Part 19 (1/2)
(BELINDA _releases her hand and slips down into the Chesterfield.
Tempestuously_.)
Come, I say--
(_He marches the resisting_ DEVENISH _to the swing doors_.)
Let us put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.
DEVENISH (_turning and appealing to_ BELINDA). Please!
BELINDA (_gently_). Mr. Baxter... Harold.
(BAXTER _stops and turns round_.)
You are too impetuous. I think that as Delia's mother--
BAXTER (_coming down_ R. _to the foot of the_ C.
_table_). Your pardon, Mrs. Tremayne. In the intoxication of the moment I am forgetting. (_Formally_.) I have the honour to ask your permission to pay my addresses--(_Moves to chair_ L. _of table_.)
BELINDA. No, no, I didn't mean that. But, as Delia's mother, I ought to warn you that she is hardly fitted to take the place of your housekeeper. She is not very domesticated.
BAXTER (_indignantly_). Not domesticated? (_Sits_ L. _of table_.) Why, did I not hear her tell her father at dinner that she had arranged all the flowers?
BELINDA. There are other things than flowers.
DEVENISH (_on_ BAXTER'S R., _behind the table_). Bed-socks, for instance, Baxter.
(BAXTER _is annoyed_.)
It's a very tricky thing airing bed-socks. I am sure your house-keeper--
BAXTER (_silencing_ DEVENISH). Mrs. Tremayne, she will learn. The daughter of such a mother... I need say no more.
BELINDA. Oh, thank you. But there is something else, Mr. Baxter. You are not being quite fair to yourself. In starting out upon this simultaneous wooing, you forget that Mr. Devenish has already had his turn--(DEVENISH _tries to stop her_. BAXTER _turns round and nearly catches him_.)--this morning alone. You should have yours ... alone ... too.
DEVENISH. Oh, I say!
BAXTER. Yes, yes, you are right. I must introduce myself first as a suitor. I see that. (_Rising, to_ DEVENISH.) You stay here; _I_ will go alone into the garden, and--(_Moving below table and up to the swing doors_.)
BELINDA. It is perhaps a little cold out of doors for people of ... of our age, Mr. Baxter. Now, in the library--
BAXTER (_at the swing doors, turning to her, astonished_). Library?
BELINDA. Yes.
BAXTER (_moving down_ R. _a little_). You have a library?
BELINDA (_to_ DEVENISH). He doesn't believe I have a library.
DEVENISH. You ought to see the library, Baxter.