The Mousetrap

KARLcollects his brief-case.

DOCTOR. Well, I must be off. I have a consultation at half-past four. Good-bye, Anya. Good afternoon, Miss Rollander. I’m going up Gower Street, Karl, I can give you a lift if you like.

KARL. Thank you, Doctor.

DOCTOR. I’ll wait downstairs in the car.

TheDOCTORexits upC, closing the door behind him.KARLcloses his brief-case and moves toRofANYA

ANYA. Karl, forgive me, Karl.

KARL. Forgive you, sweetheart? What is there to forgive?

ANYA. Everything. My moods, my bad temper. But it isn’t really me, Karl. It’s just the illness. You do understand?

KARL. (with his arm affectionately round her shoulders) I understand.

HELENhalf turns her head to look at them, frowns, and turns back to the window.

Nothing you say will ever hurt me because I know your heart.

KARLclapsANYA’s hand, they look at each other, and then she kisses his hand.

ANYA. Karl, you will be late for your lecture. You must go.

KARL. I wish I didn’t have to leave you.

ANYA. Mrs. Roper will be back any minute and she will stay with me till Lisa gets back.

HELEN. I’m not going anywhere in particular, I can stay with Mrs. Hendryk till Miss Koletzky gets back.

KARL. Would you, Helen?

HELEN. Of course.

KARL. That’s very kind of you. (To ANYA) Good-bye, darling.

ANYA. Good-bye.

KARL. Thank you, Helen.

KARLexits upC, closing the door behind him. The daylight starts to fade.

HELEN. (crossing above the wheelchair to the sofa) Is Miss Koletzky a relation? (She sits on the sofa)

ANYA. Yes, she’s my first cousin. She came to England with us and has stayed with us ever since. This afternoon she has gone to see some friends who are passing through London. They are at the Hotel Russell, not very far away. It is so seldom we see friends from our own country.

HELEN. Would you like to go back?

ANYA. We cannot go back. A friend of my husband’s, another professor, fell into disgrace because of his political view—he was arrested.

HELEN. How did that affect Professor Hendryk?

ANYA. His wife and children, you see, were left quite destitute. Professor Hendryk insisted that we should take them into our house. But when the authorities got to hear about it, they forced him to resign his position.

HELEN. Really, it didn’t seem worth it, did it?

ANYA. That’s what I felt, and I never liked Maria Schultz in the least. She was a most tiresome woman, always carping and criticizing and moaning about something or other. And the children were very badly behaved and very destructive. It seems too bad that because of them we had to leave our nice home and come over here practically as refugees. This will never be home.

HELEN. It does seem rather rough luck on you.

ANYA. Men don’t think of that. They only think of their ideas of what is right, or just, or one’s duty.

HELEN. I know. Such an awful bore. But men aren’t realists like we are.

There is a pause asHELENlights a cigarette she has taken from a case in her handbag. A clock outside strikes four.

ANYA. (looking at her watch) Lisa never gave me my medicine before she went out. She is very tiresome sometimes the way she forgets things.

HELEN. (rising) Can I do anything?

ANYA. (pointing to the shelves on the wall downR) It’s on the little shelf over there.

HELENmoves to the shelves downR.

The little brown bottle. Four drops in water.

HELENstubs out her cigarette in the ashtray on the cupboardR, and takes the bottle of medicine and a glass from the shelves.

It’s for my heart, you know. There’s a glass over there and a dropper.

HELENmoves to the bookshelvesR.

Be careful, it’s very strong. That’s why they keep it out of reach. Sometimes I feel so terribly depressed and I threaten to kill myself, and they think perhaps if I had it near me I’d yield to temptation and take an overdose.

HELEN. (taking the dropper-stopper from the bottle) You often want to, I suppose?

ANYA. (complacently) Oh, yes, one feels so often that one would be better dead.

HELEN. Yes, I can understand that.

ANYA. But, of course, one must be brave and go on.