(She hides her face.)
(She hides her face.)
It’s true, isn’t it?
MARY ROSE.It is true, at any rate, that if I was the one to go, that is what I should like you to do.
SIMON.Get off the table-cloth.
(Her mouth opens.)
(Her mouth opens.)
Don’t step on the marmalade.
MARY ROSE(gloriously). Simon, isn’t life lovely! I am so happy, happy, happy. Aren’t you?
SIMON.Rather.
MARY ROSE.But you can tie up marmalade. Why don’t you scream with happiness? One of us has got to scream.
SIMON.Then I know which one it will be. Scream away, it will give Cameron the jumps.
(CAMERONdraws in.)
(CAMERONdraws in.)
There you are, Cameron. We are still safe, you see. You can count us—two.
CAMERON.I am ferry glad.
SIMON.Here you are. (Handing him the luncheon basket.) You needn’t tie the boat up. Stay there and I’ll stamp out the fire myself.
CAMERON.As Mr. Blake pleases.
SIMON.Ready, Mary Rose?
MARY ROSE.I must say good-bye to my island first. Good-bye, old mossy seat, nice rowan. Good-bye, little island that likes too much to be visited. Perhaps I shall come back when I am an old lady with wrinkles, and you won’t know your Mary Rose.
SIMON.I say, dear, do dry up. I can’t help listening to you when I ought to be getting this fire out.
MARY ROSE.I won’t say another word.
SIMON.Just as it seems to be out, sparks come again. Do you think if I were to get some stones——?
(He looks up and she signs that she has promised not to talk. They laugh to each other. He is then occupied for a little time in dumping wet stones from the loch upon the fire.CAMERONis in the boat with hisEuripides.MARY ROSEis sitting demure but gay, holding her tongue with her fingers like a child.Something else is happening; the call has come toMARY ROSE.It is at first as soft and furtive as whisperings from holes in the ground, Mary Rose, Mary Rose. Then in a fury as of storm and whistling winds that might be an unholy organ it rushes upon the island, raking every bush for her. These sounds increase rapidly in volume till the mere loudness of them is horrible. They are not without an opponent. Struggling through them, and also calling her name, is to be heard music of an unearthly sweetness that is seeking perhaps to beat them back and put a girdle of safety round her. OnceMARY ROSE’Sarms go out to her husband for help, but thereafter she is oblivious of his existence. Her face is rapt, but there is neither fear nor joy in it. Thus she passes from view. The island immediately resumes its stillness. The sun has gone down.SIMONby thefire andCAMERONin the boat have heard nothing.)
(He looks up and she signs that she has promised not to talk. They laugh to each other. He is then occupied for a little time in dumping wet stones from the loch upon the fire.CAMERONis in the boat with hisEuripides.MARY ROSEis sitting demure but gay, holding her tongue with her fingers like a child.
Something else is happening; the call has come toMARY ROSE.It is at first as soft and furtive as whisperings from holes in the ground, Mary Rose, Mary Rose. Then in a fury as of storm and whistling winds that might be an unholy organ it rushes upon the island, raking every bush for her. These sounds increase rapidly in volume till the mere loudness of them is horrible. They are not without an opponent. Struggling through them, and also calling her name, is to be heard music of an unearthly sweetness that is seeking perhaps to beat them back and put a girdle of safety round her. OnceMARY ROSE’Sarms go out to her husband for help, but thereafter she is oblivious of his existence. Her face is rapt, but there is neither fear nor joy in it. Thus she passes from view. The island immediately resumes its stillness. The sun has gone down.SIMONby thefire andCAMERONin the boat have heard nothing.)
SIMON(on his knees). I think the fire is done for at last, and that we can go now. How cold and grey it has become. (Smiling, but without looking up.) You needn’t grip your tongue any longer, you know. (He rises.) Mary Rose, where have you got to? Please don’t hide. Dearest, don’t. Cameron, where is my wife?
(CAMERONrises in the boat, and he is afraid to land. His face alarmsSIMON,who runs this way and that and is lost to sight calling her by name again and again. He returns livid.)
(CAMERONrises in the boat, and he is afraid to land. His face alarmsSIMON,who runs this way and that and is lost to sight calling her by name again and again. He returns livid.)
Cameron, I can’t find her. Mary Rose! Mary Rose! Mary Rose!