FullReads

[Drinks again] Do you know who set fire to the house?

JEAN.
Her ladyship, your mother!

JULIA.
Do you know who the brick manufacturer was?

JEAN.
Your mother’s lover?

JULIA.
Do you know to whom the money belonged?

JEAN.
Wait a minute–no, that I don’t know.

JULIA.
To my mother.

JEAN
. In other words, to the count, if there was no settlement.

JULIA.
There was no settlement. My mother possessed a small fortune of her own which she did not want to leave in my father’s control, so she invested it with–her friend.

JEAN.
Who copped it.

JULIA.
Exactly! He kept it. All this came to my father’s knowledge. He couldn’t bring suit; he couldn’t pay his wife’s lover; he couldn’t prove that it was his wife’s money. That was my mother’s revenge because he had made himself master in his own house. At that time he came near shooting himself–it was even rumoured that he had tried and failed. But he took a new lease of life, and my mother had to pay for what she had done. I can tell you that those were five years I’ll never forget! My sympathies were with my father, but I took my mother’s side because I was not aware of the true circumstances. From her I learned to suspect and hate men–for she hated the whole sex, as you have probably heard–and I promised her on my oath that I would never become a man’s slave.

JEAN.
And so you became engaged to the County Attorney.

JULIA.
Yes, in order that he should be my slave.

JEAN.
And he didn’t want to?

JULIA.
Oh, he wanted, but I wouldn’t let him. I got tired of him.

JEAN.
Yes, I saw it–in the stable-yard.

JULIA.
What did you see?

JEAN.
Just that–how he broke the engagement.

JULIA.
That’s a lie! It was I who broke it. Did he say he did it, the scoundrel?

JEAN.
Oh, he was no scoundrel, I guess. So you hate men, Miss Julia?

JULIA.
Yes! Most of the time. But now and then–when the weakness comes over me–oh, what shame!

JEAN.
And you hate me too?

JULIA.
Beyond measure! I should like to kill you like a wild beast–

JEAN.
As you make haste to shoot a mad dog. Is that right?

JULIA.
That’s right!

JEAN.
But now there is nothing to shoot with–and there is no dog. What are we to do then?

JULIA.
Go abroad.

JEAN.
In order to plague each other to death?

JULIA.
No-in order to enjoy ourselves: a couple of days, a week, as long as enjoyment is possible. And then–die!

JEAN.
Die? How silly! Then I think it’s much better to start a hotel.

JULIA.
[Without listening to JEAN]

–At Lake Como, where the sun is always shining, and the laurels stand green at Christmas, and the oranges are glowing.

JEAN.
Lake Como is a rainy hole, and I could see no oranges except in the groceries. But it is a good place for tourists, as it has a lot of villas that can be rented to loving couples, and that’s a profitable business–do you know why? Because they take a lease for six months–and then they leave after three weeks.