1
LORD WESTON is seated by the fireplace, a table of books📚 and papers🗒 beside him, talking.Downright is seated MR ROGER CHETWYND, a thin, earnest, absent-minded, and conscientious young person. So conscientious is he that his mind🧠, even when absent, is absent on his employer’s business. He has begun by listening to his master’s lecture, but the lure of his work has been gradually too much for him, and he is now blissfully copying from one paper on to another while the measured words flow over him, his lips forming the phrases while he writes.
Lord Weston aka Richard
Roger, it is not alone a question of duty; there is your own success in the world to be considered. It is not your intention to be a secretary all your life, is it? No. Very well. Diligence, and a respect for detail should be your care. I did not become Lord Weston by twiddling my thumbs and hoping for favours. I won my honours by hard work and zealous service. Today, I am the best-known, and certainly the most impartial, judge in England,and a favoured servant of his gracious majesty, Charles the Second. That, I submit, my good Roger, is an example to be studied. It is now only unbecoming in you to ask for a half-holiday, but it is greatly unlike you. I fear….
He has turned towards his secretary, and discovers his misplaced diligence. After a pause, coldly🥶
Lord Weston aka Richard
Can it be, Mr Chetwynd, that you have not been listening to my discourse?
(brought to the surface by the cessation of the word music):
Roger Chetwynd
What, my lord? Oh, no. Yes, certainly, sir, I am listening.
Lord Weston aka Richard
What was I talking of?
Roger Chetwynd
Yourself, sir. (amending) I mean, of your rise to success, my lord.
(It is apparent that it is an oft-heard tale.)
Lord Weston aka Richard
We were talking of your extraordinary request for a half-holiday, when you had one only last month. Would it be straining courtesy too far if were to inquire what prompts this new demand
for heedless leisure?
Roger Chetwynd
: I thought perhaps if you did not need me this afternoon, my lord, I might personally interview the clerk of the Awards Committee, and find out why he has not sent that document.
Lord Weston aka Richard
Oh, Oh, indeed.
Roger Chetwynd
The lack of it greatly hinders. It holds up my work, you see. And at this most interesting point….
(His glance goes longingly to his desk.)
Lord Weston aka Richard
That, of course, is a different matter. I see no reason why you should not take a walk to Mr.Clay’s in the afternoon if the weather is fine. I am relieved that your thoughts are on sober matters, as befits a rising young man.Diligence,courage, and attention to detail: these are the three.Roger! I said, what day of the month is it?Roger! I said, what day of the month is it? to excel in any of the learned professions.
(He has found a scrap of paper, rather crushed, in his pocket and smooths its out, uninterestedly, to make a rough spill)
Lord Weston aka Richard
Detail, my good Roger, attention to detail. That is the beginning of greatness. That is the…..
(reading automatically and with some difficulty what is written on the scrap of paper)
Lord Weston aka Richard
‘Remember Caesar’
(Repeating, with vague interest. He turns the paper back and forth, at a loss. And then a new idea occurs to him, a rather horrible idea. To ROGER)
Lord Weston aka Richard
What is the date to-day?
(As ROGER, buried again in his work, does not answer)
Lord Weston aka Richard
Roger! I said,what day of the month is it?
Roger Chetwynd
It is the fifteenth,my lord.
Lord Weston aka Richard
The fifteenth! The fifteenth of March. The Ides of March!
(Looking at the paper again; in a horrified whisper)
Lord Weston aka Richard
‘Remember Caesar’!
Lord Weston aka Richard
So they want to kill me, do they? They want to kill me?
(ROGER comes to the surface, surprised😱.)
Lord Weston aka Richard
That is what it is to be a judge over men
(all his pompousness is dissolving in agitation😡)
Lord Weston aka Richard
an instrument of justice. Sooner or later revenge lies await in the by-ways. And the juster a judge has been, the more fearless
(he waves the paper in the astonished ROGER’s face)
Lord Weston aka Richard
so much greater will be the hate that pursues –
Roger Chetwynd
What is it, my lord? What is it?
Lord Weston aka Richard
My death warrant if I am not careful. What cases have we had lately? The treason affair – I refused to be bribed!
(The boast gives him a passing comfort.)
Lord Weston aka Richard
The piracy – both sides hate me for that. Or there was that footpad –
Roger Chetwynd
Is it a threat, the paper? Where did it come from?
Lord Weston aka Richard
It was in my pocket. Someone must have …. Yes, now I remember. A man brushed against me yesterday as I was leaving the courts. A small, evil-looking fellow, very shy.
Roger Chetwynd
What does it say, the paper?
(much too occupied with his own fate to attend to his secretary’s curiosity)
Lord Weston aka Richard
Just at the door, it was, and he didn’t wait for an apology. I remember. Well, I can only thank them for the warning. I may die before my time but it will not be to-day if I can help it. Go downstairs at once, Roger, and lock, bar and chain all the doors. And ask my wife to come to me at once. At once. Stop! Are there any strangers in the house? Work men or such?
Roger Chetwynd
Only Joel the gardener, my lord; he is cleaning the windows on the landing.
(He indicates with his head that Joel is just outside.)
Lord Weston aka Richard
Send him away at once. Tell him to leave everything and go and lock the door behind him. And the windows – see that the windows, too, are closed.
(facing the cupboard with a levelled pistol🔫)
Lord Weston aka Richard
Come out! Come out! I say.
Lord Weston aka Richard
Drop your weapon and come out or I shall shoot you now.
(As there is still silence he forces himself to close in on the cupboard door, and standing
to the side pulls it quickly open. It is empty. As soon as his relief abates he is ashamed, and hastily returns the pistol to its drawer.)
(Enter, bright and purposeful, LADY WESTON. A charming creature. One knows at a glance that she is an excellent housewife, but to the last one is never sure how much intelligence and sweet malice there lies behind her practical simplicity.)
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