I have endured torments in my life, but none like that. Some of the prettiest girls there offered to console me, for I was the best dancer in the room, but I was too wretched, and so remained alone all night in a state of agony. I did not care for drink, or know the dreadful comfort of it in those days; but I thought of killing myself and Dorothy, and most certainly of making away with Captain Best.
RODERICK (V.O.)
At last, and at morning, the ball was over.
DOROTHY
Sure it's a bitter night, Roderick dear, and you'll catch cold without a handkerchief to your neck.
DOROTHY
Did you and Miss Clancy have a pleasant evening, Roderick? You were together, I saw, all night.
DOROTHY
Oh! Mercy, you make Daisy rear and throw me, you careless creature, you.
RODERICK
I hate Miss Clancy, you know I do! And I only danced with her because -- because -- the person with whom I intended to dance chose to be engaged the whole night.
DOROTHY
I had not been in the room five minutes before I was engaged for every single set.
RODERICK
Were you obliged to dance five times with Captain Best, and then stroll out with him into the garden?
DOROTHY
I don't care a fig for Captain Best; he dances prettily to be sure, and is a pleasant rattle of a man. He looks well in his regimentals, too; and if he chose to ask me to dance, how could I refuse him?
RODERICK
But you refused me, Dorothy.
DOROTHY
Oh! I can dance with you any day, and to dance with your own cousin at a ball as if you could find no other partner. Besides, Roderick, Captain Best's a man, and you are only a boy, and you haven't a guinea in the world.
RODERICK
If ever I meet him again, you shall see which is the best man of the two. I'll fight him with sword or with pistol, captain as he is.
DOROTHY
But Captain Best is already known as a valiant soldier, and is famous as a man of fashion in London. It is mighty well of you to fight farmers' boys, but to fight an Englishman is a very different matter.
DOROTHY
Suppose, now, Roderick, you, who are such a hero, was passing over the bridge and the enemy on the other side.
RODERICK
I'd draw my sword, and cut my way through them.
DOROTHY
What, with me on the pillion? Would you kill poor me?
RODERICK
Well, then, I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd jump Daisy into the river, and swim you both across, where no enemy could follow us.
DOROTHY
Jump twenty feet! You wouldn't dare to do any such thing on Daisy. There's the captain's horse, Black George, I've heard say that Captain Bes
RODERICK
Hold tight to my waist!
RODERICK (V.O.)
I went home, and was ill speedily of a fever, which kept me to my bed for a week.
RODERICK (V.O.)
Dorothy visited me only once, but I quitted my couch still more violently in love than I had been ever before.
RODERICK
Whose horse, fellow, is that?
ORDERLY
Feller, indeed! The horse belongs to my captain, and he's a better fellow nor you any day.
RODERICK (V.O.)
I did not stop to break his bones, as I would on another occasion, for a horrible suspicion had come across me, and I made for the garden as quickly as I could.
RODERICK (V.O.)
The fact is that, during the week of my illness, no other than Captain Best was staying at Castle Dugan, and making love to Miss Dorothy in form.
CAPTAIN BEST
No, Dorothy, except for you and four others, I vow before all the gods, my heart had never felt the soft flame.
DOROTHY
Ah, you men, you men, John, your passion is not equal to ours. We are like -- like some plant I've read of -- we bear but one flower, and then we die!
CAPTAIN BEST
Do you mean you never felt an inclination for another?
DOROTHY
Never, my John, but for thee! How can you ask me such a question?
CAPTAIN BEST
Darling Dorothea! Roderick rushes into view, drawing his little sword.
RODERICK (V.O.)
I pulled out a knot of cherry-colored ribbons, which she had given me out of her breast, and which somehow I always wore upon me, and flung them in Captain Best's face, and rushed out with my little sword drawn.
RODERICK
She's a liar -- she's a liar, Captain Best! Draw, sir, and defend yourself, if you are a man!
DOROTHY