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_ Act I
Night. A lady's bedchamber in Bulgaria, in a small
town near the Dragoman Pass. It is late in
November in the year 1885, and through an open
window with a little balcony on the left can be
seen a peak of the Balkans, wonderfully white and
beautiful in the starlit snow. The interior of the
room is not like anything to be seen in the east
of Europe. It is half rich Bulgarian, half cheap
Viennese. The counterpane and hangings of the bed,
the window curtains, the little carpet, and all
the ornamental textile fabrics in the room are
oriental and gorgeous: the paper on the walls is
occidental and paltry. Above the head of the bed,
which stands against a little wall cutting off the
right hand corner of the room diagonally, is a
painted wooden shrine, blue and gold, with an
ivory image of Christ, and a light hanging before
it in a pierced metal ball suspended by three
chains. On the left, further forward, is an
ottoman. The washstand, against the wall on the
left, consists of an enamelled iron basin with a
pail beneath it in a painted metal frame, and a
single towel on the rail at the side. A chair near
it is Austrian bent wood, with cane seat. The
dressing table, between the bed and the window, is
an ordinary pine table, covered with a cloth of
many colors, but with an expensive toilet mirror
on it. The door is on the right; and there is a
chest of drawers between the door and the bed.
This chest of drawers is also covered by a
variegated native cloth, and on it there is a pile
of paper backed novels, a box of chocolate creams,
and a miniature easel, on which is a large
photograph of an extremely handsome officer, whose
lofty bearing and magnetic glance can be felt even
from the portrait. The room is lighted by a candle
on the chest of drawers, and another on the
dressing table, with a box of matches beside it.
The window is hinged doorwise and stands wide
open, folding back to the left. Outside a pair of
wooden shutters, opening outwards, also stand
open. On the balcony, a young lady, intensely
conscious of the romantic beauty of the night, and
of the fact that her own youth and beauty is a part
of it, is on the balcony, gazing at the snowy
Balkans. She is covered by a long mantle of furs,
worth, on a moderate estimate, about three times
the furniture of her room.
Her reverie is interrupted by her mother,
Catherine Petkoff, a woman over forty, imperiously
energetic, with magnificent black hair and eyes,
who might be a very splendid specimen of the wife
of a mountain farmer, but is determined to be a
Viennese lady, and to that end wears a fashionable
tea gown on all occasions.
CATHERINE (entering hastily, full of good news). Raina--(she
pronounces it Rah-eena, with the stress on the ee) Raina--(she
goes to the bed, expecting to find Raina there.) Why,
where--(Raina looks into the room.) Heavens! child, are you out
in the night air instead of in your bed? You'll catch your
death. Louka told me you were asleep.
RAINA (coming in). I sent her away. I wanted to be alone. The
stars are so beautiful! What is the matter?
CATHERINE. Such news. There has been a battle!
RAINA (her eyes dilating). Ah! (She throws the cloak on the
ottoman, and comes eagerly to Catherine in her nightgown, a
pretty garment, but evidently the only one she has on.)
CATHERINE. A great battle at Slivnitza! A victory! And it was
won by Sergius.
RAINA (with a cry of delight). Ah! (Rapturously.) Oh, mother!
(Then, with sudden anxiety) Is father safe?
CATHERINE. Of course: he sent me the news. Sergius is the hero
of the hour, the idol of the regiment.
RAINA. Tell me, tell me. How was it! (Ecstatically) Oh, mother,
mother, mother! (Raina pulls her mother down on the ottoman; and
they kiss one another frantically.)
CATHERINE (with surging enthusiasm). You can't guess how
splendid it is. A cavalry charge--think of that! He defied our
Russian commanders--acted without orders--led a charge on his
own responsibility--headed it himself--was the first man to
sweep through their guns. Can't you see it, Raina; our gallant
splendid Bulgarians with their swords and eyes flashing,
thundering down like an avalanche and scattering the wretched
Servian dandies like chaff. And you--you kept Sergius waiting a
year before you would be betrothed to him. Oh, if you have a
drop of Bulgarian blood in your veins, you will worship him when
he comes back.
RAINA. What will he care for my poor little worship after the
acclamations of a whole army of heroes? But no matter: I am so
happy--so proud! (She rises and walks about excitedly.) It
proves that all our ideas were real after all.
