Fanny and the Servant Problem Part 7

DR. FREEMANTLE [rises]. I beg pardon, have I the pleasure of seeing Lady Bantock?

f.a.n.n.y. Yes.

DR. FREEMANTLE. Delighted. May I introduce myself--Dr. Freemantle?

I helped your husband into the world.

f.a.n.n.y. Yes. I've heard of you. You don't mind my closing this door, do you? [Her very voice and manner are changed.]

DR. FREEMANTLE [a little puzzled]. Not at all.

f.a.n.n.y [she closes the door and returns]. Won't--won't you be seated?

DR. FREEMANTLE. Thanks. [They both sit.] How's the headache?

f.a.n.n.y. Oh, it's better.

DR. FREEMANTLE. Ah! [A silence.] Forgive me--I'm an old friend of the family. You're not a bit what I expected.

f.a.n.n.y. But you like it? I mean you think this--[with a gesture]--is all right?

DR. FREEMANTLE. My dear young lady, it's charming. You couldn't be anything else.

f.a.n.n.y. Thank you.

DR. FREEMANTLE. I merely meant that--well, I was not expecting anything so delightfully demure.

f.a.n.n.y. That's the idea--"seemly." The Lady Bantocks have always been "seemly"? [She puts it as a question.]

DR. FREEMANTLE [more and more puzzled]. Yes--oh, yes. They have always been--[His eye catches that of Constance, first Lady Bantock, looking down at him from above the chimney-piece. His tone changes.]

Well, yes, in their way, you know.

f.a.n.n.y. You see, I'm in the difficult position of following her LATE ladys.h.i.+p. SHE appears to have been exceptionally "seemly." This is her frock. I mean it WAS her frock.

DR. FREEMANTLE. G.o.d bless my soul! You are not dressing yourself up in her late ladys.h.i.+p's clothes? The dear good woman has been dead and buried these twenty years.

f.a.n.n.y [she looks at her dress]. Yes, it struck me as being about that period.

DR. FREEMANTLE [he goes across to her]. What's the trouble? Too much Bennet?

f.a.n.n.y [she looks up. There is a suspicion of a smile]. One might say--sufficient?

DR. FREEMANTLE [laughs]. Excellent servants. If they'd only remember it. [He glances round--sinks his voice.] Take my advice.

Put your foot down--before it's too late.

f.a.n.n.y. Sit down, please. [She makes room for him on the settee.]

Because I'm going to be confidential. You don't mind, do you?

DR. FREEMANTLE [seating himself]. My dear, I take it as the greatest compliment I have had paid to me for years.

f.a.n.n.y. You put everything so nicely. I'm two persons. I'm an angel--perhaps that is too strong a word?

DR. FREEMANTLE [doubtfully]. Well -

f.a.n.n.y. We'll say saint. Or else I'm--the other thing.

DR. FREEMANTLE. Do you know, I think you could be.

f.a.n.n.y. It's not a question about which there is any doubt.

DR. FREEMANTLE. Of course, in this case, a LITTLE bit of the devil -

f.a.n.n.y [she shakes her head]. There's such a lot of mine. It has always hampered me, never being able to hit the happy medium.

DR. FREEMANTLE. It IS awkward.

f.a.n.n.y. I thought I would go on being an angel -

DR. FREEMANTLE. Saint.

f.a.n.n.y. Saint--till--well, till it became physically impossible to be a saint any longer.

DR. FREEMANTLE. And then?

f.a.n.n.y [she rises, turns to him with a gesture of half-comic, half- tragic despair]. Well, then I can't help it, can I?

DR. FREEMANTLE. I think you're making a mistake. An explosion will undoubtedly have to take place. That being so, the sooner it takes place the better. [He rises.] What are you afraid of?

f.a.n.n.y [she changes her tone--the talk becomes serious]. You've known Vernon all his life?

DR. FREEMANTLE. No one better.

f.a.n.n.y. Tell me. I've known him only as a lover. What sort of a man is he?

A pause. They are looking straight into each other's eyes.

DR. FREEMANTLE. A man it pays to be perfectly frank with.

f.a.n.n.y. It's a very old family, isn't it?

DR. FREEMANTLE. Old! Good Lord no! First Lord Bantock was only Vernon's great-grandfather. That is the woman that did it all. [He is looking at the Hoppner.]

f.a.n.n.y. How do you mean?

DR. FREEMANTLE. Got them their t.i.tle. Made the name of Bantock of importance in the history of the Georges. Clever woman.

f.a.n.n.y [leaning over a chair, she is staring into the eyes of the first Lady Bantock]. I wonder what she would have done if she had ever got herself into a really first-cla.s.s muddle?

DR. FREEMANTLE. One thing's certain. [f.a.n.n.y turns to him.] She'd have got out of it.