MRS WARREN. O Lord! I don"t know which is the worst of the country, the walking or the sitting at home with nothing to do. I could do with a whisky and soda now very well, if only they had such a things in this place.
FRANK. Perhaps Vivie"s got some.
MRS WARREN. Nonsense! What would a young girl like her be doing with such things! Never mind: it don"t matter. I wonder how she pa.s.ses her time here! I"d a good deal rather be in Vienna.
FRANK. Let me take you there. [He helps her to take off her shawl, gallantly giving her shoulders a very perceptible squeeze as he does so].
MRS WARREN. Ah! would you? I"m beginning to think youre a chip of the old block.
FRANK. Like the gov"nor, eh? [He hangs the shawl on the nearest chair, and sits down].
MRS WARREN. Never you mind. What do you know about such things?
Youre only a boy. [She goes to the hearth to be farther from temptation].
FRANK. Do come to Vienna with me? It"d be ever such larks.
MRS WARREN. No, thank you. Vienna is no place for you--at least not until youre a little older. [She nods at him to emphasize this piece of advice. He makes a mock-piteous face, belied by his laughing eyes.
She looks at him; then comes back to him]. Now, look here, little boy [taking his face in her hands and turning it up to her]: I know you through and through by your likeness to your father, better than you know yourself. Don"t you go taking any silly ideas into your head about me. Do you hear?
FRANK [gallantly wooing her with his voice] Can"t help it, my dear Mrs Warren: it runs in the family.
[She pretends to box his ears; then looks at the pretty laughing upturned face of a moment, tempted. At last she kisses him, and immediately turns away, out of patience with herself.]
MRS WARREN. There! I shouldn"t have done that. I _am_ wicked. Never you mind, my dear: it"s only a motherly kiss. Go and make love to Vivie.
FRANK. So I have.
MRS WARREN [turning on him with a sharp note of alarm in her voice]
What!
FRANK. Vivie and I are ever such chums.
MRS WARREN. What do you mean? Now see here: I won"t have any young scamp tampering with my little girl. Do you hear? I won"t have it.
FRANK [quite unabashed] My dear Mrs Warren: don"t you be alarmed. My intentions are honorable: ever so honorable; and your little girl is jolly well able to take care of herself. She don"t need looking after half so much as her mother. She ain"t so handsome, you know.
MRS WARREN [taken aback by his a.s.surance] Well, you have got a nice healthy two inches of cheek all over you. I don"t know where you got it.
Not from your father, anyhow.
CROFTS [in the garden] The gipsies, I suppose?
REV. S. [replying] The broomsquires are far worse.
MRS WARREN [to Frank] S-sh! Remember! you"ve had your warning.
[Crofts and the Reverend Samuel Gardner come in from the garden, the clergyman continuing his conversation as he enters.]
REV. S. The perjury at the Winchester a.s.sizes is deplorable.
MRS WARREN. Well? what became of you two? And wheres Praddy and Vivie?
CROFTS [putting his hat on the settle and his stick in the chimney corner] They went up the hill. We went to the village. I wanted a drink.
[He sits down on the settle, putting his legs up along the seat].
MRS WARREN. Well, she oughtn"t to go off like that without telling me.
[To Frank] Get your father a chair, Frank: where are your manners?
[Frank springs up and gracefully offers his father his chair; then takes another from the wall and sits down at the table, in the middle, with his father on his right and Mrs Warren on his left]. George: where are you going to stay to-night? You can"t stay here. And whats Praddy going to do?
CROFTS. Gardner"ll put me up.
MRS WARREN. Oh, no doubt you"ve taken care of yourself! But what about Praddy?
CROFTS. Don"t know. I suppose he can sleep at the inn.
MRS WARREN. Havn"t you room for him, Sam?
REV. S. Well--er--you see, as rector here, I am not free to do as I like. Er--what is Mr Praed"s social position?
MRS WARREN. Oh, he"s all right: he"s an architect. What an old stick-in-the-mud you are, Sam!
FRANK. Yes, it"s all right, gov"nor. He built that place down in Wales for the Duke. Caernarvon Castle they call it. You must have heard of it.
[He winks with lightning smartness at Mrs Warren, and regards his father blandly].
REV. S. Oh, in that case, of course we shall only be too happy. I suppose he knows the Duke personally.
FRANK. Oh, ever so intimately! We can stick him in Georgina"s old room.
MRS WARREN. Well, thats settled. Now if those two would only come in and let us have supper. Theyve no right to stay out after dark like this.
CROFTS [aggressively] What harm are they doing you?
MRS WARREN. Well, harm or not, I don"t like it.
FRANK. Better not wait for them, Mrs Warren. Praed will stay out as long as possible. He has never known before what it is to stray over the heath on a summer night with my Vivie.
CROFTS [sitting up in some consternation] I say, you know! Come!
REV. S. [rising, startled out of his professional manner into real force and sincerity] Frank, once and for all, it"s out of the question. Mrs Warren will tell you that it"s not to be thought of.
CROFTS. Of course not.
FRANK [with enchanting placidity] Is that so, Mrs Warren?
MRS WARREN [reflectively] Well, Sam, I don"t know. If the girl wants to get married, no good can come of keeping her unmarried.
REV. S. [astounded] But married to _him!_--your daughter to my son! Only think: it"s impossible.