CATHERINE (indignantly). Our ideas real! What do you mean?
RAINA. Our ideas of what Sergius would do--our patriotism --our
heroic ideals. Oh, what faithless little creatures girls are!--I
sometimes used to doubt whether they were anything but dreams.
When I buckled on Sergius's sword he looked so noble: it was
treason to think of disillusion or humiliation or failure. And
yet--and yet--(Quickly.) Promise me you'll never tell him.
CATHERINE. Don't ask me for promises until I know what I am
promising.
RAINA. Well, it came into my head just as he was holding me in
his arms and looking into my eyes, that perhaps we only had our
heroic ideas because we are so fond of reading Byron and
Pushkin, and because we were so delighted with the opera that
season at Bucharest. Real life is so seldom like that--indeed
never, as far as I knew it then. (Remorsefully.) Only think,
mother, I doubted him: I wondered whether all his heroic
qualities and his soldiership might not prove mere imagination
when he went into a real battle. I had an uneasy fear that he
might cut a poor figure there beside all those clever Russian
officers.
CATHERINE. A poor figure! Shame on you! The Servians have
Austrian officers who are just as clever as our Russians; but we
have beaten them in every battle for all that.
RAINA (laughing and sitting down again). Yes, I was only a
prosaic little coward. Oh, to think that it was all true--that
Sergius is just as splendid and noble as he looks--that the
world is really a glorious world for women who can see its glory
and men who can act its romance! What happiness! what
unspeakable fulfilment! Ah! (She throws herself on her knees
beside her mother and flings her arms passionately round her.
They are interrupted by the entry of Louka, a handsome, proud
girl in a pretty Bulgarian peasant's dress with double apron, so
defiant that her servility to Raina is almost insolent. She is
afraid of Catherine, but even with her goes as far as she dares.
She is just now excited like the others; but she has no sympathy
for Raina's raptures and looks contemptuously at the ecstasies
of the two before she addresses them.)
LOUKA. If you please, madam, all the windows are to be closed
and the shutters made fast. They say there may be shooting in
the streets. (Raina and Catherine rise together, alarmed.) The
Servians are being chased right back through the pass; and they
say they may run into the town. Our cavalry will be after them;
and our people will be ready for them you may be sure, now that
they are running away. (She goes out on the balcony and pulls
the outside shutters to; then steps back into the room.)
RAINA. I wish our people were not so cruel. What glory is there
in killing wretched fugitives?
CATHERINE (business-like, her housekeeping instincts aroused).
I must see that everything is made safe downstairs.
RAINA (to Louka). Leave the shutters so that I can just close
them if I hear any noise.
CATHERINE (authoritatively, turning on her way to the door).
Oh, no, dear, you must keep them fastened. You would be sure to
drop off to sleep and leave them open. Make them fast, Louka.
LOUKA. Yes, madam. (She fastens them.)
RAINA. Don't be anxious about me. The moment I hear a shot, I
shall blow out the candles and roll myself up in bed with my
ears well covered.
CATHERINE. Quite the wisest thing you can do, my love.
Good-night.
RAINA. Good-night. (They kiss one another, and Raina's emotion
comes back for a moment.) Wish me joy of the happiest night of
my life--if only there are no fugitives.
CATHERINE. Go to bed, dear; and don't think of them. (She goes
out.)
LOUKA (secretly, to Raina). If you would like the shutters
open, just give them a push like this. (She pushes them: they
open: she pulls them to again.) One of them ought to be bolted
at the bottom; but the bolt's gone.
RAINA (with dignity, reproving her). Thanks, Louka; but we must
do what we are told. (Louka makes a grimace.) Good-night.
LOUKA (carelessly). Good-night. (She goes out, swaggering.)
(Raina, left alone, goes to the chest of drawers,
and adores the portrait there with feelings that
are beyond all expression. She does not kiss it or
press it to her breast, or shew it any mark of
bodily affection; but she takes it in her hands
and elevates it like a priestess.)
RAINA (looking up at the picture with worship.) Oh, I shall
never be unworthy of you any more, my hero--never, never, never.
