The Mousetrap

MEREDITH. It was the afternoon of the sixteenth of August, did you say? Yes, yes, it was. I came over to Alderbury. Stopped in on my way to Framley Abbott. Really to see if I could pick any of them up later to give them a lift—they were coming over to me for tea. Caroline had been cutting roses, and when I opened the door into the garden room . . .

(The LIGHTS come up. It is a glorious, hot summer’s day. CAROLINE CRALE is standing in the french windows looking on to the terrace. She carries a trug with roses, etc., and wears gardening gloves. On the terrace, ELSA poses on the bench, facing C. She wears a yellow shirt and black shorts. AMYAS CRALE is seated on a stool C, facing L, before his easel, painting Elsa. His paintbox is on the ground below him. He is a big, handsome man, wearing an old shirt and paint-stained slacks. There is a trolley L of the terrace with various bottles and glasses, including a bottle of beer in an ice-bucket. In the room, a landscape now hangs in place of the portrait. MEREDITH enters up C)

Hullo, Caroline.

CAROLINE. (turning) Merry! (She crosses to the stool, puts the trug on it, removes her gloves and puts them in the trug)

MEREDITH. (closing the door) How’s the picture going? (He crosses to the french windows and looks out) It’s a nice pose. (He moves to L of the stool and takes a rose from the trug) What have we here? “Ena Harkness.” (He smells the rose) My word, what a beauty.

CAROLINE. Merry, do you think Amyas really cares for that girl?

MEREDITH. No, no, he’s just interested in painting her. You know what Amyas is.

CAROLINE. (sitting in the armchairR) This time I’m afraid, Merry. I’m nearly thirty, you know. We’ve been married over six years, and in looks, I can’t hold a candle to Elsa.

MEREDITH. (replacing the rose in the trug and moving above the stool toLof Caroline) That’s absurd, Caroline. You know that Amyas is really devoted to you and always will be.

CAROLINE. Does one ever know with men?

MEREDITH. (close to her and bending over her) I’m still devoted to you, Caroline.

CAROLINE. (affectionately) Dear Merry. (She touches his cheek) You’re so sweet.

(There is a pause)

I long to take a hatchet to that girl. She’s just helping herself to my husband in the coolest manner in the world.

MEREDITH. My dear Caroline, the child probably doesn’t realize in the least what she’s doing. She’s got an enormous admiration and hero worship for Amyas and she probably doesn’t understand at all that he’s maybe falling in love with her.

(CAROLINE looks pityingly at him)

CAROLINE. So there really are people who can believe six impossible things before breakfast.

MEREDITH. I don’t understand.

CAROLINE. (rising and crossing toLof the stool) You live in a nice world all your own, Merry, where everybody is just as nice as you are. (She looks at the roses. Cheerfully) My “Erythina Christo Galli” is in wonderful bloom this year. (She crosses to the french windows and goes on to the terrace)

(MEREDITH follows Caroline on to the terrace)

Come and see it before you go into Framley Abbott. (She crosses to the upstage end of the pergola)

MEREDITH. Just you wait till you see my “Tecoma Grandiflora”. (He moves to Caroline) It’s magnificent.

(CAROLINE puts her fingers to her lips to quieten Meredith)

CAROLINE. Ssh!

MEREDITH. What? (He looks through one of the arches of the pergola at Elsa and Amyas) Oh, man at work.