Black Narcissus Page #2

and my bedding outside.

- I shall live here with you.

- Oh!

Would you like to see

my books and my bedding, lady?

Sister? Lemani?

- How old are you?

- Six to eleven.

What did you say?

I can remember that I'm six,

but my father married

my mother 11 years ago...

so that I may probably

be about ten.

Sister, the schoolroom

is overflowing with children.

We've nothing unpacked yet.

No one understands the language. There

are too many of them, and they smell.

- I don't know what to do.

- Why don't you tell them to come back later?

- Start with the older ones.

- They won't go away.

- Oh, why not?

- They were paid to come, so they can't go away.

Paid?

Sister, the general's clerk has orders to

pay everybody who comes to my dispensary.

- So they all want to come.

- Excuse me, Sister, may I suggest?

- Yes, Sister?

- Wouldn't it be a pity to send the children away?

- They were paid to come.

- But if they like it, they may come again.

What can you do with them?

They look very stupid to me.

Remember, they can't speak

a word of Hindustani or English.

Joseph can.

You'll help us,

won't you, Joseph?

The brothers left

a blackboard in the school.

I'll draw things on it

in colored chalk.

They can tell me their name for it,

and I'll tell them the English.

I can take their names and ages

and make a register.

You can hardly

call that a lesson.

You can call it

a very sensible idea.

Thank you, Sister Blanche.

I suppose you know who I am.

You must be Mr. Dean.

I must.

And you must be

the sister superior.

What curious feathers. Are they all

from the birds that you've shot?

I don't shoot birds.

When you've shot everything,

it appalls, doesn't it?

I'm the general's agent.

He welcomes you to Mopu.

Understood you wanted to see me.

We want to talk to you on business.

I didn't suppose you wanted

to talk to me on anything else.

Sorry.

Perhaps that wasn't fair.

Mr. Dean, you know

that General Toda Rai...

has given us this house for

a new foundation of our order.

We very much appreciate it.

It's very generous of him.

Yes. You'd like

the general, Sister.

- He also has a superior being.

- Really!

I don't know why you are being

so rude to me, Mr. Dean.

I have to talk business with you

whether I like it or not.

Well, talk it then,

and don't teach at me.

It's no place to put a nunnery,

I can tell you that.

Difficult, but not impossible.

Nothing is impossible-

Is yours a contemplative order?

I mean, do you live in meditation?

Do you keep solitude?

Our order isn't in the least like that.

We're very busy people.

We're going to open

a dispensary,

a school for children

and a class for girls.

Good. You'll be doing me a great favor

when you begin to educate the local girls.

I have already been told, Mr. Dean,

that you do not believe in solitude.

Do you know what the people

call this place?

"The House of Women. "

The general's father

used to keep his ladies here.

From now on, it will be known

as the House of St. Faith.

Sister, will you have

that picture taken down?

I give you

till the rains break.

Oh, dear, dear.

Who is it?

Sister Briony.

I can't sleep.

Anything wrong, Sister?

It's Sister Ruth.

I've just seen her.

- How is she?

- She's sick.

She has violent pains in her joints,

a boil on her finger...

and headaches.

It's this wind.

And they all seem so tired.

It's the altitude.

Our dispensary

is more crowded than ever.

This big house to look after

and all the unpacking still to be done.

And the plumbing's

broken down again.

What do you think, Sister?

Perhaps Mr. Dean-

Certainly not.

We can manage without Mr. Dean.

Yes, of course.

- Are you all right, Sister?

- Of course I'm all right.

- Show me your arm.

- I'm perfectly all right.

- So you've got them too.

- What have I got?

Spots. I've got them.

Every one of us has got them.

There must be something

in the water here that's very unhealthy.

- The natives drink it.

- They get sick themselves.

I ask as the general's heir,

the young general.

He's very ill.

Those drums

are beating for him.

The beat all night

while he's ill.

If you hear them stop,

he's dead.

You!

How do you do?

What are you doing here?

Skew's all filthy.

I have to have it taken off.

I've come to mend

a loose joint in your pipe.

- You must send a plumber.

- The nearest one's Darjeeling.

- I count plumbing among my other gifts.

- That's not the point-

I swear to you, Sister,

it's only the pipe I'm interested in.

- I must see Sister Clodagh about this.

- All right.

I forbid you to stay in there.

All right.

We have to build a workroom

and a school and, later on, a chapel.

Somebody's got to put locks on my

cupboards. I daren't unpack a thing.

And the windows don't open and the door

won't shut and the plumbing won't work.

- Come in, Mr. Dean.

- May I go now, Sister?

Please sit down, Mr. Dean.

- Would you like some coffee?

- Can you make it decently?

- Can I make coffee!

- Can she?

Full of grits.

Mr. Dean, Joseph tells us...

the people are still

being paid to come to us.

Ah, the general's a wise man.

It's only till it becomes habit.

Let it become a habit

for them to come,

and they won't remember

a time when they didn't.

Then gradually

he'll leave off paying them.

and gradually it'll become

a habit with 'em not to be paid.

- They're like children.

- He told me he was going to order them to come.

- They don't know what an order is.

- They should learn.

- Why?

- We all need discipline.

Without discipline, we should

all behave like children.

Don't you like children?

Thanks, Sister Briony.

Talking of medicine,

Sister Briony,

if you get a bad case,

one that seems as though

it might be dangerous, don't take it.

- But that would be-

- It would be wise.

If you got a bad case and

some of your people died,

you'd have all the people

up against you.

- Why?

- Well, you must remember, they're primitive people...

and like, like children.

Unreasonable children.

They've never seen medicine. They'd

think it was magic, a new kind of magic.

So remember,

I've warned you.

By the way, how are you

feeling, all of you?

Not very well.

Sister Ruth is the worst.

I think the water must be bad.

Ayah says it's the water.

On the contrary.

The water's too good.

It's Darjeeling tummy.

I'd better get that plumbing fixed.

Sister Clodagh!

What has happened, Sister?

Oh, Sister, Sister,

they brought in a woman.

Our first bad case.

She was covered in blood.

I've never seen such a sight.

She must've cut an artery.

I had such a time stopping the bleeding.

I've never seen bleeding like that before.

I didn't know what to do at first,

but at last I managed to stop it.

A minute would've fetched Sister Briony

who would've stopped it at once.

What were you doing there?

I told you to stay in bed.

I was only trying

to consider you, Sister Briony.

It might have been better to have considered

the woman who is bleeding to death.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote