Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts

Osman Pasha

En effet, et je vous demanderai permission de me retirer. Mon bureau m'appelle.

[He gets up and shakes hands with Violet.]

Violet

It was charming of you to come.

Osman Pasha

Mon Dieu, madame, c'est moi qui vous remercie de m'avoir donné l'occasion de saluer votre grâce et votre beauté.

[He bows to the rest of the company. Arthur leads him towards the door and he goes out.]

Anne

You take all these compliments without turning a hair, Violet.

Arthur

[Coming back.] You know, that's a wonderful old man. He's so well-bred, he has such exquisite manners, it's hard to realise that if it were possible he would have us all massacred to-morrow.

Appleby

I remember there was a certain uneasiness in England when you recommended that he should be made Minister of Education.

Arthur

They don't always understand local conditions in England. Osman is a Moslem of the old school. He has a bitter hatred of the English. In course of years he has come to accept the inevitable, but he's not resigned to it. He never loses sight of his aim.

Appleby

And that is?

Arthur

Why, bless you, to drive the English into the sea. But he's a clever old rascal, and he sees that one of the first things that must be done is to educate the Egyptians. Well, we want to educate them too. I had all sorts of reforms in mind which I would never have got the strict Mohammedans to accept if they hadn't been brought forward by a man whose patriotism they believe in and whose orthodoxy is beyond suspicion.

Anne

Don't you find it embarrassing to work with a man you distrust?

Arthur

I don't distrust him. I have a certain admiration for him, and I bear him no grudge at all because at the bottom of his heart he simply loathes me.

Appleby

I don't see why he should do that.

Arthur

I was in Egypt for three years when I was quite a young man. I was very small fry then, but I came into collision with Osman and he tried to poison me. I was very ill for two months, and he's never forgiven me because I recovered.

Appleby

What a scoundrel!

Arthur

He would be a little out of place in a Nonconformist community. In the good old days of Ismael he had one of his wives beaten to death and thrown into the Nile.

Appleby

But is it right to give high office to a man of that character?

Arthur

They were the manners and customs of the times.

Mrs. Appleby

But he tried to kill you. Don't you bear him any ill will?

Arthur

I don't think it was very friendly, you know, but after all no statesman can afford to pay attention to his private feelings. His duty is to find the round peg for the round hole and put him in.

Anne

Why does he come here?

Arthur

He has a very great and respectful admiration for Violet. She chaffs him, if you please, and the old man adores her. I think she's done more to reconcile him to the British occupation than all our diplomacy.

Mrs. Appleby

It must be wonderful to have power in a country like this.

Violet

Power? Oh, I haven't that. But it makes me so proud to think I can be of any use at all. I only wish I had the chance to do more. Since I've been here I've grown very patriotic.

[Ronald Parry comes in. He is a young man, very good-looking, fresh and pleasant, with a peculiar charm of manner.]

Arthur