the book for her.) A tortoise. They must be a feature. (After a moment hannah takes the book.)
hannah: Thank you.
(valentine comes to the door.)
valentine: The station taxi is at the front.. .
Bernard: Yes . . . thanks . . . Oh - did Peacock come up trumps?
hannah: For some.
Bernard: Hermit's name and cv?
(He picks up and glances at the Peacock letter.) 'My dear Thackeray . . .' God, I'm good.
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{He puts the letter down.)
Well, wish me luck - {Vaguely to valentine) Sorry about
. . . you know . . . {and to hannah) and about your . . .
valentine: Piss off, Bernard.
Bernard: Right.
(BERNARD goes.)
hannah: Don't let Bernard get to you. It's only performance art, you know. Rhetoric, they used to teach it in ancient times, like PT. It's not about being right, they had philosophy for that. Rhetoric was their chat show. Bernard's indignation is a sort of aerobics for when he gets on television.
valentine: I don't care to be rubbished by the dustbin man. {He has been looking at the letter.) The what of the lunatic? (hannah reclaims the letter and reads it for him.)
hannah: The testament of the lunatic serves as a caution against French fashion ... for it was Frenchified mathematick that brought him to the melancholy certitude of a world without light or life ... as a wooden stove that must consume itself until ash and stove are as one, and heat is gone from the earth.'
valentine: {Amused, surprised) Huh!
hannah: 'He died aged two score years and seven, hoary as Job and meagre as a cabbage-stalk, the proof of his prediction even yet unyielding to his labours for the restitution of hope through good English algebra.'
valentine: That's it?
hannah: {Nods) Is there anything in it?
valentine: In what? We are all doomed? {Casually.) Oh yes, sure - it's called the second law of thermodynamics.
hannah: Was it known about?
valentine: By poets and lunatics from time immemorial.
hannah: Seriously.
valentine: No.
hannah: Is it anything to do with ... you know, Thomasina's discovery?
valentine: She didn't discover anything.
hannah: Her lesson book.
valentine: No.
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hannah: A coincidence, then?
valentine: What is?
hannah: (Reading) 'He died aged two score years and seven.' That was in 1834. So he was born in 1787. So was the tutor. He says so in his letter to Lord Croom when he recommended himself for the job: 'Date of birth - 1787.' The hermit was born in the same year as Septimus Hodge.
valentine: (Pause) Did Bernard bite you in the leg?
hannah: Don't you see? I thought my hermit was a perfect symbol. An idiot in the landscape. But this is better. The Age of Enlightenment banished into the Romantic wilderness! The genius of Sidley Park living on in a hermit's hut!
valentine: You don't know that.
hannah: Oh, but I do. I do. Somewhere there will be something . .. if only I can find it.
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SCENE SIX
The room is empty.
A reprise: early morning - a distant pistol shot - the sound of the crows.
JELLABY enters the dawn-dark room with a lamp. He goes to the windows and looks out. He sees something. He returns to put the lamp on the table, and then opens one ofthefrench windows and steps outside. jellaby: (Outside) Mr Hodge!
(Septimus comes in, followed by jellaby, who closes the
garden door. Septimus is wearing a greatcoat.) Septimus: Thank you, Jellaby. I was expecting to be locked out.
What time is it? jellaby: Half past five. Septimus: That is what I have. Well! - what a bracing
experience!
(He produces two pistols from inside his coat and places them on
the table.)
The dawn, you know. Unexpectedly lively. Fishes, birds,
frogs ... rabbits . . . (he produces a dead rabbit from inside his
coat) and very beautiful. If only it did not occur so early in
the day. I have brought Lady Thomasina a rabbit. Will you
take it? jellaby: It's dead. Septimus: Yes. Lady Thomasina loves a rabbit pie.
(JELLABY takes the rabbit without enthusiasm. There is a little
blood on it.) jellaby: You were missed, Mr Hodge. Septimus: I decided to sleep last night in the boat-house. Did I
see a carriage leaving the Park? jellaby: Captain Brice's carriage, with Mr and Mrs Chater also. Septimus: Gone?! jellaby: Yes, sir. And Lord Byron's horse was brought round at
four o'clock. Septimus: Lord Byron too!
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jellaby: Yes, sir. The house has been up and hopping. Septimus: But I have his rabbit pistols! What am I to do with his
rabbit pistols? jellaby: You were looked for in your room. Septimus: By whom? jellaby: By her ladyship. Septimus: In my room? jellaby: I will tell her ladyship you are returned.
(He starts to leave.) Septimus: Jellaby! Did Lord Byron leave a book for me? jellaby: A book?
Septimus: He had the loan of a book from me. jellaby: His lordship left nothing in his room, sir, not a coin. Septimus: Oh. Well, I'm sure he would have left a coin if he'd
had one. Jellaby - here is a half-guinea for you. jellaby: Thank you very much, sir. Septimus: What has occurred? jellaby: The servants are told nothing, sir. Septimus: Come, come, does a half-guinea buy nothing any
more? jellaby: (Sighs) Her ladyship encountered Mrs Chater during
the night. Septimus: Where?
jellaby: On the threshold of Lord Byron's room. Septimus: Ah. Which one was leaving and which entering? jellaby: Mrs Chater was leaving Lord Byron's room. Septimus: And where was Mr Chater? jellaby: Mr Chater and Captain Brice were drinking cherry
brandy. They had the footman to keep the fire up until three
o'clock. There was a loud altercation upstairs, and -
(lady croom enters the room.) lady croom: Well, Mr Hodge. Septimus: My lady. lady croom: All this to shoot a hare? SEPTIMUS: A rabbit. (She gives him one of her looks.) No, indeed, a
hare, though very rabbit-like -
(jellaby is about to leave.) LADY croom: My infusion.
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jellaby: Yes, my lady.
