WALPOLE [quickly] No: it was to me.

B. B. Certainly not. Your name was never mentioned between us. He is so wrapped up in his work that he has to leave her a good deal alone; and the poor innocent young fellow — he has of course no idea of my position or how busy I am — actually wanted me to call occasionally and talk to her.

WALPOLE Exactly what he said to me!

B. B. Pooh! Pooh pooh! Really, I must say.

Much disturbed, he rises and goes up to the balustrade, contemplating the landscape vexedly.

WALPOLE Look here, Ridgeon! this is beginning to look serious.

BLENKINSOP, very anxious and wretched, but trying to look unconcerned, comes back.

RIDGEON Well, did you catch him?

BLENKINSOP No. Excuse my running away like that. [He sits down at the foot of the table, next BLOOMFIELD BONINGTON’s chair] .

WALPOLE Anything the matter?

BLENKINSOP Oh no. A trifle — something ridiculous. It cant be helped. Never mind.

RIDGEON Was it anything about Dubedat?

BLENKINSOP [almost breaking down] I ought to keep it to myself, I know. I cant tell you, Ridgeon, how ashamed I am of dragging my miserable poverty to your dinner after all your kindness. It’s not that you wont ask me again; but it’s so humiliating. And I did so look forward to one evening in my dress clothes (t h e y r e still presentable, you see) with all my troubles left behind, just like old times.

RIDGEON But what has happened?

BLENKINSOP Oh, nothing. It’s too ridiculous. I had just scraped up four shillings for this little outing; and it cost me one-and-fourpence to get here. Well, Dubedat asked me to lend him half-a-crown to tip the chambermaid of the room his wife left her wraps in, and for the cloakroom. He said he only wanted it for five minutes, as she had his purse. So of course I lent it to him. And he’s forgotten to pay me. Ive just tuppence to get back with.

RIDGEON Oh, never mind that —

BLENKINSOP [stopping him resolutely] No: I know what youre going to say; but I wont take it. Ive never borrowed a penny; and I never will. Ive nothing left but my friends; and I wont sell them. If none of you were to be able to meet me without being afraid that my civility was leading up to the loan of five shillings, there would be an end of everything for me. I’ll take your old clothes, Colly, sooner than disgrace you by talking to you in the street in my own; but I wont borrow money. I’ll train it as far as the twopence will take me; and I’ll tramp the rest.

WALPOLE Youll do the whole distance in my motor. [They are all greatly relieved; and WALPOLE hastens to get away from the painful subject by adding] Did he get anything out of you, Mr Schutzmacher?

SCHUTZMACHER [shakes his head in a most expressive negative].

WALPOLE You didnt appreciate his drawing, I think.

SCHUTZMACHER Oh yes I did. I should have liked very much to have kept the sketch and got it autographed.

B. B. But why didnt you?

SCHUTZMACHER Well, the fact is, when I joined Dubedat after his conversation with Mr Walpole, he said the Jews were the only people who knew anything about art, and that though he had to put up with your Philistine twaddle, as he called it, it was what I said about the drawings that really pleased him. He also said that his wife was greatly struck with my knowledge, and that she always admired Jews. Then he asked me to advance him £50 on the security of the drawings.

SCHUTZMACHER Of course I couldnt lend money to a stranger like that.

B. B. I envy you the power to say No, Mr Schutzmacher. Of course, I knew I oughtnt to lend money to a young fellow in that way; but I simply hadnt the nerve to refuse. I couldnt very well, you know, could I?

SCHUTZMACHER I dont understand that. I felt that I couldnt very well lend it.

WALPOLE What did he say?

SCHUTZMACHER Well, he made a very uncalled-for remark about a Jew not understanding the feelings of a gentleman. I must say you Gentiles are very hard to please. You say we are no gentlemen when we lend money; and when we refuse to lend it you say just the same. I didnt mean to behave badly. As I told him, I might have lent it to him if he had been a Jew himself.

SIR PATRICK [with a grunt) And what did he say to that?

SCHUTZMACHER Oh, he began trying to persuade me that he was one of the chosen people — that his artistic faculty shewed it, and that his name was as foreign as my own. He said he didnt really want £50; that he was only joking; that all he wanted was a couple of sovereigns.

B. B. No, no, Mr Schutzmacher. You invented that last touch. Seriously, now?

SCHUTZMACHER No.You cant improve on Nature in telling stories about gentlemen like Mr Dubedat.

BLENKINSOP You certainly do stand by one another, you chosen people, Mr Schutzmacher.

SCHUTZMACHER Not at all. Personally, I like Englishmen better than Jews, and always associate with them. Thats only natural, because, as I am a Jew, theres nothing interesting in a Jew to me, whereas there is always something interesting and foreign in an Englishman. But in money matters it’s quite different. You see, when an Englishman borrows, all he knows or cares is that he wants money; and he’ll sign anything to get it, without in the least understanding it, or intending to carry out the agreement if it turns out badly for him. In fact, he thinks you a cad if you ask him to carry it out under such circumstances. Just like the Merchant of Venice, you know. But if a Jew makes an agreement, he means to keep it and expects you to keep it. If he wants money for a time, he borrows it and knows he must pay it at the end of the time. If he knows he cant pay, he begs it as a gift.

RIDGEON Come, Loony! do you mean to say that Jews are never rogues and thieves?

SCHUTZMACHER Oh, not at all. But I was not talking of criminals. I was comparing honest Englishmen with honest Jews.

One of the hotel maids, a pretty, fair-haired woman of about 25, comes from the hotel, rather furtively. She accosts RIDGEON.

THE MAID I beg your pardon, sir —

RIDGEON Eh?

THE MAID I beg pardon, sir. It’s not about the hotel. I’m not allowed to be on the terrace; and I should be discharged if I were seen speaking to you, unless you were kind enough to say you called me to ask whether the motor has come back from the station yet.

WALPOLE Has it?

THE MAID Yes, sir.

RIDGEON Well, what do you want?

THE MAID Would you mind, sir, giving me the address of the gentleman that was with you at dinner?

RIDGEON (sharply] Yes, of course I should mind very much. You have no right to ask.

THE MAID Yes, sir, I know it looks like that. But what am I to do?

SIR PATRICK Whats the matter with you?

THE MAID Nothing, sir. I want the address: thats all.

B. B. You mean the young gentleman?

THE MAID Yes, sir: that went to catch the train with the woman he brought with him.

RIDGEON The woman! Do you mean the l a d y who dined here? the gentleman’s wife?

THE MAID Dont believe them, sir. She cant be his wife. I’m his wife.

THE MAID I could run upstairs and get you my marriage lines[156] in a minute, sir, if you doubt my word. He’s Mr Louis Dubedat, isnt he?

RIDGEON Yes.

THE MAID Well, sir, you may believe me or not; but I’m the lawful Mrs Dubedat.

SIR PATRICK And why arnt you living with your husband?

THE MAID We couldnt afford it, sir. I had thirty pounds saved; and we spent it all on our honeymoon in three weeks, and a lot more that he borrowed. Then I had to go back into service, and he went to London to get work at his drawing; and he never wrote me a line or sent me an address. I never saw nor heard of him again until I caught sight of him from the window going off in the motor with that woman.