William Maugham - East of Suez - A Play in Seven Scenes

George. But you know very well that that isn't the only thing against you.

Daisy. I haven't an idea what you mean.

George. Haven't you? You forget the war. When we heard there was a very pretty young woman, apparently with plenty of money, living at the Hong Kong Hotel on very familiar terms with a lot of naval fellows, it became our business to make enquiries. I think I know everything there is against you.

Daisy. Have you any right to make use of information you've acquired officially?

George. Don't be a fool, Daisy.

Daisy. [ Passionately. ] Tell him then. You'll break his heart. You'll make him utterly wretched. But he'll marry me all the same. When a man's as much in love as he is he'll forgive everything.

George. I think it's horrible. If you loved him you couldn't marry him. It's heartless.

Daisy. [ Violently. ] How dare you say that? You. You. You know what I am. Yes, it's all true. I don't know what you know but it can't be worse than the truth. And whose fault is it? Yours. If I'm rotten it's you who made me rotten.

George. I? No. You've got no right to say that. It's cruel. It's infamous.

Daisy. I've touched you at last, have I? Because you know it's true. Don't you remember when I first came to Chung-king? I was seventeen. My father had sent me to England to school when I was seven. I never saw him for ten years. And at last he wrote and said I was to come back to China. You came and met me on the boat and told me my father had had a stroke and was dead. You took me to the Presbyterian mission.

George. That was my job. I was awfully sorry for you.

Daisy. And then in a day or two you came and told me that my father hadn't left anything and what there was went to his relations in England.

George. Naturally he didn't expect to die.

Daisy. [ Passionately. ] If he was going to leave me like that why didn't he let me stay with my Chinese mother? Why did he bring me up like a lady? Oh, it was cruel.

George. Yes. It was unpardonable.

Daisy. I was so lonely and so frightened. You seemed to be sorry for me. You were the only person who was really kind to me. You were practically the first man I'd known. I loved you. I thought you loved me. Oh, say that you loved me then, George.

George. You know I did.

Daisy. I was very innocent in those days. I thought that when two people loved one another they married. I wasn't a Eurasian then, George. I was like any other English girl. If you'd married me I shouldn't be what I am now. But they took you away from me. You never even said good-bye to me. You wrote and told me you'd been transferred to Canton.

George. I couldn't say good-bye to you, Daisy. They said that if I married you I'd have to leave the service. I was absolutely penniless. They dinned it into my ears that if a white man marries a Eurasian he's done for. I wouldn't listen to them, but in my heart I knew it was true.

Daisy. I don't blame you. You wanted to get on, and you have, haven't you? You're Assistant Chinese Secretary already and Harry says you'll be Minister before you've done. It seems rather hard that I should have had to pay the price.

George. Daisy, you'll never know what anguish I suffered. I can't expect you to care. It's very natural if you hate me. I was ambitious. I didn't want to be a failure. I knew that it was madness to marry you. I had to kill my love. I couldn't. It was stronger than I was. At last I couldn't help myself. I made up my mind to chuck everything and take the consequences. I was just starting for Chung-king when I heard you were living in Shanghai with a rich Chinaman.

[Daisy gives a little moan . There is a silence.

Daisy. They hated me at the mission. They found fault with me from morning till night. They blamed me because you wanted to marry me and they treated me as if I was a designing cat. When you went away they heaved a sigh of relief. Then they started to convert me. They thought I'd better become a school teacher. They hated me because I was seventeen. They hated me because I was pretty. Oh, the brutes. They killed all the religion I'd got. There was only one person who seemed to care if I was alive or dead. That was my mother. Oh, I was so ashamed the first time I saw her. At school in England I'd told them so often that she was a Chinese princess that I almost believed it myself. My mother was a dirty little ugly Chinawoman. I'd forgotten all my Chinese and I had to talk to her in English. She asked me if I'd like to go to Shanghai with her. I was ready to do anything in the world to get away from the mission and I thought in Shanghai I shouldn't be so far away from you. They didn't want me to go, but they couldn't keep me against my will. When we got to Shanghai she sold me to Lee Tai Cheng for two thousand dollars.

George. How terrible.

Daisy. I've never had a chance. Oh, George, isn't it possible for a woman to turn over a new leaf? You say that Harry's good and kind. Don't you see what that means to me? Because he'll think me good I shall be good. After all, he couldn't have fallen in love with me if I'd been entirely worthless. I hate the life I've led. I want to go straight. I swear I'll make him a good wife. Oh, George, if you ever loved me have pity on me. If Harry doesn't marry me I'm done.

George. How can a marriage be happy that's founded on a tissue of lies?

Daisy. I've never told Harry a single lie.

George. You told him you hadn't been happily married.

Daisy. That wasn't a lie.

George. You haven't been married at all.

Daisy. [ With a roguish look. ] Well then, I haven't been happily married, have I?

George. Who was this fellow Rathbone?

Daisy. He was an American in business at Singapore. I met him in Shanghai. I hated Lee. Rathbone asked me to go to Singapore with him and I went. I lived with him for four years.

George. Then you went back to Lee Tai Cheng.

Daisy. Rathbone died. There was nothing else to do. My mother was always nagging me to go back to him. He's rich and she makes a good thing out of it.

George. I thought she was dead.

Daisy. No. I told Harry she was because I thought it would make it easier for him.

George. She isn't with you now, is she?

Daisy. No, she lives at Ichang. She doesn't bother me as long as I send her something every month.

George. Why did you tell Harry that you were twenty-two? It's ten years since you came to China and you were seventeen then.

Daisy. [ With a twinkle in her eye. ] Any woman of my age will tell you that seventeen and ten are twenty-two.

[George does not smile . With frowning brow he walks up and down.

George. Oh, I wish to God I knew nothing about you. I can't bring myself to tell him and yet how can I let him marry you in absolute ignorance? Oh, Daisy, for your sake as well as for his I beseech you to tell him the whole truth and let him decide for himself.

Daisy. And break his heart? There's not a missionary who believes in God as he believes in me. If he loses his trust in me he loses everything. Tell him if you think you must, if you have no pity, if you have no regret for all the shame and misery you brought on me, you, you, you – but if you do, I swear, I swear to God that I shall kill myself. I won't go back to that hateful life.

[ He looks at her earnestly for a moment.

George. I don't know if I'm doing right or wrong. I shall tell him nothing.

[Daisy gives a deep sigh of relief , Harry comes in .

Harry. I say, I'm awfully sorry to have been so long. I couldn't get the old blighter to go.

Daisy. [ With complete self-control. ] If I say you've been an age it'll look as though Mr. Conway had been boring me.

Harry. I hope you've made friends.