(She replaces it reverently, and selects a novel
from the little pile of books. She turns over the
leaves dreamily; finds her page; turns the book
inside out at it; and then, with a happy sigh,
gets into bed and prepares to read herself to
sleep. But before abandoning herself to fiction,
she raises her eyes once more, thinking of the
blessed reality and murmurs)
My hero! my hero!
(A distant shot breaks the quiet of the night
outside. She starts, listening; and two more
shots, much nearer, follow, startling her so that
she scrambles out of bed, and hastily blows out
the candle on the chest of drawers. Then, putting
her fingers in her ears, she runs to the
dressing-table and blows out the light there, and
hurries back to bed. The room is now in darkness:
nothing is visible but the glimmer of the light in
the pierced ball before the image, and the
starlight seen through the slits at the top of the
shutters. The firing breaks out again: there is a
startling fusillade quite close at hand. Whilst it
is still echoing, the shutters disappear, pulled
open from without, and for an instant the
rectangle of snowy starlight flashes out with the
figure of a man in black upon it. The shutters
close immediately and the room is dark again. But
the silence is now broken by the sound of panting.
Then there is a scrape; and the flame of a match
is seen in the middle of the room.)
RAINA (crouching on the bed). Who's there? (The match is out
instantly.) Who's there? Who is that?
A MAN'S VOICE (in the darkness, subduedly, but threateningly).
Sh--sh! Don't call out or you'll be shot. Be good; and no harm
will happen to you. (She is heard leaving her bed, and making
for the door.) Take care, there's no use in trying to run away.
Remember, if you raise your voice my pistol will go off.
(Commandingly.) Strike a light and let me see you. Do you hear?
(Another moment of silence and darkness. Then she is heard
retreating to the dressing-table. She lights a candle, and the
mystery is at an end. A man of about 35, in a deplorable plight,
bespattered with mud and blood and snow, his belt and the strap
of his revolver case keeping together the torn ruins of the blue
coat of a Servian artillery officer. As far as the candlelight
and his unwashed, unkempt condition make it possible to judge,
he is a man of middling stature and undistinguished appearance,
with strong neck and shoulders, a roundish, obstinate looking
head covered with short crisp bronze curls, clear quick blue
eyes and good brows and mouth, a hopelessly prosaic nose like
that of a strong-minded baby, trim soldierlike carriage and
energetic manner, and with all his wits about him in spite of
his desperate predicament--even with a sense of humor of it,
without, however, the least intention of trifling with it or
throwing away a chance. He reckons up what he can guess about
Raina--her age, her social position, her character, the extent
to which she is frightened--at a glance, and continues, more
politely but still most determinedly) Excuse my disturbing you;
but you recognise my uniform--Servian. If I'm caught I shall be
killed. (Determinedly.) Do you understand that?
RAINA. Yes.
MAN. Well, I don't intend to get killed if I can help it. (Still
more determinedly.) Do you understand that? (He locks the door
with a snap.)
RAINA (disdainfully). I suppose not. (She draws herself up
superbly, and looks him straight in the face, saying with
emphasis) Some soldiers, I know, are afraid of death.
MAN (with grim goodhumor). All of them, dear lady, all of them,
believe me. It is our duty to live as long as we can, and kill
as many of the enemy as we can. Now if you raise an alarm--
RAINA (cutting him short). You will shoot me. How do you know
that I am afraid to die?
MAN (cunningly). Ah; but suppose I don't shoot you, what will
happen then? Why, a lot of your cavalry--the greatest
blackguards in your army--will burst into this pretty room of
yours and slaughter me here like a pig; for I'll fight like a
demon: they shan't get me into the street to amuse themselves
with: I know what they are. Are you prepared to receive that
sort of company in your present undress? (Raina, suddenly
conscious of her nightgown, instinctively shrinks and gathers it
more closely about her. He watches her, and adds, pitilessly)
It's rather scanty, eh? (She turns to the ottoman. He raises his
pistol instantly, and cries) Stop! (She stops.) Where are you
going?
RAINA (with dignified patience). Only to get my cloak.
MAN (darting to the ottoman and snatching the cloak). A good
idea. No: I'll keep the cloak: and you will take care that
nobody comes in and sees you without it. This is a better weapon
than the pistol. (He throws the pistol down on the ottoman.)
RAINA (revolted). It is not the weapon of a gentleman!
