Produced by Mr. Dion Boucioault at the New Theatre,
London, on April 8, 1918, with the following cast:—
Belinda Tremayne .......... Irene Vanbrugh.
Delia (her Daughter) ...... Isabel Elsom.
Harold Baxter ............. Dion Boucicault.
Claude Devenish ........... Dennis Neilson-Terry.
John Tremayne ............. Ben Webster.
Betty ..................... Anne Walden.
The action takes place in Belinda’s country-house
in Devonshire at the end of April, the first act in
the garden and the second and last acts in the hall
[Illustration]
ACT I
It is a lovely April afternoon—a foretaste
of summer—in Belinda’s garden_.
Betty, a middle-aged servant, is fastening
a hammock—its first appearance this year—to
a tree down L. In front there is a garden-table,
with a deck-chair on the right of it and a straight-backed
one to the left. There are books, papers, and
magazines on the table. Belinda, of
whom we shall know more presently, is on the other
side of the open windows which look on to the garden,
talking to Betty, who crosses to R.
of hammock, securing it to tree C.
Belinda (from inside the house).
Are you sure you’re tying it up tightly enough,
Betty?
Betty (coming to front of hammock).
Yes, ma’am; I think it’s firm.
Belinda. Because I’m not the fairy
I used to be.
Betty (testing hammock). Yes, ma’am;
it’s quite firm this end too.
BELINDA (entering from portico with sunshade open).
It’s not the ends I’m frightened of; it’s
the middle where the weight’s coming. (Comes
down R. and admiring.) It looks very nice.
(She crosses at back of wicker table, hanging her
hand-bag on hammock. Closes and places her sunshade
at back of tree C.)
BETTY. Yes, ma’am.
BELINDA (trying the middle of it with her hand).
I asked them at the Stores if they were quite sure
it would bear me, and they said it would take anything
up to—I forget how many tons. I know
I thought it was rather rude of them. (Looking
at it anxiously, and trying to get in, first with
her right leg and then her left.) How does one
get in! So trying to be a sailor!
BETTY. I think you sit in it, ma’am, and
then (explaining with her hands) throw your
legs over.
BELINDA. I see. (She sits gingerly in the
hammock, and then, with a sudden flutter of white,
does what BETTY suggests.) Yes. (Regretfully.)
I’m afraid that was rather wasted on you, Betty.
We must have some spectators next time.
