The Big Drum Part 35

PHILIP.

[_To_ SIR RANDLE, _bluntly._] Yes, I _do_ know of the settlement you made upon Ottoline on her marriage, and of your having supplemented it when she became a widow. Very handsome of you.

LADY FILSON.

[_As before._] Ha!

SIR RANDLE.

[_Leaning back in his chair._] _There_ then, my dear Mr. Mackworth, is the state of the case. Ottoline is beyond our control----

LADY FILSON.

Unhappily.

SIR RANDLE.

If she _will_ deal this crus.h.i.+ng blow to her mother and myself, we must bow our heads to it. But, for the sake of your self-esteem, I beg you to reflect! [_Partly to_ PHILIP, _partly at_ OTTOLINE.] What construction would be put upon a union between you and Madame de Chaumie--between a lady of means and--I _must_ be cruel--I _must_ be brutal--a man who is--commercially at least--a failure?

LADY FILSON.

There _could_ only be one construction put upon it!

OTTOLINE.

[_Rising._] Mother----!

PHILIP.

[_To_ SIR RANDLE, _calmly._] Oh, but--ah, Ottoline hasn't told you----!

OTTOLINE.

[_To_ PHILIP.] No, I hadn't time, Philip----

PHILIP.

My dear Sir Randle--[_rising and going to_ LADY FILSON]--my dear Lady Filson--let me dispel your anxiety for the preservation of my self-esteem. Ottoline and I have no idea of getting married yet awhile.

OTTOLINE.

No, mother.

LADY FILSON.

When, pray----?

PHILIP.

We have agreed to wait until I have ceased to be--commercially--a failure.

OTTOLINE.

[_To_ SIR RANDLE _and_ LADY FILSON.] Until he has obtained public recognition; [_coming forward_] until, in fact, even the member's of one's own family, Dad, can't impute unworthy motives.

SIR RANDLE.

[_To_ PHILIP, _incredulously--rising._] Until you have obtained public recognition, Mr. Mackworth?

PHILIP.

[_Smiling._] Well, it may sound extravagant----

LADY FILSON.

Grotesque!

SIR RANDLE.

[_Walking about on the extreme right._] Amazing!

OTTOLINE.

Why grotesque; why amazing? [_Sitting in the low-backed arm-chair._]

All that is amazing about it is that Philip should lack the superior courage which enables a man, in special circ.u.mstances, to sink his pride and ignore ill-natured comments.

PHILIP.

[_To_ LADY FILSON.] At any rate, this is the arrangement that Ottoline and I have entered into; and I suggest, with every respect, that you and Sir Randle should raise no obstacle to my seeing her under your roof occasionally.

LADY FILSON.

As being preferable to hole-and-corner meetings in friends' houses----!

OTTOLINE.

[_Coolly._] Or under lamp-posts in the streets--yes, mother.

LADY FILSON.

[_Rising and crossing to the round table._] Ottoline----!

SIR RANDLE.

[_Bearing down upon_ PHILIP.] May I ask, Mr. Mackworth, how long you have been following your precarious profession? Pardon my ignorance. My reading is confined to our great journals; and _there_ your name has escaped me.

PHILIP.

Oh, I've been at it for nearly ten years.