MAN. It's good enough for a man with only you to stand between
him and death. (As they look at one another for a moment, Raina
hardly able to believe that even a Servian officer can be so
cynically and selfishly unchivalrous, they are startled by a
sharp fusillade in the street. The chill of imminent death
hushes the man's voice as he adds) Do you hear? If you are going
to bring those scoundrels in on me you shall receive them as you
are. (Raina meets his eye with unflinching scorn. Suddenly he
starts, listening. There is a step outside. Someone tries the
door, and then knocks hurriedly and urgently at it. Raina looks
at the man, breathless. He throws up his head with the gesture
of a man who sees that it is all over with him, and, dropping
the manner which he has been assuming to intimidate her, flings
the cloak to her, exclaiming, sincerely and kindly) No use: I'm
done for. Quick! wrap yourself up: they're coming!
RAINA (catching the cloak eagerly). Oh, thank you. (She wraps
herself up with great relief. He draws his sabre and turns to
the door, waiting.)
LOUKA (outside, knocking). My lady, my lady! Get up, quick, and
open the door.
RAINA (anxiously). What will you do?
MAN (grimly). Never mind. Keep out of the way. It will not last
long.
RAINA (impulsively). I'll help you. Hide yourself, oh, hide
yourself, quick, behind the curtain. (She seizes him by a torn
strip of his sleeve, and pulls him towards the window.)
MAN (yielding to her). There is just half a chance, if you keep
your head. Remember: nine soldiers out of ten are born fools.
(He hides behind the curtain, looking out for a moment to say,
finally) If they find me, I promise you a fight--a devil of a
fight! (He disappears. Raina takes of the cloak and throws it
across the foot of the bed. Then with a sleepy, disturbed air,
she opens the door. Louka enters excitedly.)
LOUKA. A man has been seen climbing up the water-pipe to your
balcony--a Servian. The soldiers want to search for him; and
they are so wild and drunk and furious. My lady says you are to
dress at once.
RAINA (as if annoyed at being disturbed). They shall not search
here. Why have they been let in?
CATHERINE (coming in hastily). Raina, darling, are you safe?
Have you seen anyone or heard anything?
RAINA. I heard the shooting. Surely the soldiers will not dare
come in here?
CATHERINE. I have found a Russian officer, thank Heaven: he
knows Sergius. (Speaking through the door to someone outside.)
Sir, will you come in now! My daughter is ready.
(A young Russian officer, in Bulgarian uniform,
enters, sword in hand.)
THE OFFICER. (with soft, feline politeness and stiff military
carriage). Good evening, gracious lady; I am sorry to intrude,
but there is a fugitive hiding on the balcony. Will you and the
gracious lady your mother please to withdraw whilst we search?
RAINA (petulantly). Nonsense, sir, you can see that there is no
one on the balcony. (She throws the shutters wide open and
stands with her back to the curtain where the man is hidden,
pointing to the moonlit balcony. A couple of shots are fired
right under the window, and a bullet shatters the glass opposite
Raina, who winks and gasps, but stands her ground, whilst
Catherine screams, and the officer rushes to the balcony.)
THE OFFICER. (on the balcony, shouting savagely down to the
street). Cease firing there, you fools: do you hear? Cease
firing, damn you. (He glares down for a moment; then turns to
Raina, trying to resume his polite manner.) Could anyone have
got in without your knowledge? Were you asleep?
RAINA. No, I have not been to bed.
THE OFFICER. (impatiently, coming back into the room). Your
neighbours have their heads so full of runaway Servians that
they see them everywhere. (Politely.) Gracious lady, a thousand
pardons. Good-night. (Military bow, which Raina returns coldly.
Another to Catherine, who follows him out. Raina closes the
shutters. She turns and sees Louka, who has been watching the
scene curiously.)
RAINA. Don't leave my mother, Louka, whilst the soldiers are
here. (Louka glances at Raina, at the ottoman, at the curtain;
then purses her lips secretively, laughs to herself, and goes
out. Raina follows her to the door, shuts it behind her with a
slam, and locks it violently. The man immediately steps out from
behind the curtain, sheathing his sabre, and dismissing the
danger from his mind in a businesslike way.)
