East of Suez: A Play in Seven Scenes

George. If I perish I perish. Oh, of course I love you. All night I'm tortured with love and tortured with jealousy, but the day does come at last and then I can get hold of myself again. My love is some horrible thing gnawing at my heart-strings. I hate it and despise it. But I can fight it, fight it all the time. Oh, I've been here too long. I ought to have got back to work long ago. Work is my only chance. Daisy, I beseech you to let me go.

Daisy. How can I let you go? I love you.

George. [Thunderstruck.] You? [Impatiently, with a shrug of the shoulders.] Oh, you're talking nonsense.

Daisy. Why do you suppose I've said all these things? Do you think a woman cares twopence for a man's love when she doesn't love him?

George. Oh, it's impossible. You don't know what you're saying. I know how good and kind you are. You've been touched by my love. You mistake pity for love.

Daisy. I'm not good and I'm not kind. There's no room in my soul for pity. In my soul there's only a raging hunger. If I know what you feel it's because I feel it too. I love you, I love you, I love you.

George. And Harry?

Daisy. What do I care about Harry? I hate him because he's stood between me and you.

George. He is your husband. He is my friend.

Daisy. He doesn't exist. I've loved you always from the first day I saw you. The others were nothing to me, Lee Tai and Harry and the rest. I've loved you always. I've never loved anyone but you. All these years I've kept the letters you wrote to me. I've read them till I know every word by heart. They're all blurred and smudged with the tears I've wept over them. They were all I had. Do you think I'm going to let you go now? All my pain, all my anguish, are nothing any more. I love you and you love me.

George. Oh, don't, don't!

Daisy. You can't leave me now. If you leave me I shall kill myself.

George. I must go away. I must never see you again. Whatever happens we must never meet.

Daisy. [Exasperated and impatient.] That's impossible. What will you say to Harry?

George. If need be I'll tell him the truth.

Daisy. What difference will that make? Will you love me any the less? Yes, tell him. Tell him that I love you and you only and that I belong to you and to you only.

George. Oh, Daisy, for God's sake try and control yourself. We must do our duty, we must, we must.

Daisy. I know no duty. I only know love. There's no room in my soul for anything else. You say that love is like a wild beast gnawing at your entrails. My love is a liberator. It's freed me from a hateful past. It's freed me from Harry. There's nothing in the world now but you and me and the love that joins us. I want you, I want you.

George. Don't, don't! Oh, this is madness! There's only one thing to be done. God, give me strength. Daisy, you know I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul. But it's good-bye. I'll never see you again. Never. Never. So help me God.

Daisy. How can you be so cruel? You're heartless. I've wanted you all these years. I've hungered for you. You don't know what my humiliation has been. Pity me because I loved you. If you leave me now I shall die. You open the doors of heaven to me and then you slam them in my face. Haven't you made me unhappy enough? You'd have done better to kill me ten years ago. You trampled me in the mud and then you left me. Oh, what shall I do? [She sinks down to the ground, weeping as though her heart would break. George looks at her for a minute, his face distorted with agony; he clenches his hands in the violence of his effort to control himself. He takes his hat and walks slowly towards the gate. He withdraws the bolt that holds it. When Daisy hears the sound of this she starts to her feet and staggers towards him.] George. No, no. Not yet.

[She staggers and with a cry falls headlong. She has fainted.

George. [Rushing towards her.] Daisy. Daisy. [He kneels down and takes her head in his hands. He is fearfully agitated.] Oh, my darling, what is it? Oh, my God! Daisy! Speak to me. [Calling.] Amah, amah! [Daisy slowly opens her eyes.] Oh, my beloved! I thought you were dead.

Daisy. Lift me up.

George. You can't stand.

[He raises her to her feet so that when she is erect she is in his arms. She puts her arms round his neck.

Daisy. Don't leave me.

George. My precious. My beloved.

[She turns her face to him, offering her lips, and he bends his head and kisses her. She closes her eyes in ecstasy.

Daisy. Take me in. I feel so ill.

George. I'll carry you.

[He lifts her up and carries her into the house. From the opposite side the Amah appears. She goes to the gateway and slips the bolt forward into position. Then she comes to the tea-table, sits down and takes a scone.

