Went the Day Well? Page #3

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Betty?

- Still, Betty. Still.

- Betty!

Where are you, lass?

Five...

Not yet, Betty.

Six...

- Oh, good evening, Mr Garbett.

- Evening, Bill.

That dog of mine run off again,

so I just come in to have a look for 'er.

Beth'!

I heard a couple of shots up this way

a moment or two ago.

- Didn't happen to have a gun with you?

- A gun, ha!

When I'm just out looking for me dog.

That dog of yours doesn't seem

to be around here at all.

Nine.

Ten. Phew!

Trespassing in Manor Wood

and no reasonable excuse.

Psst.

Where you been, you wicked lass?

Gettin' your master into trouble

with the constable.

Very nearly.

Well, I must be getting along to me supper,

got a nice stewed rabbit.

- Rabbit?

- Found on the Upton Road.

Got run over, I suppose.

- Goodnight, Mr Garbett.

- Goodnight, Bill.

Come on, Betty.

- Evening.

- Good evening.

What will you have?

- Bitter.

- Light ale.

- Same.

- Yes, sir.

Here you are, Jim.

- Ah, thank you.

- Evening, ma'am.

- Oh, good evening.

- Will you take a drop of something?

Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure.

I wouldn't say no to a small port.

MAN:
Seventy-two.

Billets nice and comfortable, I hope?

Billets? Oh, yeah.

Fred was saying quite home from home,

weren't you, Fred?

- That's right.

- Bit of excitement for us.

We never had so many foreigners

in the village before.

- Foreigners?

- Well, strangers to these parts, like.

We always call 'em

foreigners round this way.

That'll be two and six, please, sir.

- Two beers, Jim.

- Righto, Pat.

Thank you, sir.

Your very good health and down with Hitler.

Goodness, how dreadful,

I've only just realised.

Realised what?

It was seeing you again made me remember.

I never took it up to the

manor house after all.

- The telegram. Oh!

- You had it at the hall.

I must have left it there then. I'd better

pop round and see if I can find it.

There's a guard on the door.

He won't let you pass.

Be a good Samaritan and come with me,

won't you?

Come on, be a dear.

- Another game?

- No thanks, I've had enough.

How much do we owe?

- Let's see now, in English money that's...

- Pay attention!

This lady's lost a telegram.

Anyone seen such a thing?

A telegram? Has it been opened?

It wasn't in an envelope, just the form.

It was addressed "Fraser"

and signed "Maud."

I can't think what on earth I could have...

Why, I believe that's it.

It is, thank goodness for that.

We've been scoring on the back of it,

I'm afraid.

Never mind, I've found it,

that's the main thing.

Oh, but what about your game?

You'll need it for the score.

We'd just finished.

Oh, that's all right then.

Bit of a makeshift in here.

Not very comfy for you, is it?

No.

Oh, well, I'll be getting along then.

I haven't had this done for me

since I was about six.

- There you are.

- Thank you so much.

If you ask me,

I think he sprained his wrist on purpose.

When I think of those Germans

gorging themselves on French wines,

it makes me quite furious.

I'm afraid I haven't much sympathy

for the French.

That's one of the many points

we disagree about, isn't it, Nora?

Well, they let us down so abominably.

I think they deserve to suffer for it.

My dear, I don't think anybody's so bad

that they deserve to live under Nazi rule.

Talking about France,

were you over there before Dunkirk?

Up to our necks in it, weren't we, Maxwell?

Yes, spent most of our time blowing up bridges

the French had forgotten to attend to.

- Absentminded fellows, the French.

- VICAR:
You mean fifth column?

That must have been

the most unpleasant thing of all,

never knowing

who was working for the enemy.

I can't understand what a fifth columnist

hopes to gain, in the long run.

Power, I suppose.

Well, that's one thing

we haven't got to worry about.

No one can tell me there's a

potential fifth column in England.

Oh, I'm not so sure, Mrs Fraser,

you're just the type.

You love exercising power, now.

Now, you admit it.

There's something in that.

You'd better keep an eye on me

when the invasion comes.

This famous invasion that the papers

keep trying to scare us about.

You don't think it's a genuine possibility?

Personally, no.

The boche is devilishly good on propaganda.

They start the invasion rumours

in order to make us keep millions of men

tied up here in Britain.

Which is why we have the luck

to be sitting here

enjoying your excellent dinner, Mrs Fraser.

Well, excellent or otherwise,

I'm afraid that's all there is of it.

Oh, Mrs Fraser, it arrived this morning.

You've every right to be angry.

But it's only about your cousin

coming to tea tomorrow.

My clear Mrs Collins,

what are you talking about?

- A telegram. I've got it in here somewhere.

- Come inside.

That's me all over, what with the sergeant

calling for the keys, and all...

Coffee in ten minutes, Bridget.

I'm ever so sorry about the envelope,

but I've run right out.

I must remember to order some more.

There isn't any answer, is there?

No, there's no answer.

Well, I'll run along, then.

I haven't had me supper yet.

What are all those figures?

Oh, it's the soldiers.

I left it at the hall.

They've been using it for their cards,

to score on.

Yes, but why should they form their figures

in the continental way?

The continental way?

Yes, the seven, for example.

They've put a stroke

across the middle of it. Look!

There you are,

and there's one of those elongated fives.

What an extraordinary thing.

I don't see anything

extraordinary about it.

It's probably a Czech or a Pole.

There are lots of them here.

Yes, but would they be

in the Royal Engineers?

Goodness, makes you think.

Well, I refuse to see anything sinister

in an elongated five!

I don't agree with you.

You never do, my dear.

What was the man like?

The one who was scoring?

- Oh, seemed a bit slow in the uptake.

- How do you mean?

Well, didn't seem to grasp

what I was getting at.

Did he say anything to you?

He only said "No" when I asked them

if they found the place quite comfy.

"No," just like that?

Manners, I thought to meself at the time.

Then he might have been a German,

for all you could tell.

I see, so you think there's a German spy

among Major Hammond's men.

A spy who can't understand English?

No. No, that's absurd, of course.

Perhaps they're all German spies,

carefully disguised as Royal Engineers.

Well, I don't know what to think.

The one that went for young George

this morning,

I told him to his face

he was behaving like a German.

Now, listen, Mrs Collins,

you remember that scarecrow in my field

signalling to the Germans?

Made a proper laughingstock of meself,

didn't I?

- You certainly did.

- Yes, but this is quite different.

And quite as ridiculous.

Well, once bit, twice shy.

I'll be trotting along.

We'll let sleeping dogs lie,

If you get my meaning.

We will.

Well, I think we ought to tell

Oliver Wilsford about it at least.

Please yourself, my dear.

Of course,

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