MAN. A narrow shave; but a miss is as good as a mile. Dear young
lady, your servant until death. I wish for your sake I had
joined the Bulgarian army instead of the Servian. I am not a
native Servian.
RAINA (haughtily). No, you are one of the Austrians who set the
Servians on to rob us of our national liberty, and who officer
their army for them. We hate them!
MAN. Austrian! not I. Don't hate me, dear young lady. I am only
a Swiss, fighting merely as a professional soldier. I joined
Servia because it was nearest to me. Be generous: you've beaten
us hollow.
RAINA. Have I not been generous?
MAN. Noble!--heroic! But I'm not saved yet. This particular rush
will soon pass through; but the pursuit will go on all night by
fits and starts. I must take my chance to get off during a quiet
interval. You don't mind my waiting just a minute or two, do
you?
RAINA. Oh, no: I am sorry you will have to go into danger again.
(Motioning towards ottoman.) Won't you sit--(She breaks off
with an irrepressible cry of alarm as she catches sight of the
pistol. The man, all nerves, shies like a frightened horse.)
MAN (irritably). Don't frighten me like that. What is it?
RAINA. Your pistol! It was staring that officer in the face all
the time. What an escape!
MAN (vexed at being unnecessarily terrified). Oh, is that all?
RAINA (staring at him rather superciliously, conceiving a
poorer and poorer opinion of him, and feeling proportionately
more and more at her ease with him). I am sorry I frightened
you. (She takes up the pistol and hands it to him.) Pray take it
to protect yourself against me.
MAN (grinning wearily at the sarcasm as he takes the pistol).
No use, dear young lady: there's nothing in it. It's not loaded.
(He makes a grimace at it, and drops it disparagingly into his
revolver case.)
RAINA. Load it by all means.
MAN. I've no ammunition. What use are cartridges in battle? I
always carry chocolate instead; and I finished the last cake of
that yesterday.
RAINA (outraged in her most cherished ideals of manhood).
Chocolate! Do you stuff your pockets with sweets--like a
schoolboy--even in the field?
MAN. Yes. Isn't it contemptible?
(Raina stares at him, unable to utter her
feelings. Then she sails away scornfully to the
chest of drawers, and returns with the box of
confectionery in her hand.)
RAINA. Allow me. I am sorry I have eaten them all except these.
(She offers him the box.)
MAN (ravenously). You're an angel! (He gobbles the comfits.)
Creams! Delicious! (He looks anxiously to see whether there are
any more. There are none. He accepts the inevitable with
pathetic goodhumor, and says, with grateful emotion) Bless you,
dear lady. You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of
his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols
and cartridges; the old ones, grub. Thank you. (He hands back
the box. She snatches it contemptuously from him and throws it
away. This impatient action is so sudden that he shies again.)
Ugh! Don't do things so suddenly, gracious lady. Don't revenge
yourself because I frightened you just now.
RAINA (superbly). Frighten me! Do you know, sir, that though I
am only a woman, I think I am at heart as brave as you.
MAN. I should think so. You haven't been under fire for three
days as I have. I can stand two days without shewing it much;
but no man can stand three days: I'm as nervous as a mouse. (He
sits down on the ottoman, and takes his head in his hands.)
Would you like to see me cry?
RAINA (quickly). No.
MAN. If you would, all you have to do is to scold me just as if
I were a little boy and you my nurse. If I were in camp now
they'd play all sorts of tricks on me.
RAINA (a little moved). I'm sorry. I won't scold you. (Touched
by the sympathy in her tone, he raises his head and looks
gratefully at her: she immediately draws hack and says stiffly)
You must excuse me: our soldiers are not like that. (She moves
away from the ottoman.)
MAN. Oh, yes, they are. There are only two sorts of soldiers:
old ones and young ones. I've served fourteen years: half of
your fellows never smelt powder before. Why, how is it that
you've just beaten us? Sheer ignorance of the art of war,
nothing else. (Indignantly.) I never saw anything so
unprofessional.
RAINA (ironically). Oh, was it unprofessional to beat you?
MAN. Well, come, is it professional to throw a regiment of
cavalry on a battery of machine guns, with the dead certainty
that if the guns go off not a horse or man will ever get within
fifty yards of the fire? I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw
it.