Amah. Hi, hi.

[She bites the scone and chews placidly. On her face is a smirk of irony.

END OF SCENE V

SCENE VI

A small room in a Chinese house in Peking.

The walls are whitewashed, but the whitewash is not a little stained. Three or four scrolls hang on them, written over in large characters with inscriptions. On the floor is matting. The only furniture consists of a table, with a couple of chairs, a wooden pallet covered with matting, with cushions at one end of it, and a Korean chest heavily ornamented with brass. At the back are two windows, elaborately latticed and covered with rice paper, and a lightly carved door.

Daisy is seated in one of the chairs. She has taken her pocket mirror out of her bag and is looking at herself. She is gay and happy. The Amah comes in. She carries a long-necked vase in which are a couple of carnations.

Amah. I bring you flowers make room look pletty.

Daisy. Oh, you nice old thing! Put them on the table.

Amah. You look at yourself in looking-glass?

Daisy. I'm looking young. It suits me to be happy.

Amah. You very pletty girl. I very pletty girl long time ago. You look alla same me some day.

Daisy. [Amused.] Heaven forbid.

Amah. You velly good temper to-day, Daisy. You glad because George come.

Daisy. I didn't see him yesterday.

Amah. He keep you waiting.

Daisy. The wretch. He always keeps me waiting. But what do I care as long as he comes? We shall have three hours. Perhaps he'll dine here. If he says he can, give him what he likes to eat. No one can make such delicious things as you can if you want to.

Amah. You try flatter me.

Daisy. I don't. You know very well you're the best cook in China.

Amah. [Tickled.] Oh, Daisy! I know you more better than you think.

Daisy. You're a wicked old woman. [She gives her a kiss on both cheeks.] What are they making such a row about next door?

Amah. Coolie, he got killed this morning. He have two small children. Their mother, she die long time ago.

Daisy. How dreadful! Poor little things.

Amah. You like see them. They here.

[She goes to the door and beckons. A little, old, shabby Chinaman comes in with two tiny children, a boy and a girl, one holding on to each hand. They are very solemn and shy and silent.

Daisy. Oh, what lambs!

Amah. They no got money. This old man he say he take them and he bring them up. But he only coolie. He no got much money himself.

Daisy. Is he related to them?

Amah. No, him just velly good man. He no can do velly much. He just do what he can. The neighbours, they help little.

Daisy. But I'll help too. Have you got any money on you?

Amah. I got two, three dollars.

Daisy. What's the good of that? Let him have this.

[She has a chain of gold beads round her neck. She takes it off and puts it in the old man's hands.

Amah. That chain very ispensive, Daisy.

Daisy. What do I care? Let him sell it for what it'll fetch. It'll bring me luck. [To the old man.] You sabe?

[He nods, smiling.

Amah. I think he understand all right.

Daisy. [Looking at the children.] Aren't they sweet? And so solemn. [To the Amah.] You go chop-chop to the toy shop opposite and buy them some toys.

Amah. Can do.

[She goes out. Daisy takes the children and sets them up on the table.

Daisy. [Charmingly.] Now you come and talk to me. Sit very still now or you'll fall off. [To the little boy.] I wonder how old you are. [To the old man.] Wu? Liu?

Old Man. Liu.

Daisy. [To the little boy.] Six years old. Good gracious, you're quite a man. If I had a little boy he'd be older than you now. If I had a little boy I'd dress him in such smart things. And I'd bath him myself. I wouldn't let any horrid old amah bath him. And I wouldn't stuff him up with sweets like the Chinese do; I'd give him one piece of chocolate when he was a good boy. Gracious me, I've got some chocolates here. Wait there. Sit quite still. [She goes over to the shelf on which is a bag of chocolates.] There's one for you and one for you and (to the old man) one for you. And here's one for me.

[The children and the Chinaman eat the chocolates solemnly. The Amah returns with a doll and a child's Peking cart.

Amah. Have catchee toys.

Daisy. Look what kind old amah has brought you. [She lifts the children off the table and gives the doll to the little girl and the cart to the boy.] Here's a beautiful doll for you and here's a real cart for you. [She sits down on the floor.] Look, the wheels go round and everything.

