Love Among the Ruins

- Did you get very wet? - Oh, never mind! Are they here?

- They? - Mr. Druce and his client, Mrs. Medlicott.

- Yes. - She's here?

No, no, she's not, not yet.

Well, it's after 4:00.

- They're late. - Yeah, thank heavens, so am I!

I was expecting plenty of time to have another look at druce's brief.

I'll be lucky if I can get the grime of the courtroom off my hands before she gets here.

Detain them outside, sir, until you're ready?

- Don't even think of it. - I beg your pardon?

You are to show them up the moment they arrive.

You are not to delay by so much as a single instant, do you understand?

- Very good, sir. - Not one more instant.

I thought we agreed that the cleaning woman should make a special effort in here today.

She did say she was here much longer than usual.

You won't find any dust anywhere.

It looks the same to me, I was wanting...

- Sir? - Oh, nothing.

- Did you expect it to look different? - I don't know what I was expecting.

I don't know what I was wanting.

Damn wig makes it a habit of my hair.

“What's left of it is a site once of a city great and gay,

the country now does not even boast a tree."

- Browning. - Are you all right, sir Arthur?

Yeah, why? Don't I look all right?

- Oh, yes, you look fine. - What's wrong?

Am I behaving strangely?

Oh! There they are!

There she is.

I beg your pardon, sir?

There they are! Go on down!

Hurry, man, hurry!

Move it!

Mr. Druce's brief, where is it?

I left it on your desk, sir.

Uh, well, place it more conspicuously, will you?

And open it as if I've been studying it.

Go on, man!

- I mean, does he know... - He'll ask you the questions.

Come.

- Good afternoon, Arthur! - Oh, there you are, at last.

Hello, George.

We're not so very late, are we?

Few minutes?

It doesn't matter. Come in, come in.

Thank you, Malden. If I need anything, I'll ring.

How are you? Good to see you.

Had a devil of a time getting here from regent's park.

The traffic in the strand at this hour is shocking.

Please, don't apologize.

He's not apologizing, he's explaining.

Mrs. Medlicott, sir Arthur granville-Jones.

Sir Arthur, Mrs. Giles medlicott.

How do you do?

I said, "how do you do?"

I beg your pardon, madam.

I'm very well, thank you. And you?

- As you see. - Yes.

- May we sit down? - Yes, I remember.

- Yes? - What was I saying?

Well, you said that you remember.

- Remember what? - Curious thing,

it's gone clean out of my head.

Never mind, it will come back to you.

Oh, yes.

I'm afraid my skirt got wet.

Yes, yes, it will all come back.

- Is he hard of hearing? - Beg your pardon?

- It's raining. - Oh, I'm so sorry.

Do forgive me. Please, come by the fire.

Shall Morton make you a cup of tea?

Oh, no, thank you, I've had my tea.

- Please, sit here, madam. - Thank you.

Would you like to give me your hat, madam?

Shall I take it?

Why? Don't you like it?

Oh, yes, it's charming.

It's just that it might be wet, and it casts a shadow in this light

just across your face.

And you want to see what sort of woman you're taking on, is that it?

- Yes. - Very well. Be patient.

There are three hat pins.

May I offer you a little Sherry?

You may offer it, I shan't have any.

Is there anything at all I can get you?

A quick verdict in my favor would be lovely.

That's very good, isn't it?

Well, we have to see what we can do, eh, George?

- George, please sit. - There.

Well, what do you think?

Do I look the sort of woman who seduces and betrays young boys

as the newspapers have implied?

You look...

Yes?

You know, you look...

Well, if... if that is a compliment,

it seems to me a most ambiguous one.

"Old as I am, for lady's love unfit,

the power of beauty I remember yet."

- That's better. - That's dryden.

- Here's my hat. - Oh, now where shall I put this?

Anywhere but on your head, I should think.

Yes.

Well, I've been studying your brief, George.

- I see that you have. - Not as thoroughly as I would have liked.

You see, I've been to court every day this week.

Lord baconthorpe's suit for divorce.

- Yes, I know. - It's a messy business.

- My case? - No, the baconthorpe affair.

Lady baconthorpe shot her lover three times in the most unlikely place.

Where, exactly?

- Trafalgar square. - Ooh, how spectacular.

And I onlyjilted mine in petworth place.

Is that what you're thinking?

Oh, no.

What a letdown. I'm sorry to disappoint you.

- Are you? - Am I what?

Sorry to have disappointed me?

But how solemn you are. I thought we were joking!

You're misled, I take these matters very seriously.

Are we talking about the same thing?

I wonder.

Have I missed a chapter?

I seem to have lost the thread.

Was there something you wanted to say to me, Mrs. Medlicott?

About what?

Never mind.

Mrs. Medlicott understands that there are questions you'll be obliged to put to her.

Yes. Yes, I'm quite prepared.

I continually have the feeling that you're about to say that you know me.

- Know you? - Yes.

But I don't know you, do I?

- Do you? - Well, how could I?

I've never been to law before.

Recently, you mightjust have seen me in petworth place, I live close by.

In fact, from my window I can see your front door.

- Can you? - I can.

How curious. No, I know very few people in petworth place

or any other place for that matter.

I've been told you like to live very quietly.

As a matter of fact, when I first took up the lease of my house in April,

I took the Liberty of calling on you.

You said you weren't receiving, I left my card but, regrettably,

there's never been any response.

I've been in mourning for the past two years, sir Arthur.

Since the death of my late husband giles medlicott,

I entertain very little, which is to say not at all.

I'm afraid I don't recall seeing your card.

Had I done, I expect I should have wondered

as to the purpose of your visit.

I know, of course, that you're at the very top of your profession.

George druce has told me all that.

The finest barrister in the empire, in my humble opinion.

Yes, still, after all, you are,

forgive me, a stranger to me.

I'm sorry.

I had thought we had met.

When?

A long time ago.

Very long time.

Where?

Don't you remember?

I think you must have made a mistake.

Perhaps you're confusing me with someone else.

But if you won't tell me when it was or where...

Never mind.

- It will come back to you. - Oh, how beastly of you!

Meantime, Arthur, perhaps we...

Yes, do, let's get on with the questions.

Yes, by all means. Well, now, this is a very difficult case.

- It really is very complicated. - Why do you say that?

Surely the charge is common enough.

A breach of promise, oh, yes, it's common enough when it's brought by a woman.

Time was when the courts were fairly swarming with young ladies

hauling up their young men for trifling with their affections, as the saying goes.

But it's a very different matter and rare enough to be most awkward.

When, as in this present case, the charges brought against a lady of...

Yes?

Considerable means and social position and of...

And of?

And of...

- Of a certain age? - Of a certain age,

as the saying goes, by a gentleman somewhat...

Somewhat younger?

Much, much younger.

I don't much care for "much, much."

It's superfluous, isn't it?

Surely, just "much“ would have served quite adequately.

- Sorry. - Furthermore,

the idea of Alfred Pratt posing as a gentleman

is nothing more than mutton dressed as lamb.

Oh?

As the saying goes.

Looks nice and tender but, usually, it turns out to be tough and unsavory.

But he was an officer in the mauretania, was he not?

- He was a purser. - An assistant purser.

- Ah, I see. - A very ambitious,

very tenacious assistant purser, a worm.

- Yet you loved him once. - Did I?

You did consent to marry him. He had witnesses.