RAINA (eagerly turning to him, as all her enthusiasm and her
dream of glory rush back on her). Did you see the great cavalry
charge? Oh, tell me about it. Describe it to me.
MAN. You never saw a cavalry charge, did you?
RAINA. How could I?
MAN. Ah, perhaps not--of course. Well, it's a funny sight. It's
like slinging a handful of peas against a window pane: first one
comes; then two or three close behind him; and then all the rest
in a lump.
RAINA (her eyes dilating as she raises her clasped hands
ecstatically). Yes, first One!--the bravest of the brave!
MAN (prosaically). Hm! you should see the poor devil pulling at
his horse.
RAINA. Why should he pull at his horse?
MAN (impatient of so stupid a question). It's running away with
him, of course: do you suppose the fellow wants to get there
before the others and be killed? Then they all come. You can
tell the young ones by their wildness and their slashing. The
old ones come bunched up under the number one guard: they know
that they are mere projectiles, and that it's no use trying to
fight. The wounds are mostly broken knees, from the horses
cannoning together.
RAINA. Ugh! But I don't believe the first man is a coward. I
believe he is a hero!
MAN (goodhumoredly). That's what you'd have said if you'd seen
the first man in the charge to-day.
RAINA (breathless). Ah, I knew it! Tell me--tell me about him.
MAN. He did it like an operatic tenor--a regular handsome
fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a
war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills. We
nearly burst with laughter at him; but when the sergeant ran up
as white as a sheet, and told us they'd sent us the wrong
cartridges, and that we couldn't fire a shot for the next ten
minutes, we laughed at the other side of our mouths. I never
felt so sick in my life, though I've been in one or two very
tight places. And I hadn't even a revolver cartridge--nothing
but chocolate. We'd no bayonets--nothing. Of course, they just
cut us to bits. And there was Don Quixote flourishing like a
drum major, thinking he'd done the cleverest thing ever known,
whereas he ought to be courtmartialled for it. Of all the fools
ever let loose on a field of battle, that man must be the very
maddest. He and his regiment simply committed suicide--only the
pistol missed fire, that's all.
RAINA (deeply wounded, but steadfastly loyal to her ideals).
Indeed! Would you know him again if you saw him?
MAN. Shall I ever forget him. (She again goes to the chest of
drawers. He watches her with a vague hope that she may have
something else for him to eat. She takes the portrait from its
stand and brings it to him.)
RAINA. That is a photograph of the gentleman--the patriot and
hero--to whom I am betrothed.
MAN (looking at it). I'm really very sorry. (Looking at her.)
Was it fair to lead me on? (He looks at the portrait again.)
Yes: that's him: not a doubt of it. (He stifles a laugh.)
RAINA (quickly). Why do you laugh?
MAN (shamefacedly, but still greatly tickled). I didn't laugh,
I assure you. At least I didn't mean to. But when I think of him
charging the windmills and thinking he was doing the finest
thing--(chokes with suppressed laughter).
RAINA (sternly). Give me back the portrait, sir.
MAN (with sincere remorse). Of course. Certainly. I'm really
very sorry. (She deliberately kisses it, and looks him straight
in the face, before returning to the chest of drawers to replace
it. He follows her, apologizing.) Perhaps I'm quite wrong, you
know: no doubt I am. Most likely he had got wind of the
cartridge business somehow, and knew it was a safe job.
RAINA. That is to say, he was a pretender and a coward! You did
not dare say that before.
MAN (with a comic gesture of despair). It's no use, dear lady:
I can't make you see it from the professional point of view. (As
he turns away to get back to the ottoman, the firing begins
again in the distance.)
RAINA (sternly, as she sees him listening to the shots). So
much the better for you.
MAN (turning). How?
RAINA. You are my enemy; and you are at my mercy. What would I
do if I were a professional soldier?
MAN. Ah, true, dear young lady: you're always right. I know how
good you have been to me: to my last hour I shall remember those
three chocolate creams. It was unsoldierly; but it was angelic.
RAINA (coldly). Thank you. And now I will do a soldierly thing.
You cannot stay here after what you have just said about my
future husband; but I will go out on the balcony and see whether
it is safe for you to climb down into the street. (She turns to
the window.)
