Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour

Name: Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Author: Сомерсет Моэм

Автор

Сомерсет Моэм

Год написания книги

2017

<< 1 ... 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 ... 154 >>

На страницу:

Перейти

99 из 154

Настройки чтения

Размер шрифта

Высота строк

Поля

Spare me these chaste blushes which mantle my youthful brow. Will you pour out the tea … Nellie?

Mrs. Crowley

Yes … Dick.

    [She sits down at the tea-table and Dick makes himself comfortable in an arm-chair by her side.

Alec

Well, I'm thankful to say that everything's packed and ready.

Mrs. Crowley

I wish you'd stay for our wedding.

Dick

Do. You can go just as well by the next boat.

Alec

I'm afraid that everything is settled now. I've given instructions at Zanzibar to collect bearers, and I must arrive as quickly as I can.

Dick

I wish to goodness you'd give up these horrible explorations.

Alec

But they're the very breath of my life. You don't know the exhilaration of the daily dangers – the joy of treading where only the wild beasts have trodden before. Oh, already I can hardly bear my impatience when I think of the boundless country and the enchanting freedom. Here one grows so small, so despicable, but in Africa everything is built to a nobler standard. There a man is really a man; there one knows what are will and strength and courage. Oh, you don't know what it is to stand on the edge of some great plain and breathe the pure keen air after the terrors of the forest. Then at last you know what freedom is.

Dick

The boundless plain of Hyde Park is enough for me, and the aspect of Piccadilly on a fine day in June gives me quite as many emotions as I want.

Mrs. Crowley

But what will you gain by it all, now that your work in East Africa is over, by all the dangers and the hardships?

Alec

Nothing. I want to gain nothing. Perhaps I shall discover some new species of antelope or some unknown plant. Perhaps I shall find some new waterway. That is all the reward I want. I love the sense of power and mastery. What do you think I care for the tinsel rewards of kings and peoples?

Dick

I always said you were melodramatic. I never heard anything so transpontine.

Mrs. Crowley

And the end of it, what will be the end?

Alec

The end is death in some fever-stricken swamp, obscurely, worn out by exposure and ague and starvation. And the bearers will seize my gun and my clothes and leave me to the jackals.

Mrs. Crowley

Don't. It's too horrible.

Alec

Why, what does it matter? I shall die standing up. I shall go the last journey as I have gone every other.

Mrs. Crowley

Without fear?

Dick

For all the world like the wicked baronet: Once aboard the lugger and the girl is mine!

Mrs. Crowley

Don't you want men to remember you?

Alec

Perhaps they will. Perhaps in a hundred years or so, in some flourishing town where I discovered nothing but wilderness, they will commission a second-rate sculptor to make a fancy statue of me. And I shall stand in front of the Stock Exchange, a convenient perch for birds, to look eternally upon the various shabby deeds of human kind.

    [During this speech Mrs. Crowley makes a sign to Dick, who walks slowly away and goes out.

Mrs. Crowley

And is that really everything? I can't help thinking that at the bottom of your heart is something that you've never told to a living soul.

    [He gives her a long look, and then after a moment's thought breaks into a little smile.

Alec

Why do you want to know so much?

Mrs. Crowley

Tell me.

Alec

I daresay I shall never see you again. Perhaps it doesn't much matter what I say to you. You'll think me very silly, but I'm afraid I'm rather – patriotic. It's only we who live away from England who really love it. I'm so proud of my country, and I wanted so much to do something for it. Often in Africa I've thought of this dear England, and longed not to die till I had done my work. Behind all the soldiers and the statesmen whose fame is imperishable, there is a long line of men who've built up the Empire piece by piece. Their names are forgotten, and only students know their history, but each one of them gave a province to his country. And I, too, have my place among them. For five years I toiled night and day, and at the end of it was able to hand over to the Commissioners a broad tract of land, rich and fertile. After my death England will forget my faults and my mistakes. I care nothing for the flouts and gibes with which she has repaid all my pain, for I have added another fair jewel to her crown. I don't want rewards. I only want the honour of serving this dear land of ours.