Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts

Osman Pasha

C'est une bien belle langue, et vous, madame, vous avez autant d'intelligence que de beauté.

Violet

I have a Copt who comes to me every day. And I practise a little with your brother, Anne.

Anne

[To Mrs. Appleby.] My brother is one of Sir Arthur's secretaries. I expect it was he that Mr. Appleby left with Sir Arthur.

Violet

If it is I shall scold him. He knows quite well that he has no right to come and bother Arthur when he's in the bosom of his family. But they say he's a wonderful Arabic scholar.

Osman Pasha

Vous parlez de M. Parry? Je n'ai jamais connu un Anglais qui avait une telle facilité.

Anne

He says he's never known an Englishman who speaks so well as Ronny.

Violet

It's a fearfully difficult language. Sometimes my head seems to get tied up in knots.

[Two Saises come in, one with a salver on which are coffee cups and the other bearing a small tray on which is a silver vessel containing Turkish coffee. They go round giving coffee to the various people, then wait in silence. When Sir Arthur comes in they give him his coffee and go out.]

Anne

It's wonderful of you to persevere.

Violet

Oh, you know, Ronny's very encouraging. He says I'm really getting on. I want so badly to be able to talk. You can't think how enthusiastic I am about Egypt. I love it.

Osman Pasha

Pas plus que l'Égypte vous aime, Madame.

Violet

When we landed at Alexandria and I saw that blue sky and that coloured, gesticulating crowd, my heart leapt. I knew I was going to be happy. And every day I've loved Egypt more. I love its antiquities, I love the desert and the streets of Cairo and those dear little villages by the Nile. I never knew there was such beauty in the world. I thought you only read of romance in books; I didn't know there was a country where it sat by the side of a well under the palm-trees, as though it were at home.

Osman Pasha

Vous êtes charmante, madame. C'est un bien beau pays. Il n'a besoin que d'une chose pour qu'on puisse y vivre.

Anne

[Translating.] It's a beautiful country. It only wants one thing to make it livable. And what is that, your Excellency?

Osman Pasha

La liberté.

Appleby

Liberty?

[Arthur has come in when first Violet begins to speak of Egypt and he listens to her enthusiasm with an indulgent smile. At the Pasha's remark he comes forward. Arthur Little is a man of forty-five, alert, young in manner, very intelligent, with the urbanity, self-assurance, tact, and resourcefulness of the experienced diplomatist. Nothing escapes him, but he does not often show how much he notices.]

Arthur

Egypt has the liberty to do well, your Excellency. Does it need the liberty to do ill before it loses the inclination to do it?

Violet

[To Mrs. Appleby.] I hope you don't mind Turkish coffee?

Mrs. Appleby

Oh, no, I like it.

Violet

I'm so glad. I think it perfectly delicious.

Arthur

You have in my wife an enthusiastic admirer of this country, Pasha.

Osman Pasha

J'en suis ravi.

Arthur

I've told Ronny to come in and have a cup of coffee. [To Anne.] I thought you'd like to say how d'you do to him.

Anne

Are you very busy to-day?

Arthur

We're always busy. Isn't that so, Excellency?