The Lucky Man Part 14

Cadwell: You made a bet?

L. Gent.: Certainly.

Bendish: (aside) Plague. He knows. The little gossip has got him.

Cadwell: (grabbing the Little Gentleman's nose) What have you got there? (making him take some tobacco) There.

L. Gent.: Ah, fie! Plague on the villain and his tobacco. Hold on, you will see if I don't tell my aunt.

Cadwell: Will you shut up?

L. Gent.: Why'd you make me take tobacco then?

Cadwell: Peace.

L. Gent.: If I don't make my aunt scold you.

Cadwell: Little gallows bird.

L. Gent.: Patience.-- You call my aunt crazy?

Cadwell: Bendish.

Bendish: Sir?

L. Gent.: When my aunt knows--

Cadwell: Shut his mouth. He cries like a little demon.

L. Gent.: I will tell all this to my aunt.

Bendish: Still?

Cadwell: Bring him to me. (Bendish marches the little Gentleman to Cadwell) My poor little man, I beg you. Don't make so much noise.

L. Gent.: You will see with your tobacco.

Cadwell: Well, I won't give you anymore.

L. Gent.: If you hadn't done that I would have told you something.

Cadwell: What?

L. Gent.: No, you'll never know.

Cadwell: I beg you.

L. Gent.: No.

Cadwell: My little dear.

L. Gent.: No.

Cadwell: Eh. The little animal doesn't see that I'm mocking him and that I know everything he intends to tell me.

L. Gent.: Yes? Do you know that my aunt told me to come here and to bring you to her, and that she told me to make it appear as if it came from me? But because of your tobacco you will know nothing. I know how to punish you.

Cadwell: And I--I don't want to listen to you.

L. Gent.: And I--I have no desire to say anything further, either.

Bendish: The good little messenger.

Cadwell: Are my porters below?

Bendish: Yes, sir.

Cadwell: Follow me.

CURTAIN

ACT IV. The same. Later that day.

Jenny: Go on, go on, fear nothing. Laura is beginning to open her eyes. Our man will soon be taken, I tell you.

Worthy: I am more afraid than ever.

Olivia: Frankly, I have trouble persuading myself that your plan will succeed.

All that's happened will make him more careful.

Jenny: Him! It will make him more crazy. You don't know much about human nature. He's counting right now that he can make Laura believe black is white. Experience will only make him more bold. You will see if I don't know people.

Worthy: If you can make me happy with your cunning, believe that--

Jenny: Stop, you owe me nothing for whatever I do. I do it only because I want to do it. It's a natural bent I have to ruin all these little animals with beautiful manners and cold hearts. Ah, if all women were like me! I am furious when I think that they cause more honest men to be shunned, with their devilish jargon, their oaths, and endless tricks and rascalities. It puts me in a whopping rage.

Worthy: Your man is warned.

Jenny: He is instructed in what he must do.

Olivia: He is not a man to be won over by money?

Jenny: Oh, as to that I cannot say. I don't know if the mediocrity of his fortune and the natural desire to acquire money wouldn't tempt him from an untested probity. But there is a remedy for that. Promise to pay him only if all goes well and you will see that he will manage it.

Worthy: As to that, Jenny, he can be a.s.sured. Where is he?