MAN (changing countenance). Down that waterpipe! Stop! Wait! I
can't! I daren't! The very thought of it makes me giddy. I came
up it fast enough with death behind me. But to face it now in
cold blood!--(He sinks on the ottoman.) It's no use: I give up:
I'm beaten. Give the alarm. (He drops his head in his hands in
the deepest dejection.)
RAINA (disarmed by pity). Come, don't be disheartened. (She
stoops over him almost maternally: he shakes his head.) Oh, you
are a very poor soldier--a chocolate cream soldier. Come, cheer
up: it takes less courage to climb down than to face
capture--remember that.
MAN (dreamily, lulled by her voice). No, capture only means
death; and death is sleep--oh, sleep, sleep, sleep, undisturbed
sleep! Climbing down the pipe means doing something--exerting
myself--thinking! Death ten times over first.
RAINA (softly and wonderingly, catching the rhythm of his
weariness). Are you so sleepy as that?
MAN. I've not had two hours' undisturbed sleep since the war
began. I'm on the staff: you don't know what that means. I
haven't closed my eyes for thirty-six hours.
RAINA (desperately). But what am I to do with you.
MAN (staggering up). Of course I must do something. (He shakes
himself; pulls himself together; and speaks with rallied vigour
and courage.) You see, sleep or no sleep, hunger or no hunger,
tired or not tired, you can always do a thing when you know it
must be done. Well, that pipe must be got down--(He hits himself
on the chest, and adds)--Do you hear that, you chocolate cream
soldier? (He turns to the window.)
RAINA (anxiously). But if you fall?
MAN. I shall sleep as if the stones were a feather bed.
Good-bye. (He makes boldly for the window, and his hand is on
the shutter when there is a terrible burst of firing in the
street beneath.)
RAINA (rushing to him). Stop! (She catches him by the shoulder,
and turns him quite round.) They'll kill you.
MAN (coolly, but attentively). Never mind: this sort of thing
is all in my day's work. I'm bound to take my chance.
(Decisively.) Now do what I tell you. Put out the candles, so
that they shan't see the light when I open the shutters. And
keep away from the window, whatever you do. If they see me,
they're sure to have a shot at me.
RAINA (clinging to him). They're sure to see you: it's bright
moonlight. I'll save you--oh, how can you be so indifferent? You
want me to save you, don't you?
MAN. I really don't want to be troublesome. (She shakes him in
her impatience.) I am not indifferent, dear young lady, I assure
you. But how is it to be done?
RAINA. Come away from the window--please. (She coaxes him back
to the middle of the room. He submits humbly. She releases him,
and addresses him patronizingly.) Now listen. You must trust to
our hospitality. You do not yet know in whose house you are. I
am a Petkoff.
MAN. What's that?
RAINA (rather indignantly). I mean that I belong to the family
of the Petkoffs, the richest and best known in our country.
MAN. Oh, yes, of course. I beg your pardon. The Petkoffs, to be
sure. How stupid of me!
RAINA. You know you never heard of them until this minute. How
can you stoop to pretend?
MAN. Forgive me: I'm too tired to think; and the change of
subject was too much for me. Don't scold me.
RAINA. I forgot. It might make you cry. (He nods, quite
seriously. She pouts and then resumes her patronizing tone.) I
must tell you that my father holds the highest command of any
Bulgarian in our army. He is (proudly) a Major.
MAN (pretending to be deeply impressed). A Major! Bless me!
Think of that!
RAINA. You shewed great ignorance in thinking that it was
necessary to climb up to the balcony, because ours is the only
private house that has two rows of windows. There is a flight of
stairs inside to get up and down by.
MAN. Stairs! How grand! You live in great luxury indeed, dear
young lady.
RAINA. Do you know what a library is?
MAN. A library? A roomful of books.
RAINA. Yes, we have one, the only one in Bulgaria.
MAN. Actually a real library! I should like to see that.
RAINA (affectedly). I tell you these things to shew you that
you are not in the house of ignorant country folk who would kill
you the moment they saw your Servian uniform, but among
civilized people. We go to Bucharest every year for the opera
season; and I have spent a whole month in Vienna.
MAN. I saw that, dear young lady. I saw at once that you knew
the world.
RAINA. Have you ever seen the opera of Ernani?
