HUBERT and KATHERINE listen with all their might, and OLIVEstares at their faces.HUBERT goes to the window.The sound comes nearer.The shouted words are faintly heard: "Pyper----war----our force crosses frontier--sharp fightin'----pyper."KATHERINE.[Breathless] Yes! It is.
The street cry is heard again in two distant voices coming from different directions: "War--pyper--sharp fightin' on the frontier--pyper."KATHERINE.Shut out those ghouls!
As HUBERT closes the window, NURSE WREFORD comes in from the hall.She is an elderly woman endowed with a motherly grimness.
She fixes OLIVE with her eye, then suddenly becomes conscious of the street cry.
NURSE.Oh! don't say it's begun.
[HUBERT comes from the window.]
NURSE.Is the regiment to go, Mr.Hubert?
HUBERT.Yes, Nanny.
NURSE.Oh, dear! My boy!
KATHERINE.[Signing to where OLIVE stands with wide eyes] Nurse!
HUBERT.I'll look after him, Nurse.
NURSE.And him keepin' company.And you not married a year.Ah!
Mr.Hubert, now do 'ee take care; you and him's both so rash.
HUBERT.Not I, Nurse!
NURSE looks long into his face, then lifts her finger, and beckons OLIVE.
OLIVE.[Perceiving new sensations before her, goes quietly] Good-night, Uncle! Nanny, d'you know why I was obliged to come down? [In a fervent whisper] It's a secret!
[As she passes with NURSE out into the hall, her voice is heard saying, "Do tell me all about the war."]
HUBERT.[Smothering emotion under a blunt manner] We sail on Friday, Kit.Be good to Helen, old girl.
KATHERINE.Oh! I wish----! Why--can't--women--fight?
HUBERT.Yes, it's bad for you, with Stephen taking it like this.
But he'll come round now it's once begun.
KATHERINE shakes her head, then goes suddenly up to him, and throws her arms round his neck.It is as if all the feeling pent up in her were finding vent in this hug.
The door from the hall is opened, and SIR JOHN'S voice is heard outside: "All right, I'll find her."KATHERINE.Father!
[SIR JOHN comes in.]
SIR JOHN.Stephen get my note? I sent it over the moment I got to the War Office.
KATHERINE.I expect so.[Seeing the torn note on the table] Yes.
SIR JOHN.They're shouting the news now.Thank God, I stopped that crazy speech of his in time.
KATHERINE.Have you stopped it?
SIR JOHN.What! He wouldn't be such a sublime donkey?
KATHERINE.I think that is just what he might be.[Going to the window] We shall know soon.
[SIR JOHN, after staring at her, goes up to HUBERT.]
SIR JOHN.Keep a good heart, my boy.The country's first.[They exchange a hand-squeeze.]
KATHERINE backs away from the window.STEEL has appeared there from the terrace, breathless from running.
STEEL.Mr.More back?
KATHERINE.No.Has he spoken?
STEEL.Yes.
KATHERINE.Against?
STEEL.Yes.
SIR JOHN.What? After!
SIR, JOHN stands rigid, then turns and marches straight out into the hall.At a sign from KATHERINE, HUBERT follows him.
KATHERINE.Yes, Mr.Steel?
STEEL.[Still breathless and agitated] We were here--he slipped away from me somehow.He must have gone straight down to the House.
I ran over, but when I got in under the Gallery he was speaking already.They expected something--I never heard it so still there.
He gripped them from the first word--deadly--every syllable.It got some of those fellows.But all the time, under the silence you could feel a--sort of--of--current going round.And then Sherratt--I think it was--began it, and you saw the anger rising in them; but he kept them down--his quietness! The feeling! I've never seen anything like it there.
Then there was a whisper all over the House that fighting had begun.
And the whole thing broke out--regular riot--as if they could have killed him.Some one tried to drag him down by the coat-tails, but he shook him off, and went on.Then he stopped dead and walked out, and the noise dropped like a stone.The whole thing didn't last five minutes.It was fine, Mrs.More; like--like lava; he was the only cool person there.I wouldn't have missed it for anything--it was grand!
MORE has appeared on the terrace, behind STEEL.
KATHERINE.Good-night, Mr.Steel.
STEEL.[Startled] Oh!--Good-night!
He goes out into the hall.KATHERINE picks up OLIVE'S shoes, and stands clasping them to her breast.MORE comes in.
KATHERINE.You've cleared your conscience, then! I didn't think you'd hurt me so.
MORE does not answer, still living in the scene he has gone through, and KATHERINE goes a little nearer to him.
KATHERINE.I'm with the country, heart and soul, Stephen.I warn you.
While they stand in silence, facing each other, the footman, HENRY, enters from the hall.
FOOTMAN.These notes, sir, from the House of Commons.
KATHERINE.[Taking them] You can have the room directly.
[The FOOTMAN goes out.]
MORE.Open them!
KATHERINE opens one after the other, and lets them fall on the table.
MORE.Well?
KATHERINE.What you might expect.Three of your best friends.It's begun.
MORE.'Ware Mob! [He gives a laugh] I must write to the Chief.
KATHERINE makes an impulsive movement towards him; then quietly goes to the bureau, sits down and takes up a pen.
KATHERINE.Let me make the rough draft.[She waits] Yes?
MORE.[Dictating]
"July 15th.
"DEAR SIR CHARLES, After my speech to-night, embodying my most unalterable convictions [KATHERINE turns and looks up at him, but he is staring straight before him, and with a little movement of despair she goes on writing] I have no alternative but to place the resignation of my Under-Secretaryship in your hands.My view, my faith in this matter may be wrong--but I am surely right to keep the flag of my faith flying.I imagine I need not enlarge on the reasons----"THE CURTAIN FALLS.