Belle Moral: A Natural History Read Online Free PDF

perhaps yes. Old?
[kindly]
Never. For what would that make me, eh?
    A beat
.
    [apprehensive]
How is she?
    F LORA . She is … she’s … I canna say, she’s … quiet.
    D R R EID . Quiet.
    F LORA . Ay. Wouldna’ touch a bite o’ breakfast.
    D R R EID . That’s not surprising; the journey, the shock of new surroundings. Does she … has she spoken?
    F LORA . Nay. Not a word.
    D R R EID . No cries, no … sounds, of any kind?
    F LORA . Nothing.
    D R R EID  … How does she look?
    A beat
.
    Has there been any … change?
    F LORA . Not apart from one might expect. Given the years.
[weeps]
    D R R EID . Hush, Flora.
    F LORA . I promised … Régine –
    D R R EID. We need not speak of it –
    F LORA . I promised. To look after the children.
    D R R EID . And you have. Hush, now.
    Y OUNG F ARLEIGH
enters
.
    Y OUNG F ARLEIGH . Mu’m, the doctor is
[sees
D R R EID] here.
    A woman screams in the distance
. F LORA
hurries toward the exit with
D R R EID
in tow. But the cry is repeated and she rushes to the window
. Y OUNG F ARLEIGH
sinks onto a chair and closes his eyes
.
    V OICES O FF . Help! Miss Maclsaac! Send for a doctor! A doctor!
    F LORA . God help us.
    D R R EID.
[joining her]
. What’s happened?
[looking out]
Good Lord.
    They exit
. Y OUNG F ARLEIGH
opens one eye. Lights change, he slowly rises and exits as
V ICTOR
is carried on. Lights back up on:
Scene 5 The Drawing Room
    V ICTOR
lies on the couch, naked and wet under a blanket
. DR REID
attends him
.
    D R R EID [gently]. Victor. Victor, lad, what is it, eh? A woman? Are you in debt lad, is that it? Or were you just pullin’ a wee pliskie?
    V ICTOR
covers his head with the blanket
.
    D R R EID. Come along now, son, the North Sea in April is hardly a congenial prospect, and I know you not to be a swimmer. What were you doing leaping from the rocks?
    V ICTOR
[soliloquizing from under the blanket]
. There are times when I cannot fathom why any sane person would choose to live out the natural length of their days. Life is an expanse of arid predictability, relieved now and again by hilarious and brutal jokes. This, we call tragedy.
    D R R EID . Go on.
    V ICTOR
[lowering the blanket, earnestly relishing his own words]
. I strayed along the barren beach and heard the kelpies singing, each … to each. And then they sang to me; a beckoning back to the dank, devouring womb of the sea; their sweet and deadly strains, the echo of my own futility. I parted the waters to mate with Nothingness.
    D R R EID. I see. How long have you felt this way?
    V ICTOR . I haven’t been myself since the funeral.
    D R R EID. You miss your father.
    V ICTOR . I don’t know if I’d go that far.
    D R R EID. How does the prospect of being master of Belle Moral cause you to … feel?
    V ICTOR . Like jumpin’ into the sea.
    D R R EID . Victor, what would have become of your aunt and sister had you succeeded in your bid today? Who would look after them?
    V ICTOR . You would. They don’t need me.
    D R R EID . Ah but they do. You’ll find out soon enough, lad. Your father’s burdens will soon be yours. But luckily, so will his oldest friend.
    V ICTOR
takes his flask from under the quilt and drinks
. F LORA
enters with a bowl and spoon
. V ICTOR
hides the flask
.
    F LORA . How’s ma poor laddie?
    V ICTOR
[feigning weakness]
. I feel I’m fading, Auntie.
    F LORA . See if you canna tak a bittie o’ parritch, ma hinnie.
    V ICTOR . I’ll try.
    D R R EID . Have you no beef tea, Flora?
    F LORA . Ay, but the lad’s gone vegetative.
    P EARL
enters
.
    P EARL [brisk]. He’s fallen in with the Fabians. Armchair revolutionaries nibbling celery.
    F LORA
[spoon poised]
. Here comes the coach-and-six,
clop-clop clop-clop
…
    D R R EID
[taking her aside]
. Pearl, I’m worried about your brother.
    P EARL . As am I.
    D R R EID . Victor shows signs of neurasthenia: a degenerative instability which threatens the delicate edifice of brain and nerve.
    P EARL . He gets that from