ACT I, Scene 3
INTERIOR: VILLIERS’ Parlor (STAGE LEFT).
VILLIERS and AUSTIN are sitting at a table playing cards. AUSTIN slams her cards on the table.
AUSTIN
I win! Three out of five tricks! Quite fair, if I do say so.
VILLIERS
You are fair my friend, and a cad to boot!
AUSTIN
A cad? A cad?!
(feigning femininity) Is it my dress, or my wily ways?
VILLIERS
Be off, you!
There is a knock at the door.
VILLIERS
Seems as if we have a visitor.
CLARKE enters the room.
VILLIERS
Clarke! Welcome, old friend!
CLARKE
(tipping his hat) Austin. Villiers.
AUSTIN
Old friend?! Barely a wrinkle on that brow.
Let’s not insult a guest the moment that they walk on through the door.
At least wait until they’ve left.
AUSTIN and VILLIERS laugh.
VILLIERS
Pay no attention my friend.
I’m so glad you could come when I called.
CLARKE
So, what is the meaning of this?
Advice in investments?
VILLIERS I’m afraid you’ll find my reason rather absurd,
as I already think so myself,
but you are a practical man.
Shall I tell you my story?
CLARKE/AUSTIN
Yes, please.
VILLIERS walks slowly toward CENTER STAGE, as if entering another scene.
VILLIERS
One wintery night, three months ago,
I was walking home from dinner.
A bottle of red wine encourages fancies of London...
HERBERT enters, hunched over, walking past VILLIERS. VILLIERS’ eyes catches HERBERT, and does a double take.
VILLIERS
and the lives that pass along them.
It was then that I saw an old college friend.
VILLIERS follows HERBERT and gets in front of him.
VILLIERS
Herbert?! Is it possible?!
It’s Villiers of Wadham! How in Heaven’s name
have you come to this pass?
HERBERT
It’s a long and stranger story.
Noticing HERBERT’s weak stature, VILLIERS offers his arm to him. HERBERT takes his arm and walks slowly with VILLIERS.
HERBERT
At my father’s death, I came into the kind of wealth
a young man could dream for,
but you know how young men are, Villiers.
VILLIERS helps HERBERT sit down on a park bench.
HERBERT
I met a girl of a strange and wonderful beauty.
She was an orphan girl, and her song filled my heart.
On the night of our wedding, I listened to that beautiful voice
speak of things I’d never dare to whisper in the blackest night,
tho I stood in the center of the wilderness.
She corrupted me, body and soul.
You have no conception of what I’ve heard and seen,
not even in the most hideous of dreams.
VILLIERS exits scene and enters VILLIERS’ office (STAGE LEFT). He continues telling his story to CLARKE.
VILLIERS
What were those things, he could not say,
but I know he was speaking the truth.
He was a ruined man.
VILLIERS re-enters CENTER STAGE and continues his story with HERBERT.
HERBERT
The rest is sordid misery. Helen took it all from me,
then she disappeared. To where, I don’t know,
but I’m sure if I saw her again, it would kill me.
VILLIERS
You say her name was Helen. Helen what?
HERBERT
Her name was Helen, but what her real name is, I cannot say.
Only human beings have names.
HERBERT slumps in his seat, remembering his defeat. He then rises, takes a step away, and turns back toward VILLIERS.
HERBERT
Goodnight, Villiers.
HERBERT slowly walks out of scene.
CLARKE’s interruption brings VILLIERS back into the scene with him and AUSTIN (STAGE LEFT).
CLARKE
Isn’t this just a bit grandiose, Villiers?
A marriage simply gone to the bad?
AUSTIN
Same as I thought, but listen to this:
A gentleman...
VILLIERS
...of good position...
AUSTIN
...was found dead,...
VILLIERS
Stark dead,...
VILLIERS/AUSTIN
...right in front of a house, Number Twenty, Paul Street.
AUSTIN
The most unpleasant physiognomy...
VILLIERS
...his face so gnarled and ghastly that it even irked police.
VILLIERS/AUSTIN
The curious thing...
AUSTIN
...is that none of the doctors could agree
on how the man met his demise.