Amah. Have got more presents.

[She takes out of her sleeve little bladders with mouthpiece attached so that they can be blown up.

Daisy. What on earth is this? Oh, I love them! We must all have one. [She distributes them and they all blow them up. There it the sound of scratching at the door.] Who's that, I wonder?

Amah. If you say come in, perhaps you see.

Daisy. Open the door, you old silly. [She begins to blow up the balloon again. The Amah goes to the door and opens it. Lee Tai steps in.] Lee Tai. Send these away. [The Amah makes a sign to the old Chinaman, he gives each child a hand and with their presents they go out. The Amah slips out after them.] I thought you were dead.

Lee Tai. I'm very much alive, thank you.

Daisy. Ah, well, we'll hope for the best.

Lee Tai. I trust you're not displeased to see me.

Daisy. [Gaily.] If you'd come yesterday I should certainly have smacked your face, but to-day I'm in such a good humour that even the sight of you is tolerable.

Lee Tai. You weren't here yesterday.

[The Amah comes in carrying on a little wooden tray, two Chinese bowls and a tea-pot.

Daisy. My dear Mamma seems to think you've come to pay me a visit. You mustn't let me keep you too long.

Lee Tai. You are expecting someone? I know.

[The Amah goes out.

Daisy. [Chaffing him.] I always said you had a brain.

Lee Tai. No better a one than yours, Daisy. It was a clever trick when you got me to try to put your husband out of the way so that you should be free for George Conway.

Daisy. It was nothing to do with me. I told you I'd have nothing to do with it. You made a hash of it. One can forgive the good for being stupid, but when rascals are fools there's no excuse.

Lee Tai. The best laid schemes of mice and men, as my favourite poet Robert Burns so elegantly puts it, gang aft agley.

Daisy. I don't care a damn about your favourite poet. What have you come here for to-day?

Lee Tai. As it turns out I do not see that there is any cause for regret that George Conway got the knife thrust that was intended for your husband. I wish it had gone a little deeper.

Daisy. [Coolly.] As it turns out you only did me a service. But still you haven't told me to what I owe the honour of your visit.

Lee Tai. Civility. I like to be on friendly terms with my tenants.

Daisy. [Surprised.] Your what?

Lee Tai. [Urbanely.] This happens to be my house. When I discovered that your honourable mother had taken the rooms in this courtyard so that you might have a place where George Conway and you could safely meet I thought I would buy the whole house.

Daisy. I hope it was a good investment.

Lee Tai. Otherwise perhaps I should have hesitated. It was clever of you to find so convenient a place. With a curio shop in front into which anyone can be seen going without remark and an ill-lit passage leading to this court, it is perfect.

Daisy. What is the idea?

Lee Tai. [With a twinkle in his eyes.] Are you a little frightened?

Daisy. Not a bit. What can you do? You can tell Harry. Tell him.

Lee Tai. [Affably.] George Conway would be ruined.

Daisy. [With a shrug.] He'd lose his job. Perhaps you would give him another. You're mixed up in so many concerns you could surely find use for a white man who speaks Chinese as well as George does.

Lee Tai. I find even your shamelessness attractive.

Daisy. I'm profoundly grateful for the compliment.

Lee Tai. But do not fear. I shall do nothing. I bought this house because I like you to know that always, always you are in my hand. Where you go, I go. Where you are, I am. Sometimes you do not see me, but nevertheless I am close. I do nothing. I am content to wait.

Daisy. Your time is your own. I have no objection to your wasting it.

Lee Tai. One day, and I think that day is not very far distant, you will come to me. I was the first and I shall be the last. If you like I will marry you.

Daisy. [With a smile.] I thought you had two, if not three, wives already. I fancy that number four would have rather a thin time.

Lee Tai. My wife can be divorced. I am willing to marry you before the British Consul. We will go to Penang. I have a house there. You shall have motor cars.

Daisy. It's astonishing how easy it is to resist temptations that don't tempt you.

