ACT II. a.s.sizes. Afternoon. October.

ACT III. A prison. December.

SCENE I. The Governor's office.

SCENE II. A corridor.

SCENE III. A cell.

ACT IV. The office of James and Walter How. Morning.

March, two years later.

CAST OF THE FIRST PRODUCTION

AT THE DUKE OF YORK'S THEATRE, FEBRUARY 21, 1910

James How MR. SYDNEY VALENTINE Walter How MR. CHARLES MAUDE c.o.keson MR. EDMUND GWENN Falder MR. DENNIS EADIE The Office-boy MR. GEORGE HERSEE The Detective MR. LESLIE CARTER The Cashier MR. C. E. VERNON The Judge MR. DION BOUCICAULT The Old Advocate MR. OSCAR ADYE The Young Advocate MR. CHARLES BRYANT The Prison Governor MR. GRENDON BENTLEY The Prison Chaplain MR. HUBERT HARBEN The Prison Doctor MR. LEWIS Ca.s.sON Wooder MR. FREDERICK LLOYD Moaney MR. ROBERT PATEMAN Clipton MR. O. P. HEGGIE O'Cleary MR. WHITFORD KANE Ruth Honeywill Miss EDYTH OLIVE

ACT I

The scene is the managing clerk's room, at the offices of James and Walter How, on a July morning. The room is old fashioned, furnished with well-worn mahogany and leather, and lined with tin boxes and estate plans. It has three doors. Two of them are close together in the centre of a wall. One of these two doors leads to the outer office, which is only divided from the managing clerk's room by a part.i.tion of wood and clear gla.s.s; and when the door into this outer office is opened there can be seen the wide outer door leading out on to the stone stairway of the building. The other of these two centre doors leads to the junior clerk's room. The third door is that leading to the partners' room.

The managing clerk, c.o.kESON, is sitting at his table adding up figures in a pa.s.s-book, and murmuring their numbers to himself.

He is a man of sixty, wearing spectacles; rather short, with a bald head, and an honest, pugdog face. He is dressed in a well-worn black frock-coat and pepper-and-salt trousers.

c.o.kESON. And five's twelve, and three--fifteen, nineteen, twenty-three, thirty-two, forty-one-and carry four. [He ticks the page, and goes on murmuring] Five, seven, twelve, seventeen, twenty-four and nine, thirty-three, thirteen and carry one.

He again makes a tick. The outer office door is opened, and SWEEDLE, the office-boy, appears, closing the door behind him.

He is a pale youth of sixteen, with spiky hair.

c.o.kESON. [With grumpy expectation] And carry one.

SWEEDLE. There's a party wants to see Falder, Mr. c.o.keson.

c.o.kESON. Five, nine, sixteen, twenty-one, twenty-nine--and carry two. Send him to Morris's. What name?

SWEEDLE. Honeywill.

c.o.kESON. What's his business?

SWEEDLE. It's a woman.

c.o.kESON. A lady?

SWEEDLE. No, a person.

c.o.kESON. Ask her in. Take this pa.s.s-book to Mr. James. [He closes the pa.s.s-book.]

SWEEDLE. [Reopening the door] Will you come in, please?

RUTH HONEYWILL comes in. She is a tall woman, twenty-six years old, unpretentiously dressed, with black hair and eyes, and an ivory-white, clear-cut face. She stands very still, having a natural dignity of pose and gesture.

SWEEDLE goes out into the partners' room with the pa.s.s-book.

c.o.kESON. [Looking round at RUTH] The young man's out.

[Suspiciously] State your business, please.

RUTH. [Who speaks in a matter-of-fact voice, and with a slight West-Country accent] It's a personal matter, sir.

c.o.kESON. We don't allow private callers here. Will you leave a message?

RUTH. I'd rather see him, please.

She narrows her dark eyes and gives him a honeyed look.

c.o.kESON. [Expanding] It's all against the rules. Suppose I had my friends here to see me! It'd never do!

RUTH. No, sir.

c.o.kESON. [A little taken aback] Exactly! And here you are wanting to see a junior clerk!

RUTH. Yes, sir; I must see him.

c.o.kESON. [Turning full round to her with a sort of outraged interest] But this is a lawyer's office. Go to his private address.

RUTH. He's not there.

c.o.kESON. [Uneasy] Are you related to the party?

RUTH. No, sir.

c.o.kESON. [In real embarra.s.sment] I don't know what to say. It's no affair of the office.

RUTH. But what am I to do?

c.o.kESON. Dear me! I can't tell you that.

SWEEDLE comes back. He crosses to the outer office and pa.s.ses through into it, with a quizzical look at c.o.keson, carefully leaving the door an inch or two open.

c.o.kESON. [Fortified by this look] This won't do, you know, this won't do at all. Suppose one of the partners came in!

An incoherent knocking and chuckling is heard from the outer door of the outer office.

SWEEDLE. [Putting his head in] There's some children outside here.