The Mousetrap

HENRIETTA. (Raising her glass) Ainswick.

(They both laugh, then sip their drinks.)

Is it the same, Edward? Or has it changed? Things do change.

EDWARD. I don’t change.

HENRIETTA. No, darling Edward. You’re always the same.

EDWARD. Same old stick-in-the-mud.

HENRIETTA. (Crossing belowEDWARDto the sofa) Don’t say that. (She sits on the sofa at the Left end.)

EDWARD. It’s true. I’ve never been very good at—doing things.

HENRIETTA. I think perhaps you’re wise not to do things.

EDWARD. That’s an odd thing for you to say, Henrietta. You who’ve been so successful.

HENRIETTA. Sculpture isn’t a thing you set out to do and succeed in. It’s something that gets at you—and haunts you—so that, in the end, you just have to make terms with it. And then—for a while—you get some peace.

EDWARD. Do you want to be peaceful, Henrietta?

HENRIETTA. Sometimes I think I want to be peaceful more than anything in the world.

EDWARD. (Crossing to Left of the sofa) You could be peaceful at Ainswick. (He puts his hand onHENRIETTA’s shoulder.) I think you could be happy there. Even—even if you had to put up with me. (He crosses and sits on the sofa at the Right end of it.) What about it, Henrietta? Won’t you come to Ainswick and make it your home? It’s always been there, you know, waiting for you.

HENRIETTA. Edward, I wish I weren’t so very fond of you. It makes it so much more difficult to go on saying no.

EDWARD. It is no, then?

HENRIETTA. (Putting her glass on the coffee table) I’m sorry.

EDWARD. You’ve said no before, but this time—(He rises) well, I thought it might be different. When we walked in the woods your face was so young and happy, (He moves to the window Right) almost as it used to be. Talking about Ainswick, thinking about Ainswick. Don’t you see what that means, Henrietta?

HENRIETTA. Edward, we’ve been living this afternoon in the past.

EDWARD. (Moving to Right of the sofa) The past is sometimes a very good place to live.

HENRIETTA. One can’t go back. That’s the one thing you can’t do—go back.

(There is a pause. EDWARD moves above the sofa to Left of it and looks towards the door Left.)

EDWARD. (Quietly) What you really mean is that you won’t marry me because of John Cristow. (He pauses, then turns.) That’s it, isn’t it? If there were no John Cristow in the world you would marry me.

HENRIETTA. I can’t imagine a world in which there was no John Cristow.

(SIR HENRY enters Left. He now wears dinner clothes. HENRIETTA rises.)

SIRHENRY. (Switching on the wall bracket and mantelpiece lights by the switch below the fireplace). Hurry up, Henrietta. It’s nearly dinner time.

HENRIETTA. (Crossing to the door Left) I’ll be quick as a flash.

(She exits hurriedly Left. EDWARD sits on the sofa at the Left end of it.)

SIRHENRY. (Crossing to the drinks table) Have you got a drink, Edward?

(He switches on the table lamp on the drinks table.)

EDWARD. Thank you, yes.

SIRHENRY. (Mixing cocktails) Haven’t seen much of you since Lucy and I settled down at The Hollow.

EDWARD. No. How does it affect you both—laying aside the cares of state?

SIRHENRY. I sometimes think, Edward, that you’ve been the wisest of the family.

EDWARD. That’s an original point of view. I always regard myself as a walking example of how to fail in life.

SIRHENRY. Oh no, it’s a question of the right values. To look after one’s estate and to read and care for one’s books—

(MIDGE enters Left. She wears an evening frock. EDWARD rises.)

—not to compete in the struggle for material achievement . . . (He turns to MIDGE.) Hullo, there—that’s a pretty frock.

MIDGE. (Moving Left Centre and turning completely around, showing off her frock) One of my perks from the shop.

EDWARD. You can’t really like working in a shop, Midge.