Уильям Моэм - The Circle

LADY KITTY. [ Taking it off. ] You're capable of tearing it off my back if I don't.

TEDDIE. [ Putting the cloak on ELIZABETH. ] And we'll buy you a tooth–brush in London in the morning.

LADY KITTY. She must write a note for Arnold. I'll put it on her pincushion.

TEDDIE. Pincushion be blowed! Come, darling. We'll drive through the dawn and through the sunrise.

ELIZABETH. [ Kissing LADY KITTY and PORTEOUS. ] Good–bye. Good–bye.

[ TEDDIE stretches out his hand and she takes it. Hand in hand they go out into the night.

LADY KITTY. Oh, Hughie, how it all comes back to me! Will they suffer all we suffered? And have we suffered all in vain?

PORTEOUS. My dear, I don't know that in life it matters so much what you do as what you are. No one can learn by the experience of another because no circumstances are quite the same. If we made rather a hash of things perhaps it was because we were rather trivial people. You can do anything in this world if you're prepared to take the consequences, and consequences depend on character.

[ Enter CHAMPION–CHENEY, rubbing his hands. He is as pleased as Punch.

C.–C. Well, I think I've settled the hash of that young man.

LADY KITTY. Oh!

C.–C. You have to get up very early in the morning to get the better of your humble servant.

[ There is the sound of a car starting.

LADY KITTY. What is that?

C.–C. It sounds like a car. I expect it's your chauffeur taking one of the maids for a joy–ride.

PORTEOUS. Whose hash are you talking about?

C.–C. Mr. Edward Luton's, my dear Hughie. I told Arnold exactly what to do and he's done it. What makes a prison? Why, bars and bolts. Remove them and a prisoner won't want to escape. Clever, I flatter myself.

PORTEOUS. You were always that, Clive, but at the moment you're obscure.

C.–C. I told Arnold to go to Elizabeth and tell her she could have her freedom. I told him to sacrifice himself all along the line. I know what women are. The moment every obstacle was removed to her marriage with Teddie Luton, half the allurement was gone.

LADY KITTY. Arnold did that?

C.–C. He followed my instructions to the letter. I've just seen him. She's shaken. I'm willing to bet five hundred pounds to a penny that she won't bolt. A downy old bird, eh? Downy's the word. Downy.

[ He begins to laugh. They laugh, too. Presently they are all three in fits of laughter.

[The Curtain Falls]

THE END