Source Text: CANDIDA3.3Candida: Are you sorry?
Marchbanks: Yes. Heartbroken.
Candida: Well then, you are forgiven. Now go off to bed like a good little boy: I want to talk to James about you.
Marchbanks: Oh, I cant do that, Morell. I must be here. I'll not go away. Tell her.
Candida: Tell me what? RESP Morell. I have nothing to tell her, except that she is my greatest treasure on earth -- if she is really mine.
Candida: I am sure Eugene can say no less, if that is all.
Marchbanks: Morell: she's laughing at us.
Morell: There is nothing to laugh at. Are you laughing at us, Candida?
Candida: Eugene is very quick-witted, James. I hope I am going to laugh; but I am not sure that I am not going to be very angry.
Marchbanks: Stop, Morell. Dont let us say anything.
Morell: I hope you dont mean that as a threat, Candida.
Candida: Take care, James. Eugene: I asked you to go. Are you going?
Morell: He shall not go. I wish him to remain.
Marchbanks: I'll go. I'll do whatever you want.
Candida: Stop! Didnt you hear James say he wished you to stay? James is master here. Dont you know that?
Marchbanks: By what right is he master?
Candida: Tell him, James.
Morell: My dear: I dont know of any right that makes me master. I assert no such right.
Candida: You dont know! Oh, James! James! I wonder do you understand, Eugene! No: youre too young. Well, I give you leave to stay: to stay and learn. Now, James! whats the matter? Come: tell me.
Marchbanks: Dont.
Candida: Come. Out with it!
Morell: I meant to prepare your mind carefully, Candida, so as to prevent misunderstanding.
Candida: Yes, dear: I am sure you did. But never mind: I shant misunderstand.
Morell: Well -- er --
Candida: Well?
Morell: Eugene declares that you are in love with him.
Marchbanks: No, no, no, no, never. I did not, Mrs Morell: it's not true. I said I loved you. I said I understood you, and that he couldnt. And it was not after what passed there before the fire that I spoke: it was not, on my word. It was this morning.
Candida: This morning!
Marchbanks: Yes. That was what was the matter with my collar.
Candida: Your collar. Oh, James: did you --?
Morell: You know, Candida, that I have temper to struggle with. And he said that you despised me in your heart.
Candida: Did you say that?
Marchbanks: No.
Candida: Then James has just told me a falsehood. Is that what you mean?
Marchbanks: No, no: I -- I -- it was David's wife. And it wasnt at home: it was when she saw him dancing before all the people.
Morell: Dancing before all the people, Candida; and thinking he was moving their hearts by his mission when they were only suffering from -- Prossy's complaint. Dont try to look indignant, Candida --
Candida: Try!
Morell: Eugene was right. As you told me a few hours after, he is always right. He said nothing that you did not say far better yourself. He is the poet, who sees everything; and I am the poor parson, who understands nothing.
Candida: Do you mind what is said by a foolish boy, because I said something like it in jest?
Morell: That foolish boy can speak with the inspiration of a child and the cunning of a serpent. He has claimed that you belong to him and not to me; and, rightly or wrongly, I have come to fear that it may be true. I will not go about a tortured with doubts and suspicions. I will not live with you and keep a secret from you. I will not suffer the intolerable degradation of jealousy. We have agreed -- he and I -- that you shall choose between us now. I await your decision.
Candida: Oh! I am to choose am I? I suppose it is quite settled that I must belong to one or the other.
Morell: --uite. You must choose definitely.
Marchbanks: Morell: you dont understand. She means that she belongs to herself.
Candida: I mean that, and a good deal more, Master Eugene, as you will both find out presently. And pray, my lords and masters, what have you to offer for my choice? I am up for auction, it seems. What do you bid, James?
Morell: CandQ I cant speak --
Candida: Ah, dearest --
Marchbanks: Stop: it's not fair. You musnt shew her that you suffer, Morell. I am on the rack too; but I am not crying.