MAN. Is that the one with the devil in it in red velvet, and a
soldier's chorus?
RAINA (contemptuously). No!
MAN (stifling a heavy sigh of weariness). Then I don't know it.
RAINA. I thought you might have remembered the great scene where
Ernani, flying from his foes just as you are tonight, takes
refuge in the castle of his bitterest enemy, an old Castilian
noble. The noble refuses to give him up. His guest is sacred to
him.
MAN (quickly waking up a little). Have your people got that
notion?
RAINA (with dignity). My mother and I can understand that
notion, as you call it. And if instead of threatening me with
your pistol as you did, you had simply thrown yourself as a
fugitive on our hospitality, you would have been as safe as in
your father's house.
MAN. Quite sure?
RAINA (turning her back on him in disgust.) Oh, it is useless
to try and make you understand.
MAN. Don't be angry: you see how awkward it would be for me if
there was any mistake. My father is a very hospitable man: he
keeps six hotels; but I couldn't trust him as far as that. What
about YOUR father?
RAINA. He is away at Slivnitza fighting for his country. I
answer for your safety. There is my hand in pledge of it. Will
that reassure you? (She offers him her hand.)
MAN (looking dubiously at his own hand). Better not touch my
hand, dear young lady. I must have a wash first.
RAINA (touched). That is very nice of you. I see that you are a
gentleman.
MAN (puzzled). Eh?
RAINA. You must not think I am surprised. Bulgarians of really
good standing--people in OUR position--wash their hands nearly
every day. But I appreciate your delicacy. You may take my hand.
(She offers it again.)
MAN (kissing it with his hands behind his back). Thanks,
gracious young lady: I feel safe at last. And now would you mind
breaking the news to your mother? I had better not stay here
secretly longer than is necessary.
RAINA. If you will be so good as to keep perfectly still whilst
I am away.
MAN. Certainly. (He sits down on the ottoman.)
(Raina goes to the bed and wraps herself in the
fur cloak. His eyes close. She goes to the door,
but on turning for a last look at him, sees that
he is dropping of to sleep.)
RAINA (at the door). You are not going asleep, are you?
(He murmurs inarticulately: she runs to him and shakes him.)
Do you hear? Wake up: you are falling asleep.
MAN. Eh? Falling aslee--? Oh, no, not the least in
the world: I was only thinking. It's all right: I'm wide
awake.
RAINA (severely). Will you please stand up while I am
away. (He rises reluctantly.) All the time, mind.
MAN (standing unsteadily). Certainly--certainly: you
may depend on me.
(Raina looks doubtfully at him. He smiles
foolishly. She goes reluctantly, turning
again at the door, and almost catching him
in the act of yawning. She goes out.)
MAN (drowsily). Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, slee--(Tbe
words trail of into a murmur. He wakes again with a
shock on the point of falling.) Where am I? That's what
I want to know: where am I? Must keep awake. Nothing
keeps me awake except danger--remember that--(intently)
danger, danger, danger, dan-- Where's danger? Must
find it. (He starts of vaguely around the room in search of
it.) What am I looking for? Sleep--danger--don't know.
(He stumbles against the bed.) Ah, yes: now I know. All
right now. I'm to go to bed, but not to sleep--be sure
not to sleep--because of danger. Not to lie down, either,
only sit down. (He sits on the bed. A blissful expression
comes into his face.) Ah! (With a happy sigh he sinks back
at full length; lifts his boots into the bed with a final
effort; and falls fast asleep instantly.)
(Catherine comes in, followed by Raina.)
RAINA (looking at the ottoman). He's gone! I left him
here.
CATHERINE, Here! Then he must have climbed down from the--
RAINA (seeing him). Oh! (She points.)
CATHERINE (scandalized). Well! (She strides to the left
side of the bed, Raina following and standing opposite her on
the right.) He's fast asleep. The brute!
RAINA (anxiously). Sh!
CATHERINE (shaking him). Sir! (Shaking him again,
harder.) Sir!! (Vehemently shaking very bard.) Sir!!!
RAINA (catching her arm). Don't, mamma: the poor dear
is worn out. Let him sleep.
CATHERINE (letting him go and turning amazed to Raina).
The poor dear! Raina!!! (She looks sternly at her
daughter. The man sleeps profoundly.) _
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