Последний отзыв
Очень интересная!
По всем вопросам обращайтесь на: info@litportal.ru
(©) 2003-2024.
✖
Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
Автор
Год написания книги
2017
Настройки чтения
Размер шрифта
Высота строк
Поля
Basil
[Bored.] We've been having it out twice a week for the last six months – and we've never got anywhere yet.
Jenny
I'm not going to be always put upon, I'm your wife and I'm as good as you are.
Basil
[With a thin smile.] Oh, my dear, if you're going in for women's rights, you may have my vote by all means. And you can plump for all the candidates at once if you choose.
Jenny
You seem to think it's a joke.
Basil
[Bitterly.] Oh no, I promise you I don't do that. It's lasted too long. And God knows where it'll end… They say the first year of marriage is the worst; ours has been bad enough in all conscience.
Jenny
[Aggressively.] And I suppose you think it's my fault?
Basil
Don't you think we're both more or less to blame?
Jenny
[With a laugh.] Oh, I'm glad you acknowledge that you have something to do with it.
Basil
I tried to make you happy.
Jenny
Well, you haven't succeeded very well. Did you think I was likely to be happy – when you leave me alone all day and half the night for your swell friends that I'm not good enough for?
Basil
That's not true. I hardly ever see any of my old friends.
Jenny
Except Mrs. Murray, eh?
Basil
I've seen Mrs. Murray perhaps a dozen times in the last year.
Jenny
Oh, you needn't tell me that. I know it. She's a lady, isn't she?
Basil
[Ignoring the charge.] And my work takes me away from you. I can't always be down here. Think how bored you'd be.
Jenny
A precious lot of good your work does. You can't earn enough money to keep us out of debt.
Basil
[Good-humouredly.] We are in debt. But we share that very respectable condition with half the nobility and gentry in the kingdom. We're neither of us good managers, and we've lived a bit beyond our means this year. But in future we'll be more economical.
Jenny
[Sullenly.] All the neighbours know that we've got bills with the tradesmen.
Basil
[Acidly.] I'm sorry that you shouldn't have made so good a bargain as you expected when you married me.
Jenny
I wonder what you do succeed in? Your book was very successful, wasn't it? You thought you were going to set the Thames on fire, and the book fell flat, flat, flat.
Basil
[Recovering his good temper.] That is a fate which has befallen better books than mine.
Jenny
It deserved it.
Basil
Oh, I didn't expect you to appreciate it. It isn't given to all of us to write about wicked earls and beautiful duchesses.
Jenny
Well, I wasn't the only one. The papers praised it, didn't they?
Basil
The unanimity of their blame was the only thing that consoled me.
[Bored.] We've been having it out twice a week for the last six months – and we've never got anywhere yet.
Jenny
I'm not going to be always put upon, I'm your wife and I'm as good as you are.
Basil
[With a thin smile.] Oh, my dear, if you're going in for women's rights, you may have my vote by all means. And you can plump for all the candidates at once if you choose.
Jenny
You seem to think it's a joke.
Basil
[Bitterly.] Oh no, I promise you I don't do that. It's lasted too long. And God knows where it'll end… They say the first year of marriage is the worst; ours has been bad enough in all conscience.
Jenny
[Aggressively.] And I suppose you think it's my fault?
Basil
Don't you think we're both more or less to blame?
Jenny
[With a laugh.] Oh, I'm glad you acknowledge that you have something to do with it.
Basil
I tried to make you happy.
Jenny
Well, you haven't succeeded very well. Did you think I was likely to be happy – when you leave me alone all day and half the night for your swell friends that I'm not good enough for?
Basil
That's not true. I hardly ever see any of my old friends.
Jenny
Except Mrs. Murray, eh?
Basil
I've seen Mrs. Murray perhaps a dozen times in the last year.
Jenny
Oh, you needn't tell me that. I know it. She's a lady, isn't she?
Basil
[Ignoring the charge.] And my work takes me away from you. I can't always be down here. Think how bored you'd be.
Jenny
A precious lot of good your work does. You can't earn enough money to keep us out of debt.
Basil
[Good-humouredly.] We are in debt. But we share that very respectable condition with half the nobility and gentry in the kingdom. We're neither of us good managers, and we've lived a bit beyond our means this year. But in future we'll be more economical.
Jenny
[Sullenly.] All the neighbours know that we've got bills with the tradesmen.
Basil
[Acidly.] I'm sorry that you shouldn't have made so good a bargain as you expected when you married me.
Jenny
I wonder what you do succeed in? Your book was very successful, wasn't it? You thought you were going to set the Thames on fire, and the book fell flat, flat, flat.
Basil
[Recovering his good temper.] That is a fate which has befallen better books than mine.
Jenny
It deserved it.
Basil
Oh, I didn't expect you to appreciate it. It isn't given to all of us to write about wicked earls and beautiful duchesses.
Jenny
Well, I wasn't the only one. The papers praised it, didn't they?
Basil
The unanimity of their blame was the only thing that consoled me.
Другие электронные книги автора Сомерсет Моэм
Другие аудиокниги автора Сомерсет Моэм
Последний отзыв
Очень интересная!