Lee Tai. Sneer. What do I care? I wait… What have you to do with white men? You are not a white woman. What power has this blood of your father's when it is mingled with the tumultuous stream which you have inherited through your mother from innumerable generations? Our race is very pure and very strong. Strange nations have overrun us, but in a little while we have absorbed them so that no trace of a foreign people is left in us. China is like the Yangtze, which is fed by five hundred streams and yet remains unchanged, the river of golden sand, majestic, turbulent, indifferent, and everlasting. What power have you to swim against that mighty current? You can wear European clothes and eat European food, but in your heart you are a Chinawoman. Are your passions the weak and vacillating passions of the white man? There is in your heart a simplicity which the white man can never fathom and a deviousness which he can never understand. Your soul is like a rice patch cleared in the middle of the jungle. All around the jungle hovers, watchful and jealous, and it is only by ceaseless labour that you can prevent its inroads. One day your labour will be vain and the jungle will take back its own. China is closing in on you.

Daisy. My poor Lee Tai, you're talking perfect nonsense.

Lee Tai. You're restless and unhappy and dissatisfied because you're struggling against instincts which were implanted in your breast when the white man was a hungry, naked savage. One day you will surrender. You will cast off the white woman like an outworn garment. You will come back to China as a tired child comes back to his mother. And in the immemorial usages of our great race you will find peace.

[There is a moment's silence. Daisy passes her hand over her forehead. Against her will she is strangely impressed by what Lee Tai has said. She gives a little shudder and recovers herself.

Daisy. George Conway loves me, and I – Oh!

Lee Tai. The white man's love lasts no longer than a summer day. It is a red, red rose. Now it flaunts its scented beauty proudly in the sun and to-morrow its petals, wrinkled and stinking, lie scattered on the ground.

[There is a sound of a footstep in the courtyard outside.

Daisy. Here he is. Go quickly.

[George opens the door and stops as he catches sight of Lee Tai.

George. Hulloa, who's this?

[Lee Tai steps forward, smiling and obsequious.

Lee Tai. I am the owner of this house. The amah complained that the roof leaked and I came to see for myself.

George. [Frowning.] It's of no consequence. Please don't bother about it.

Lee Tai. I wish I needn't. The amah has a virulent and active tongue – I am afraid she will give me no peace till I have satisfied her outrageous demands.

George. You speak extraordinarily good English.

Lee Tai. I am a graduate of the University of Edinburgh.

Daisy. Robert Burns is his favourite poet.

Lee Tai. I spent a year at Oxford and another at Harvard. I can express myself in English not without fluency.

George. Let me compliment you on your good sense in retaining your national costume. I think it a pity that the returned students should insist on wearing ugly tweed suits and billycock hats.

Lee Tai. I spent eight years abroad. I brought back with me no more admiration for Western dress than for Western civilization.

George. That is very interesting.

Lee Tai. You are pleased to be sarcastic.

George. And you, I think, are somewhat supercilious. Believe me, the time has passed when the mandarins of your country, in their impenetrable self-conceit, could put up a barrier against the advance of civilization. If you have any love for China you must see that her only chance to take her rightful place in the world is to accept honestly and sincerely the teaching of the West.

Lee Tai. And if in our hearts we despise and detest what you have to teach us? For what reason are you so confident that you are so superior to us that it behooves us to sit humbly at your feet? Have you excelled us in arts or letters? Have our thinkers been less profound than yours? Has our civilization been less elaborate, less complicated, less refined than yours? Why, when you lived in caves and clothed yourselves with skins we were a cultured people. Do you know that we tried an experiment which is unique in the world?

George. [Good-naturedly.] What experiment is that?

Lee Tai. We sought to rule this great people not by force, but by wisdom. And for centuries we succeeded. Then why does the white man despise the yellow? Shall I tell you?

George. Do.

Lee Tai. [With a smiling contempt.] Because he has invented the machine-gun. That is your superiority. We are a defenceless horde and you can blow us into eternity. [With a tinge of sadness.] You have shattered the dream of our philosophers that the world could be governed by the power of law and order… And now you are teaching our young men your secret. You have thrust your hideous inventions upon us. Fools. Do you not know that we have a genius for mechanics? Do you not know that there are in this country four hundred millions of the most practical and industrious people in the world? Do you think it will take us long to learn? And what will become of your superiority when the yellow man can make as good guns as the white and fire them as straight? You have appealed to the machine-gun and by the machine-gun shall you be judged.

