The Mousetrap

LISA. (moving below the sofa) If you would look through these, Karl. (She puts the drawer on the sofa) Sit down here and go through these, quietly and alone. It has to be done and the sooner the better.

KARL. How wise you are, Lisa. One puts these things off and dreads them—dreads the hurt. As you say, it’s better to do it and finish.

LISA. I shan’t be long. Come along, Lester.

LISAandLESTERexit upC, closing the doors behind them.KARLcollects the wastepaper basket from the desk, sits on the sofa, puts the drawer on his knee and starts to go through the letters.

KARL. (reading a letter) So long ago, so long ago.

The front door bell rings.

Oh, go away whoever you are.

MRS. ROPER. (off) Would you come inside, please.

MRS. ROPERenters upCfromRand stands to one side.

It’s Miss Rollander, sir.

HELENenters upCfromRand moves downC. KARLrises and puts the drawer on the tableRC. MRS. ROPERexits upCtoL, leaving the door open.

HELEN. I do hope I’m not being a nuisance. I went to the inquest, you see, and afterwards I thought I must come on here and speak to you. But if you’d rather I went away . . .

KARL. No, no, it was kind of you.

MRS. ROPERenters upCfromL, putting on her coat.

MRS. ROPER. I’ll just pop out and get another quarter of tea before he closes. We’re right out again.

KARL. (fingering the letters in the drawer; far away) Yes, of course, Mrs. Roper.

MRS. ROPER. Oh, I see what you’re doing, sir. And a sad business it always is. My sister now, she’s a widder. Kep’ all her husband’s letters, she did, what he wrote her from the Middle East. And she’ll take them out and cry over them, like as not.

HELEN, rather impatient aboutMRS. ROPER’s chatter, moves above the armchair.

The heart doesn’t forget, sir, that’s what I say. The heart doesn’t forget.

KARL. (crossing below the sofa toRof it) As you say, Mrs. Roper.

MRS. ROPER. Must have been a terrible shock to you, sir, wasn’t it? Or did you expect it?

KARL. No, I did not expect it.

MRS. ROPER. Can’t imagine how she came to do such a thing. (She stares, fascinated, at the place where ANYA’s chair used to be) It don’t seem right, sir, not right at all.

KARL. (sadly exasperated) Did you say you were going to get some tea, Mrs. Roper?

MRS. ROPER. (still staring at the wheelchair’s place) That’s right, sir, and I must hurry, sir—(She backs slowly up C) because that grocer there, he shuts at half past twelve.

MRS. ROPERexits upC, closing the door behind her.

HELEN. (movingC) I was so sorry to hear . . .

KARL. (moving downR) Thank you.

HELEN. Of course she’d been ill a long time, hadn’t she? She must have got terribly depressed.

KARL. Did she say anything to you before you left her that day?

HELEN. (nervously moving above the armchair and round toLof it) No, I—I don’t think so. Nothing particular.

KARL. (moving below the sofa) But she was depressed—in low spirits?

HELEN. (rather grasping at a straw) Yes. (She moves below the armchair) Yes, she was.

KARL. (a shade accusingly) You went away and left her—alone—before Lisa returned.

HELEN. (sitting in the armchair; quickly) I’m sorry about that. I’m afraid it didn’t occur to me.

KARLmoves upC.

I mean she said she was perfectly all right and she urged me not to stay, and—well as a matter of fact, I—I thought she really wanted me to go—and so I did. Of course, now . . .

KARL. (moving downR) No, no. I understand. I can see that if my poor Anya had this in her mind she might have urged you to go.

HELEN. And in a way, really, it’s the best thing that could have happened, isn’t it?

KARL. (moving towards her; angrily) What do you mean—the best thing that could have happened? (He moves up C)