PERCIVAL. Be good enough to sign. [Gunner sits down helplessly and dips the pen in the ink]. I hope what you are signing is no mere form of words to you, and that you not only say you are sorry, but that you are sorry.
Lord Summerhays and Johnny come in through the pavilion door.
MRS TARLETON. Stop. Mr Percival: I think, on Hypatia's account, Lord Summerhays ought to be told about this.
Lord Summerhays, wondering what the matter is, comes forward between Percival and Lina. Johnny stops beside Hypatia.
PERCIVAL. Certainly.
TARLETON. [uneasily] Take my advice, and cut it short. Get rid of him.
MRS TARLETON. Hypatia ought to have her character cleared.
TARLETON. You let well alone, Chickabiddy. Most of our characters will bear a little careful dusting; but they wont bear scouring.
Patsy is jolly well out of it. What does it matter, anyhow?
PERCIVAL. Mr Tarleton: we have already said either too much or not enough. Lord Summerhays: will you be kind enough to witness the declaration this man has just signed?
GUNNER. I havnt yet. Am I to sign now?
PERCIVAL. Of course. [Gunner, who is now incapable of doing anything on his own initiative, signs]. Now stand up and read your declaration to this gentleman. [Gunner makes a vague movement and looks stupidly round. Percival adds peremptorily] Now, please.
GUNNER [rising apprehensively and reading in a hardly audible voice, like a very sick man] I, John Brown, of 4 Chesterfield Parade, Kentish Town, do hereby voluntarily confess that on the 31st May 1909I trespassed on the land of John Tarleton at Hindhead, and effected an unlawful entry into his house, where I secreted myself in a portable Turkish bath, with a pistol, with which I threatened to take the life of the said John Tarleton, and was prevented from doing so only by the timely arrival of the celebrated Miss Lena Sh-Sh-sheepanossika. Ifurther confess that I was guilty of uttering an abominable calumny concerning Miss Hypatia Tarleton, for which there was not a shred of foundation. I apologize most humbly to the lady and her family for my conduct; and I promise Mr Tarleton not to repeat it, and to amend my life, and to do what in me lies to prove worthy of his kindness in giving me another chance and refraining from delivering me up to the punishment I so richly deserve.
A short and painful silence follows. Then Percival speaks.
PERCIVAL. Do you consider that sufficient, Lord Summerhays?
LORD SUMMERHAYS. Oh quite, quite.
PERCIVAL. [to Hypatia] Lord Summerhays would probably like to hear you say that you are satisfied, Miss Tarleton.
HYPATIA. [coming out of the swing, and advancing between Percival and Lord Summerhays] I must say that you have behaved like a perfect gentleman, Mr. Percival.
PERCIVAL. [first bowing to Hypatia, and then turning with cold contempt to Gunner, who is standing helpless] We need not trouble you any further. [Gunner turns vaguely towards the pavilion].
JOHNNY [with less refined offensiveness, pointing to the pavilion]
Thats your way. The gardener will shew you the shortest way into the road. Go the shortest way.
GUNNER. [oppressed and disconcerted, hardly knows how to get out of the room] Yes, sir. I-- [He turns again, appealing to Tarleton]
Maynt I have my mother's photographs back again? [Mrs Tarleton pricks up her ears].
TARLETON. Eh? What? Oh, the photographs! Yes, yes, yes: take them. [Gunner takes them from the table, and is creeping away, when Mrs Tarleton puts out her hand and stops him].
MRS TARLETON. Whats this, John? What were you doing with his mother's photographs?
TARLETON. Nothing, nothing. Never mind, Chickabiddy: it's all right.
MRS TARLETON. [snatching the photographs from Gunner's irresolute fingers, and recognizing them at a glance] Lucy Titmus! Oh John, John!
TARLETON. [grimly, to Gunner] Young man: youre a fool; but youve just put the lid on this job in a masterly manner. I knew you would.
I told you all to let well alone. You wouldnt; and now you must take the consequences--or rather I must take them.
MRS TARLETON. [to Gunner] Are you Lucy's son?
GUNNER. Yes.
MRS TARLETON. And why didnt you come to me? I didnt turn my back on your mother when she came to me in her trouble. Didnt you know that?
GUNNER. No. She never talked to me about anything.
TARLETON. How could she talk to her own son? Shy, Summerhays, shy.
Parent and child. Shy. [He sits down at the end of the writing table nearest the sideboard like a man resigned to anything that fate may have in store for him].
MRS TARLETON. Then how did you find out?
GUNNER. From her papers after she died.
MRS TARLETON. [shocked] Is Lucy dead? And I never knew! [With an effusion of tenderness] And you here being treated like that, poor orphan, with nobody to take your part! Tear up that foolish paper, child; and sit down and make friends with me.
JOHNNY.|Hallo, mother this is all very well, you know--
PERCIVAL. |But may I point out, Mrs Tarleton, that--
BENTLEY. |Do you mean that after what he said of--
HYPATIA. |Oh, look here, mamma: this is really--MRS TARLETON. Will you please speak one at a time?
Silence.
PERCIVAL [in a very gentlemanly manner] Will you allow me to remind you, Mrs Tarleton, that this man has uttered a most serious and disgraceful falsehood concerning Miss Tarleton and myself?
MRS TARLETON. I dont believe a word of it. If the poor lad was there in the Turkish bath, who has a better right to say what was going on here than he has? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Patsy; and so ought you too, Mr Percival, for encouraging her. [Hypatia retreats to the pavilion, and exchanges grimaces with Johnny, shamelessly enjoying Percival's sudden reverse. They know their mother].
PERCIVAL. [gasping] Mrs Tarleton: I give you my word of honor--MRS TARLETON. Oh, go along with you and your word of honor. Do you think I'm a fool? I wonder you can look the lad in the face after bullying him and making him sign those wicked lies; and all the time you carrying on with my daughter before youd been half an hour in my house. Fie, for shame!