[There is a pause. Suddenly George gives Lee Tai a scrutinizing glance.

George. What is your name?

Lee Tai. [With a thin, amused smile.] Lee Tai Cheng.

George. [With a frigid politeness.] I'm sure you are very busy, Mr. Lee. I won't detain you any longer.

Lee Tai. [Still smiling.] I wish you a good day.

[He bows slightly and shakes his own hands in the Chinese manner. He goes out. He leaves behind him an impression that is at once ironic and sinister.

George. What the devil is he doing here?

Daisy. [Amused.] He came to make me an offer of marriage. I pointed out to him that I was married already.

George. [Not without irritation.] How did he know you were here?

Daisy. He made it his business to find out.

George. Does he know that…?

Daisy. [Coolly.] You know China better than most Englishmen. You know that the white man can do nothing without the Chinese knowing it. But they won't tell other white men unless – unless it's to their advantage to do so.

George. You told me that this house belonged to the amah.

Daisy. [Smiling.] That was a slight exaggeration.

George. You put it very mildly.

Daisy. You said you wouldn't come to the temple. It meant finding some place where we could meet or never seeing you at all.

George. [Sombrely.] We began with deceit and with deceit we've continued.

Daisy. [Tenderly.] There's no deceit in my love, George. After all, our love is the only thing that matters.

George. [With a certain awkwardness.] I'm afraid I've kept you waiting. André Leroux came to see me just as I was leaving the Legation.

Daisy. [Remembering.] I know. Mrs. Stopfort's young man.

George. He said he knew Mrs. Stopfort's friends were rather anxious about her future and he wanted them to know that he was going to marry her as soon as she was free.

Daisy. Oh!

George. Of course it's the only decent thing to do, but I wasn't sure if he'd see it. He's a very good fellow. [With a smile.] He spent at least half an hour telling me how he adored Mrs. Stopfort.

Daisy. [Good-humouredly.] Oh, you know I'm not the sort of woman to grouse because you're a little late. I can always occupy myself by thinking how wonderful it will be to see you. And if I get bored with that I read your letters again.

George. I shouldn't have thought they were worth that.

Daisy. I think I have every word you have ever written to me – those old letters of ten years ago and the little notes you write to me now. Even though they're only two or three lines, saying you'll come here or can't come, they're precious to me.

George. But do you keep them here?

Daisy. Yes, they're safe here. They're locked up in that box. Only amah has the key of this room … George.

George. Yes.

Daisy. Will you do something for me?

George. If I can.

Daisy. Will you dine here to-night? Amah will get us a lovely little dinner.

George. Oh, my dear, I can't! I've got an official dinner that I can't possibly get out of.

Daisy. Oh, how rotten!

George. But I thought Harry was coming back this morning. He's been gone a week already.

Daisy. I had a letter saying he had to go on to Kalgan. But don't say anything about it. He told me I was to keep it a secret.

George. He must hate having to be away so much as he's been lately. The death of that man Gregson has upset things rather.

Daisy. [Smiling.] I wish I could thank Gregson for the good turn he did us by dying at the psychological moment.

George. [Dryly.] I don't suppose that was his intention.

Daisy. Except for that Harry would have insisted on going to Chung-king. Now there's no possibility of that for at least a year.

George. I suppose not.

Daisy. We've got a year before us, George, a whole year. And in a year anything can happen.

George. [Gravely.] Do you never have any feeling that we've behaved rottenly to Harry?

Daisy. I? I've been happy for the first time in my life. At last I've known peace and rest. Oh, George, I'm so grateful for all you've given me! In these three months you've changed the whole world for me. I thought I couldn't love you more than I did. I think every day my love grows more consuming.

George. [With a sigh.] I've never known a single moment's happiness.

Daisy. That's not true. When I've held you in my arms I've looked into your eyes and I've seen.

George. Oh, I know. There've been moments of madness in which I forgot everything but that I loved you. I'm a low rotten cad. No one could despise me more than I despise myself. I've loved you so that there was room for nothing else in my soul. Waking and sleeping you've obsessed me.