Morell: Yes: you are right. It is not for pity that I am bidding.
Candida: I beg your pardon, James: I did not mean to touch you. I am waiting to hear your bid.
Morell: I have nothing to offer you but my strength for your defence, my honesty for your surety, my ability and industry for your livelihood, and my authority and position for your dignity. That is all it becomes a man to offer to a woman.
Candida: And you, Eugene? What do you offer?
Marchbanks: My weakness. My desolation. My heart's need.
Candida: Thats a good bid, Eugene. Now I know how to make my choice.
Morell: Candida!
Marchbanks: Coward!
Candida: I give myself to the weaker of the two.
Morell: I accept your sentence, Candida.
Candida: Do you understand, Eugene?
Marchbanks: Oh, I feel I'm lost. He cannot bear the burden.
Morell: Do you mean me, Candida.
Candida: Let us sit and talk comfortably over it like three friends. Sit down, dear. Bring me that chair, Eugene. You remember what you told me about yourself, Eugene: how nobody has cared for you since your old nurse died: how those clever fashionable sisters and successful brothers of yours were your mother's and father's pets: how miserable you were at Eton: how your father is trying to starve you into returning to Oxford: how you have had to live without comfort or welcome or refuge: always lonely, and nearly always disliked and misunderstood, poor boy!
Marchbanks: I had my books. I had nature. And at last I met you.
Candida: Never mind that just at present. Now I want you to look at this other boy here: my boy! spoiled from his cradle. We go once a fortnight to see his parents. You should come with us, Eugene, to see the pictures of the hero of that household. James as a baby! the most wonderful of all babies. James holding his first school prize, won at the ripe age of eight! James as the captain of his eleven! James in his first frock coat! James under all sorts of glorious circumstances! You know how strong he is (I hope he didnt hurt you): how clever he is: how happy. Ask James's mother and his three sisters what it cost to save James the trouble of doing anything but be strong and clever and happy. Ask me what it costs to be James's mother and three sisters and wife and mother to his children all in one. Ask Prossy and Maria how troublesome the house is even when we have no visitors to help us to slice the onions. Ask the tradesmen who want to worry James and spoil his beautiful sermons who it is that puts them off. When there is money to give, he gives it: when there is money to refuse, I refuse it. I build a castle of comfort and indulgence and love for him, and stand sentinel always to keep little vulgar cares out. I make him master here, though he does not know it, and could not tell you a moment ago how it came to be so. And when he thought I might go away with you, his only anxiety was -- what should become of me! And to tempt me to stay he offered me his strength for my defence! his industry for my livelihood! his dignity for my position! his -- ah, I am mixing up your beautiful cadences and spoiling them, am I not, darling.
Morell: It's all true, every word. What I am you have me with the labor of your hands and the love of your heart. You are my wife, my mother, and my sisters: you are the sum of all loving care to me.
Candida: Am I your mother and sisters to you, Eugene?
Marchbanks: Ah, never. Out, then, into the night with me!
Candida: You are not going like that, Eugene?
Marchbanks: I know the hour when it strikes. I am impatient to do what must be done.
Morell: Candida: dont let him do anything rash.
Candida: Oh, there is no fear. He has learnt to live without happiness.
Marchbanks: I no longer desire happiness: life is nobler than that. Parson James: I give you my happiness with both hands: I love you because you have filled the heart of the woman I loved. Goodbye.
Candida: One last word. How old are you, Eugene?
Marchbanks: As old as the world now. This morning I was eighteen.
Candida: Eighteen! Will you, for my sake, make a little poem out of the two sentences I am going to say to you? And will you promise me to repeat it to yourself whenever you think of me?
Marchbanks: Say the sentences.
Candida: When I am thirty, she will be forty-five. When I am sixty, she will be seventy-five.
Marchbanks: In a hundred years, we shall be the same age. But I have a better secret than that in my heart. Let me go now. The night outside grows impatient.
Candida: Goodbye. Ah, James!