I sit, night
after night. I mean him to come back; come back he shall; and I’ll tell
you who he was next morning.
LAWSON. Let sleeping dogs lie, Mr. Leslie; ye dinna ken what ye micht
see. And then, leave him alane, he’ll come nae mair. And sitting up a’
nicht . . . it’s a _factum imprestabile_, as we say: a thing impossible
to man. Gang ye to your bed, like a guid laddie, and sleep lang and
soundly, and bonnie, bonnie dreams to ye! (_Without_.) Let sleeping
dogs lie, and gang ye to your bed.
SCENE III
LESLIE
LESLIE (_calling_). In good time, never fear! (_He carefully bolts and
chains the door_.) The old gentleman seems upset. What for, I wonder?
Has he had a masked visitor? Why not? It’s the fashion. Out with the
lights. (_Blows out the candles_. _The stage is only lighted by the
moon through the window_.) He is sure to come one night or other. He
must come. Right or wrong, I feel it in the air. Man, but I know you, I
know you somewhere. That trick of the shoulders, the hang of the
clothes—whose are they? Where have I seen them? And then, that single
look of the eye, that one glance about the room as the window opened . . .
it is almost friendly; I have caught it over the glass’s rim! If it
should be . . . his? No, his it is not.
WATCHMAN (_without_). Past ten o’clock, and a fine moonlight night.
ANOTHER (_further away_). Past ten o’clock, and all’s well.
LESLIE. Past ten? Ah, there’s a long night before you and me, watchmen.
Heavens, what a trade! But it will be something to laugh over with Mary
and . . . with him? Damn it, the delusion is too strong for me. It’s a
thing to be ashamed of. ‘We Brodies’: how she says it! ‘We Brodies and
our Deacon’: what a pride she takes in it, and how good it sounds to me!
‘Deacon of his craft, sir, Deacon of the . . .! (BRODIE, _masked_,
_appears without at the window_, _which he proceeds to force_.) Ha! I
knew he’d come. I was sure of it. (_He crouches near and nearer to the
window_, _keeping in the shade_.) And I know you too. I swear I know
you.
SCENE IV
BRODIE, LESLIE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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