Berkeley Square Page #2

---

They were hidden in this box here.

Here's the letter that Peter wrote

Lady Ann, the girl's mother.

Just after he arrived.

Imagine Marjorie .. that clock.

Ticked away five generations.

Maybe it's ticking away now.

Back in that other time.

Other time?

Four o'clock.

He comes at half past five,

September the 3rd.

Why, that is today.

The paper is yellow, the ink is faded.

And I imagine Lady Ann

is reading this letter ..

Now.

It is a hundred and forty-nine

years ago today.

Half past five, September the 3rd 1784.

That he walked in.

Through that door.

Peter. Do you realize you haven't

seen me for three days?

You haven't even called me up.

Old Mr Pettigrew wouldn't

have a phone in the house.

He left everything just as it was.

Furniture ..

Everything ..

I believe you care more about this

old house, than you do about me.

You're so nervous, dear.

You're smoking too much.

Am I?

Oh well .. it's only a month

until I'll be living here.

And able to look after you.

Listen, Marjorie.

I must have that month here .. alone.

Alone?

Marjorie .. please trust me.

Oh I will trust you .. if you will

only tell me what this is all about.

You would not ..

No, I can't ..

You mustn't ask me that ..

What's that?

What?

It sounded like a wagon .. or a

coach rattling over cobblestones.

It seems to stop here.

There is only your car at the door.

Peter .. a coach .. cobblestones?

In Berkeley Square?

Yes .. silly, wasn't it.

Well Peter .. it's time

to come along to tea.

Tea? Oh yes of course .. the Ambassador.

I've got to be back at half past five.

Is someone coming?

No ..

Well then, come along dear.

It will do you good.

Marjorie, you don't want to marry me.

You only want to look after me.

One goes with the other.

I suppose so.

It won't take me a moment to

get a coat. I'll be back in a jiffy.

How quickly we Americans

take to tea over here.

Yes, it doesn't take long

to get to like tea, does it.

I don't mean the tea itself,

but what it stands for.

A sort of charming rest period,

all that sort of thing.

Is that a portrait of John Adams, sir?

Yes.

Our first minister to Great Britain.

He came over here in 1784.

1784?

It's after five. I must run along.

Oh, but you don't have to go, Peter.

Well ..

Goodbye dear.

Marjorie ..

The next time you see me ..

If I behave oddly or ..

It's no use .. goodbye dear.

We must get him out of that house.

Don't worry.

Thank you. Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Changeable weather we're having.

Has it been changeable?

I hardly realized there

has been any weather.

Haven't been going out much, eh?

No, I ..

Why do you ask?

Oh, nothing in particular.

I just wondered why I hadn't seen

you anywhere all these weeks.

Well .. that house has been

taking up most of my time.

You know, I've been wondering why that

remote English cousin left it to you.

Old Mr Pettigrew?

He read a paper of mine on architecture.

It turned out later that a Standish

ancestor of mine had built the place.

Oh, I see .. you know ..

People sometimes get

morbid and musty when they ..

They shut themselves up in old houses.

Marjorie is really quite

disturbed about you.

I do wish she wouldn't be.

I really can't go out just now.

Look here, Standish .. don't you think

you ought to get away for a while?

Get away? .. Yes, it would be

great to get away wouldn't it.

Really away, into the blue .. you

think I'm a bookworm don't you?

But there still are adventures.

Inconceivable adventures.

Why shouldn't I tell you?

I want to leave someone here who knows.

Knows? Knows what?

I think that when I go home to Berkeley

Square at half-past-five tonight ..

I shall walk into the 18th Century ..

and meet the people living there.

Well, now that I've told you I suppose

you will, ring up a specialist.

Well .. of course, none of us believe

in ghosts in America, but ..

Over here, in these old houses ..

Who said anything about ghosts?

I believe they are alive.

Peter Standish is alive.

Just as I'm living here,

he's living there.

Back in his own time.

Own time?

You mean .. he's still alive

in the 18th Century?

Yes.

But, it's impossible ..

No, no. Look here.

I know what you're going to say.

Perhaps this will help to clear it up.

Suppose you are in a boat ..

sailing down a winding stream.

You watch the banks as they pass you.

You went by a grove of

maple trees upstream.

But you can't see them now, so you

saw them .. in the past, didn't you?

Now you watch a field of clover, before

your eyes, this moment, in the present.

But you don't know what is waiting for

you round the bend in the stream ahead.

There may be wonderful things, but you

can't see them until you round the bend.

In the future .. can you?

No.

Alright now, remember,

you're in the boat.

And I'm up in the sky above you in

a plane. I'm looking down on it all.

I can see it all at once.

So that the past, the present and

the future .. the man in the boat.

Are all one .. to the man in the plane.

Why, doesn't that prove that all

time must really be one?

Time .. real time .. is nothing

but an idea .. in the mind of God.

Well that .. seems a sound argument.

Argument?

How would you like to walk the quiet

streets of London in the 18th Century?

And breathe pure air instead

of the fumes of gasoline.

Ride in sedan chairs instead of

taxi-cabs .. meet John Adams.

Why .. you wouldn't

like it if you got there.

You'd make mistakes, they'd find out.

Oh no they wouldn't.

Here .. here's my passport.

What's that?

His diary .. Peter Standish's diary.

I know everything he did from the

moment he arrived in Berkeley Square.

Of course, naturally I'd have

to do everything that he did.

I mean, I couldn't change

anything in the 18th Century ..

That really had happened

in the 18th Century. Could I?

I'm late .. I must be back by 5:30.

Thanks very much.

Standish, don't ..

Good day, sir.

I am your servant, sir.

At your service, cousin.

Who?

Who are you?

Kate Pettigrew.

Kate ..

Pettigrew ..

On my mother's behalf,

I bid you welcome, sir.

Your mother?

Oh yes, the Lady Ann.

I trust she is well.

I thank you, sir.

It's uh .. it's raining awfully hard.

Oh yes, you will find the weather

wretched in London.

You uh .. seem a little

constrained, cousin.

Well you are not exactly

at your ease yourself.

Had you a tiring journey? You said

nothing of your voyage in your letter.

My letter?

To my mother, from The Blue Boar.

The Blue Boar?

Oh yes of course, I went there

when the coach came in and I ..

I had just come over from America.

Well, we did not think

you'd come from Poland.

In the General Wolfe.

It took 27 dreary days.

Really? In the packet?

Did you not swim across?

Forgive me cousin, for being a bore.

But your manners have been

unexceptionable, sir.

But hardly appropriate for one who has

met his betrothed for .. the first time.

Are we betrothed? I'd not heard of it.

Come Kate .. it's been practically

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes