Rudyard Kipling - Soldiers Three

MRS. G. And then it will be all gone. ( Shivers. )

CAPT. G. ( Anxiously. ) 'Not chilled, pet, are you? 'Better let me get your cloak.

MRS. G. No. Don't leave me, Phil. Stay here. I believe I am afraid. Oh, why are the hills so horrid! Phil, promise me, promise me that you'll always love me.

CAPT. G. What's the trouble, darling? I can't promise any more than I have; but I'll promise that again and again if you like.

MRS. G. ( Her head on his shoulder. ) Say it, then—say it! N–no—don't! The—the—eagles would laugh. ( Recovering. ) My husband, you've married a little goose.

CAPT. G. ( Very tenderly. ) Have I? I am content whatever she is, so long as she is mine.

MRS. G. ( Quickly. ) Because she is yours or because she is me mineself?

CAPT. G. Because she is both. ( Piteously. ) I'm not clever, dear, and I don't think I can make myself understood properly.

MRS. G. I understand. Pip, will you tell me something?

CAPT. G. Anything you like. ( Aside. ) I wonder what's coming now.

MRS. G. ( Haltingly, her eyes lowered. ) You told me once in the old days—centuries and centuries ago—that you had been engaged before. I didn't say anything— then.

CAPT. G. ( Innocently. ) Why not?

MRS. G. ( Raising her eyes to his. ) Because—because I was afraid of losing you, my heart. But now—tell about it— please.

CAPT. G. There's nothing to tell. I was awf'ly old then—nearly two and twenty—and she was quite that.

MRS. G. That means she was older than you. I shouldn't like her to have been younger. Well?

CAPT. G. Well, I fancied myself in love and raved about a bit, and—oh, yes, by Jove! I made up poetry. Ha! Ha!

MRS. G. You never wrote any for me! What happened?

CAPT. G. I came out here, and the whole thing went phut. She wrote to say that there had been a mistake, and then she married.

MRS. G. Did she care for you much?

CAPT. G. No. At least she didn't show it as far as I remember.

MRS. G. As far as you remember! Do you remember her name? ( Hears it and bows her head. ) Thank you, my husband.

CAPT. G. Who but you had the right? Now, Little Featherweight, have you ever been mixed up in any dark and dismal tragedy?

MRS. G. If you call me Mrs. Gadsby, p'raps I'll tell.

CAPT. G. ( Throwing Parade rasp into his voice. ) Mrs. Gadsby, confess!

MRS. G. Good Heavens, Phil! I never knew that you could speak in that terrible voice.

CAPT. G. You don't know half my accomplishments yet. Wait till we are settled in the Plains, and I'll show you how I bark at my troop. You were going to say, darling?

MRS. G. I—I don't like to, after that voice. ( Tremulously. ) Phil, never you dare to speak to me in that tone, whatever I may do!

CAPT. G. My poor little love! Why, you're shaking all over. I am so sorry. Of course I never meant to upset you. Don't tell me anything. I'm a brute.

MRS. G. No, you aren't, and I will tell—There was a man.

CAPT. G. ( Lightly. ) Was there? Lucky man!

MRS. G. ( In a whisper. ) And I thought I cared for him.

CAPT. G. Still luckier man! Well?

MRS. G. And I thought I cared for him—and I didn't—and then you came—and I cared for you very, very much indeed. That's all. ( Face hidden. ) You aren't angry, are you?

CAPT. G. Angry? Not in the least. ( Aside. ) Good Lord, what have I done to deserve this angel?

MRS. G. ( Aside. ) And he never asked for the name! How funny men are! But perhaps it's as well.

CAPT. G. That man will go to heaven because you once thought you cared for him. 'Wonder if you'll ever drag me up there?

MRS. G. ( Firmly. ) 'Shan't go if you don't.

CAPT. G. Thanks. I say, Pussy, I don't know much about your religious beliefs. You were brought up to believe in a heaven and all that, weren't you?

MRS. G. Yes. But it was a pincushion heaven, with hymn–books in all the pews.

CAPT. G. ( Wagging his head with intense conviction. ) Never mind. There is a pukka heaven.

MRS. G. Where do you bring that message from, my prophet?

CAPT. G. Here! Because we care for each other. So it's all right.

MRS. G. ( As a troop of langurs crash through the branches. ) So it's all right. But Darwin says that we came from those!

CAPT. G. ( Placidly. ) Ah! Darwin was never in love with an angel. That settles it. Sstt, you brutes! Monkeys, indeed! You shouldn't read those books.

MRS. G. ( Folding her hands. ) If it pleases my Lord the King to issue proclamation.

CAPT. G. Don't, dear one. There are no orders between us. Only I'd rather you didn't. They lead to nothing, and bother people's heads.

MRS. G. Like your first engagement.

CAPT.G. ( With an immense calm. ) That was a necessary evil and led to you. Are you nothing?

MRS. G. Not so very much, am I?

CAPT. G. All this world and the next to me.

MRS. G. ( Very softly. ) My boy of boys! Shall I tell you something?

CAPT. G. Yes, if it's not dreadful—about other men.

MRS. G. It's about my own bad little self.

CAPT. G. Then it must be good. Go on, dear.

MRS. G. ( Slowly. ) I don't know why I'm telling you, Pip; but if ever you marry again—( Interlude. ) Take your hand from my mouth or I'll bite! In the future, then remember—I don't know quite how to put it!

CAPT. G. ( Snorting indignantly. ) Don't try. 'Marry again,' indeed!

MRS. G. I must. Listen, my husband. Never, never, never tell your wife anything that you do not wish her to remember and think over all her life. Because a woman—yes, I am a woman— can't forget.

CAPT. G. By Jove, how do you know that?

MRS. G. ( Confusedly. ) I don't. I'm only guessing. I am—I was—a silly little girl; but I feel that I know so much, oh, so very much more than you, dearest. To begin with, I'm your wife.

CAPT. G. So I have been led to believe.

MRS. G. And I shall want to know every one of your secrets—to share everything you know with you. ( Stares round desperately. )

CAPT. G. So you shall, dear, so you shall—but don't look like that.

MRS. G. For your own sake don't stop me, Phil. I shall never talk to you in this way again. You must not tell me! At least, not now. Later on, when I'm an old matron it won't matter, but if you love me, be very good to me now; for this part of my life I shall never forget! Have I made you understand?

CAPT. G. I think so, child. Have I said anything yet that you disapprove of?

MRS. G. Will you be very angry? That—that voice, and what you said about the engagement—

CAPT. G. But you asked to be told that, darling.

MRS. G. And that's why you shouldn't have told me! You must be the judge, and, oh, Pip, dearly as I love you, I shan't be able to help you! I shall hinder you, and you must judge in spite of me!

CAPT. G. ( Meditatively. ) We have a great many things to find out together, God help us both—say so, Pussy—but we shall understand each other better every day; and I think I'm beginning to see now. How in the world did you come to know just the importance of giving me just that lead?

MRS. G. I've told you that I don't know. Only somehow it seemed that, in all this new life, I was being guided for your sake as well as my own.

CAPT. G. ( Aside. ) Then Mafflin was right! They know, and we—we're blind—all of us. ( Lightly. ) 'Getting a little beyond our depth, dear, aren't we? I'll remember, and, if I fail, let me be punished as I deserve.