On Approval Page #7

Three weeks ago I adored you.

If you'd have asked me to marry you

then I would have. I adored you so much.

And now?

I've spent the last three

weeks with you and...

I think it's been my

greatest disappointment.

You mean I died on you?

The second day.

The second day?

Well that's not the experience of

other women who have known me.

You know Helen, I'm

always being asked out to

dinner parties because

people find me amusing.

A dinner party only lasts two hours.

A marriage has been known

to last for two years.

Yes.

Helen, these last three weeks, are

they indelibly imprinted on your mind?

They are imprinted, why?

I only asked.

I suppose it's because I'm a woman

and therefore infinitely foolish...

but I think I could forget

these past three weeks...

if you could tell me one thing.

Gladly.

The colour of my eyes.

Blue.

Goodnight George dear.

Come in.

Helen, come away from the door.

I thought for a moment you were Maria.

Maria's lying in bed stunned

by the shock you gave her.

I find myself curiously unmoved.

I'm afraid i've given George

a bit of a shock too.

Where's he?

Poor dear, he's sitting at the

bottom of the stairs...

trying to convince himself

he's colourblind. -Colourblind?

Well it doesn't matter

Richard, he'll recover.

To do any good I'm afraid he needs at

least six months on a desert island.

Alone with Maria.

Alone with Maria.

Richard, I really came to ask whether

you were enjoying it here very much?

Helen, you know I'm having

a perfectly awful time.

Then, why go on having

a perfectly awful time?

I see what you mean.

You are clever Helen.

But of course, and

the sooner the better.

Then you agree that the

island should be deserted?

As far as I'm concerned, tomorrow.

That's alright then, tomorrow.

Goodnight.

I'll see if the coast's clear.

Richard.

Yes.

I wonder if you could tell me something?

Of course Helen, what?

The colour of my eyes.

What a funny question,

green of course.

How observant you are.

Thank you Richard.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Not a sound.

Not a sound.

You'd hardly believe

they were in the house.

How dare they stay here.

You can't expect them to wait

on a cold railway platform.

Why not?

To think I brought that brute

here to see if I liked him.

And he has the audacity to

say he doesn't like me.

My stomach is cold, my head is

hot, my arteries are hardening...

only alcohol will get me on the train.

Nonsense.

Never again do I raise a finger.

Besides, you shouldn't have

drunk all the cooking sherry.

I would not have asked you Richard,

were it not for the fact...

that i'd meet those

extremely unpleasant women.

As it is, I shall die standing.

I'm not sure which

of us is the luckier.

I to have lost a

vulgar little man

or you to have avoided

marrying a congenital idiot.

Well George isn't entirely an idiot.

I quite agree.

What do you want?

The rain is now coming through

the roof in 15 places.

Well, what of it?

We have only 14 receptacles.

Well?

Well what do you suggest?

I suggest you will

find the railway platform

far less uncomfortable

than my house.

Richard and I have talked it over and

decided we find it exactly the same.

Why not get Richard to mend the roof?

I don't think he'd agree.

Ever since he told you

the truth about yourself...

he's so conceited

there's no holding him.

Is he boasting about that?

Rather.

No he's bragging that one day

he'll turn you into a decent woman.

How dare he. -He says it can be

done. He's very childish today.

Mrs Wislack, you can give me the

key of the alcohol cupboard.

I will not.

Did you have that brandy

and soda as I told you?

She whom you once loved,

refuses to cough up the key.

Give me that key of that cupboard,

it should never be locked.

I shall do nothing of the sort.

Give it to me I tell you.

No.

Then you place me in the hideous position...

of having to reveal myself as a man

who has always known where it was.

You mean to say that all this time...

you've had access to

liquor without telling me?

You had your cigars. And it's only

because you're cold that I'm relenting.

Helen.

Yes.

Be good enough to get George

a small brandy and soda.

Better go and get ready.

How dare you whisper

to my late fiance.

You libertine. Blowing kisses to a

girl young enough to be your daughter.

Mrs Wislack, for me to

have been Helen's father...

I should've had to have been

an enterprising boy of 14.

How long?

Four minutes.

In the kitchen?

Go down the back stairs.

Four minutes.

Mrs Wislack.

Maria.

I don't want to speak

to you but I must.

I don't want to speak

to you and I won't.

Stop. Do you love Richard?

Don't shout.

Do you love Richard?

Yes you beast.

Must you shout the facts of

life outside Richard's bedroom.

Come to my room.

I never thought I would

willingly enter here.

Please be seated, I feel less frightened

of you when you're sitting down.

What have you got to say.

Are you prepard to call

a truce for ten minutes?

The reason?

Love.

Five minutes.

Very well.

In a few hours Richard and I

will have left this house forever.

Thank heaven.

Stop pretending.

Surely a woman is

entitled to some modesty.

Not when you are to

lose your loved one.

I close my eyes, I see a divine face,

her little hands, I am in love.

With yourslef perhaps.

Shut up.

Out.

What are you doing? Kindly

put down my nightdress.

It's a nightdress no longer.

It's a flag of truce, sit down.

Now, to continue. I propose to

stay here and keep Richard too.

In such moments, damnable as it is,

we must forget the word 'honour'.

That should be easy for you.

oy!

I beg for your pardon.

Granted.

Now I've thought of a

way to win them back.

Maria, I imagine few men

have been in love with you.

I beg for your pardon.

Granted.

Of one thing I am certain.

I must never let Helen

see my heart is broken.

I have a pain here.

Wind.

I beg for your pardon.

Granted but you try me very hard Maria.

Now what I suggest is, that

we shall be so pleasant and...

friendly and even affectionate to

each other, that Richard...

will not dare to

leave me here with you.

If we show them a united front...

You hurry it up to the boat, i'll meet

you with the luggage in a few minutes.

Your quite sure we're

doing the right thing?

Of course I'm sure.

Very well then, but don't be too long.

What's all that?

I thought I heard...

I did.

Charming my dear charming.

What a delightful voice you have.

Thank you George.

What did you say George, just then?

Charming my dear charming.

What a delightful voice you have.

That's what I thought you said.

By the way Richard, Maria has

persuaded me to stay on.

I hope your journey south

will not be too lonely.

What did you say George?

Pay no attention to

that vulgar little man.

I'm not a vulgar little man.

You look vulgar.

You're quite right George.

Bless you Maria, bless you.

Don't... Don't you thick Patti is

quite wonderful this season?

Personally I prefer caviar.

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