Fanny’s First Play

pleases people just as well. What a world it is! Knox It turned my blood cold at first to hear Margaret telling people about Holloway; but it goes down better than her singing used to. Mrs. Knox I never thought she sang right after all those lessons we paid for. Gilbey Lord, Knox, it was lucky you and me got let in together. I tell you straight, if it hadn’t been for Bobby’s disgrace, I’d have broke up the firm. Knox I shouldn’t have blamed you: I’d have done the same only for Margaret. Too much straightlacedness narrows a man’s mind. Talking of that, what about those hygienic corset advertisements that Vines & Jackson want us to put in the window? I told Vines they weren’t decent and we couldn’t show them in our shop. I was pretty high with him. But what am I to say to him now if he comes and throws this business in our teeth? Gilbey Oh, put ’em in. We may as well go it a bit now. Mrs. Gilbey You’ve been going it quite far enough, Rob. To Mrs. Knox. He won’t get up in the mornings now: he that was always out of bed at seven to the tick! Mrs. Knox You hear that, Jo? To Mrs. Gilbey. he’s taken to whisky and soda. A pint a week! And the beer the same as before! Knox Oh, don’t preach, old girl. Mrs. Knox To Mrs. Gilbey. That’s a new name he’s got for me. To Knox. I tell you, Jo, this doesn’t sit well on you. You may call it preaching if you like; but it’s the truth for all that. I say that if you’ve happiness within yourself, you don’t need to seek it outside, spending money on drink and theatres and bad company, and being miserable after all. You can sit at home and be happy; and you can work and be happy. If you have that in you, the spirit will set you free to do what you want and guide you to do right. But if you haven’t got it, then you’d best be respectable and stick to the ways that are marked out for you; for you’ve nothing else to keep you straight. Knox Angrily. And is a man never to have a bit of fun? See what’s come of it with your daughter! She was to be content with your happiness that you’re always talking about; and how did the spirit guide her? To a month’s hard for being drunk and assaulting the police. Did I ever assault the police? Mrs. Knox You wouldn’t have the courage. I don’t blame the girl. Mrs. Gilbey Oh, Maria! What are you saying? Gilbey What! And you so pious! Mrs. Knox She went where the spirit guided her. And what harm there was in it she knew nothing about. Gilbey Oh, come, Mrs. Knox! Girls are not so innocent as all that. Mrs. Knox I don’t say she was ignorant. But I do say that she didn’t know what we know: I mean the way certain temptations get a sudden hold that no goodness nor self-control is any use against. She was saved from that, and had a rough lesson too; and I say it was no earthly protection that did that. But don’t think, you two men, that you’ll be protected if you make what she did an excuse to go and do as you’d like to do if it wasn’t for fear of losing your characters. The spirit won’t guide you, because it isn’t in you; and it never had been: not in either of you. Gilbey With ironic humility. I’m sure I’m obliged to you for your good opinion, Mrs. Knox. Mrs. Knox Well, I will say for you, Mr. Gilbey, that you’re better than my man here. He’s a bitter hard heathen, is my Jo, God help me! She begins to cry quietly. Knox Now, don’t take on like that, Amelia. You know I always give in to you that you were right about religion. But one of us had to think of other things, or we’d have starved, we and the child. Mrs. Knox How do you know you’d have starved? All the other things might have been added unto you. Gilbey Come, Mrs. Knox, don’t tell me Knox is a sinner. I know better. I’m sure you’d be the first to be sorry if anything was to happen to him. Knox Bitterly to his wife. You’ve always had some grudge against me; and nobody but yourself can understand what it is. Mrs. Knox I wanted a man who had that happiness within himself. You made me think you had it; but it was nothing but being in love with me. Mrs. Gilbey And do you blame him for that? Mrs. Knox I blame nobody. But let him not think he can walk by his own light. I tell him that if he gives up being respectable he’ll go right down to the bottom of the hill. He has no powers inside himself to keep him steady; so let him cling to the powers outside him. Knox Rising angrily. Who wants to give up being respectable? All this for a pint of whisky that lasted a week! How long would it have lasted Simmons, I wonder? Mrs. Knox Gently. Oh, well, say no more, Jo. I won’t plague you about it. He sits down. You never did understand; and you never will. Hardly anybody understands: even Margaret didn’t till she went to prison. She does now; and I shall have a companion in the house after all these lonely years. Knox Beginning to cry. I did all I could to make you happy. I never said a harsh word to you. Gilbey Rising indignantly. What right have you to treat a man like that? an honest respectable husband? as if he were dirt under your feet? Knox Let her alone, Gilbey. Gilbey sits down, but mutinously. Mrs. Knox Well, you gave me all you could,