VILLIERS/AUSTIN
The next curious thing...
VILLIERS
...is that the occupants of Number Twenty, Paul Street?
Mister and Missus Charles Herbert!
AUSTIN
And now, the most curious thing:
I just happen to know a doctor who’d been there,
and the victim had died of sheer fright!
CLARKE
And what of the Herberts?
VILLIERS
Nothing. Nothing was done.
CLARKE
Have you ever seen his wife?
AUSTIN
No, but many people at the police court have,
and they say she was at once the most beautiful
and most repulsive woman they had ever set their eyes on.
VILLIERS
I doubt this is the last we’ve heard of Missus Helen Herbert.
AUSTIN
Well, certainly not the last.
This may only be the beginning.
CLARKE
We shall see, my friends.
Besides, we should not rush into theatrics.
VILLIERS and AUSTIN feign surprise.
VILLIERS/AUSTIN
Rush into theatrics?!
VILLIERS and AUSTIN pace circles around the room and CLARKE. They begin to explain their reasoning.
AUSTIN
It’s like a nest of Chinese boxes,...
VILLIERS
...open one after another,...
AUSTIN
...find a quainter workmanship in every box.
VILLIERS
Herbert merely was an outer box,...
AUSTIN
...but stranger ones will follow,...
VILLIERS
...so I took a little gander for myself.
CLARKE
The house?!
AUSTIN
The house!
VILLIERS
The house, Number Twenty, down on Paul Street.
CLARKE
But how?
AUSTIN
But how!
VILLIERS
But how? Well, I simply got a key.
It was for lease, you see,...
AUSTIN
The house has long been empty since that awful tragedy.
VILLIERS
...and the agent wasn’t prone to disagreeing.
CLARKE
You went inside?!
AUSTIN
Of course, he did.
VILLIERS
I’m rather fond of empty houses.
AUSTIN
Nothing more compelling than those dark and desolate rooms.
VILLIERS
But I did not love my frolic through this one.
There was a very heavy feeling in the air around me.
A first floor room was the worst of it.
My teeth were grinding as my hands lay on the door.
When I went in, I should have fallen to the floor.
In a corner, a pile of papers, some half torn.
Amongst them, a very curious drawing.
The visit left me weak and worn and forced me home to bed.
VILLIERS grabs a newspaper and shows it to CLARKE.
AUSTIN
But that’s not all.
CLARKE
Not all?
VILLIERS
One of those bed ridden days,
I found a notice in the paper titled “Starved to Death”.
AUSTIN points to the newspaper CLARKE is now holding.
AUSTIN
The deceased, you ask? A Mister Charles Herbert.
CLARKE
I have no words. But what else can be done if Herbert’s dead?
VILLIERS
I need the wife.
CLARKE
The wife?
AUSTIN
The wife!
VILLIERS
To me, she is the center of this mystery.
AUSTIN
Villiers, you need to show him.
VILLIERS goes back to the stack of papers, looking for one in particular.
AUSTIN
He will know it if you show him.
VILLIERS finds the paper and gives it to CLARKE.
VILLIERS
The sketch from Number Twenty. Do you see?
CLARKE looks at the sketch in disbelief. He hears DR. RAYMOND’s voice in his mind.
DR. RAYMOND (offstage)
Mary will see the Great God Pan!
CLARKE
Mary!
VILLIERS/AUSTIN
Mary?!
VILLIERS
No, this is the woman Mister Herbert married.
My goodness, you’re as white as death!
AUSTIN grabs the sketch and turns it over to show something to CLARKE.
AUSTIN
Do you see how we know now?
This word, “Helen”, written on the back.
VILLIERS
Did I mention that her name was Helen Vaughan?
CLARKE feels disoriented and becomes more and more terrified. He has reached the end of his wits. He gets up quickly and grabs his coat and hat to leave.
CLARKE
I don’t feel well. If I were you, I wouldn’t chase this any further.
There are horrors more frightful than you’d ever dare imagine.
And with that, I say goodnight.
The door slams as CLARKE exits, leaving VILLIERS and AUSTIN a bit stunned.
VILLIERS/AUSTIN
Goodnight...
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