The Browning Version By Terrence Rattigan

Oldtuberadio

The Browning Version Teacher Andrew Crocker-Harris is on the verge of retirement - and a divorce. But he has a shot at trying to redeem his dignity when a young schoolboy gives him an unexpected parting gift... Andrew Crocker-Harris ...... John Gielgud Millie Crocker-Harris ...... Angela Baddeley Frank Hunter ...... Brewster Mason Taplow ...... Anthony Adams Dr Frobisher ...... Clive Morton Peter Gilbert ...... Denis Goacher Mrs Gilbert ...... Anne Cullen Schoolboy ...... Warren Hearnden Adapted by Cynthia Pughe Directed by Norman Wright First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in September 1957.   Do you enjoy the variety on Oldtuberadio? Like, Share and Subscribe to be notified of our new shows #radio #crime #thriller #drama To Support this channel please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/oldtuberadio https://ko-fi.com/oldtuberadio98 https://www.patreon.com/oldtuberadio https://locals.com/Oldtuberadio

Transcript

00:00Hi, Kaplow? Yes? What about a round of gold before supper?

00:17Can't. Got to do extra work. On the last day of term?

00:20My good Kaplow, you must be nuts. I'm not nuts.

00:23Zoe Crocker Harrison has blessed Agamemnon he's so keen on.

00:26Oh, that. Okay, see you at supper. Bye.

00:30Nobody here. Sir? I say, sir?

00:40Oh, what a blight of the old crock is. Fancy setting a chap extra work and then not being here?

00:46What's this on his desk? Chocks.

00:51Hmm, it's hardly easy, isn't this?

00:55I wonder if I dare have another. No, someone's coming up the path.

00:59It isn't him, though. It's Hunter. I wonder what he wants.

01:07Good evening, sir. Good evening.

01:09Do I know you? No, sir.

01:11What's your name? Taplow.

01:13Taplow. No, I don't. You're not a scientist, I gather.

01:16No, sir. Still in the lower fifth. Can't specialise until next term.

01:19Let's just say if I've got my remove all right.

01:21Don't you know yet if you've got your remove? No, sir.

01:23Mr. Crocker Harris doesn't tell us the results like the other masters.

01:26Why not?

01:27Well, you know what he's like, sir.

01:29I believe there is a rule that former results should only be announced by the headmaster on the last day of term.

01:33Yes, but who else pays any attention to it except Mr. Crocker Harris?

01:37Well, I don't, I admit, but that's no criterion.

01:39Sir, you've got to wait until tomorrow to know your fate, have you?

01:42Yes, sir.

01:43Supposing the answer's favourable. What then?

01:45Oh, science, sir, of course.

01:47Oh, yes, yes. We get all the slackers.

01:49I'm extremely interested in science, sir.

01:51Are you? I'm not. Not at least in the science I have to teach.

01:55Well, anyway, sir, it's a good deal more exciting than this muck.

01:59And what is this muck?

02:01Aeschylus, sir, and the Agamemnon.

02:03And your considered view is that the Agamemnon of Aeschylus is muck, is it?

02:07Well, no, sir. I don't think the play is muck exactly.

02:10I suppose in a way it's rather a good plot, really.

02:12Wife murdering a husband and having a lover and all that.

02:15And it meant it's the way it's taught to us.

02:17There's a lot of Greek words strung together.

02:19And fifty lines if you get them wrong.

02:21You sound a little bitter, Teplow.

02:23I am, rather, sir.

02:24Kept in, eh?

02:25No, sir. Extra work.

02:26Extra work on the last day of school?

02:28Yes, sir. And I might be playing golf.

02:31You'd think he'd have enough to do anyway himself,

02:33considering he's leaving tomorrow for good.

02:35But, oh, no.

02:36I missed a day last week when I had flu, so here I am.

02:39Oh, and look at the weather, sir.

02:41Mmm, bad luck.

02:43Still, there's one constellation you're pretty well bound

02:45to get your remove tomorrow for being a good boy and taking extra work.

02:49I'm not so sure, sir.

02:50Well, that would be true of the ordinary masters, all right.

02:52They just wouldn't dare not give a chap a remove after he's taking extra work.

02:55It would be such a bad advertisement for them.

02:58Those sort of rules don't apply to the croc.

03:00Mr. Crocker Harris.

03:02I asked him yesterday outright if he'd given me a remove,

03:04and do you know what he said, sir?

03:05No. What?

03:06What?

03:07My dear Taplow, I've given you exactly what you deserve, no less and certainly no more.

03:13You know, sir, I think he may have marked me down rather than up for taking extra work.

03:17I mean, the man's barely human.

03:19Oh.

03:20I'm sorry, sir.

03:22Have I gone too far?

03:23Yes.

03:24Much too far.

03:25Sorry, sir.

03:26I sort of got carried away.

03:27Evidently.

03:28Look, what time did Mr. Crocker Harris tell you to be here?

03:31Seven o'clock, sir.

03:33Oh, he's late.

03:34Why don't you cut?

03:35You could still get nine holes in before lock-up.

03:37Oh, no, I couldn't cut.

03:38He'd probably follow me home or something.

03:40I must admit I envy him the effect he seems to have on you boys in his form.

03:43You all seem scared to death of him.

03:45What's he do?

03:46Beat you all or something?

03:47Oh, good Lord, no.

03:48He's not a sadist like one or two of the others.

03:50I beg your pardon?

03:52A sadist is someone who gets pleasure out of giving pain.

03:54Indeed.

03:55Anyway, the croc isn't a sadist.

03:57That's what I'm saying.

03:58Wouldn't be so frightening if he were,

04:00because at least it would show he had some feelings.

04:02He hasn't.

04:03He's all shriveled up inside like a nut.

04:06Seems to hate people to like him.

04:09Funny, that.

04:10Don't know any other master who doesn't like being liked.

04:13And I don't know any boy who doesn't trade on that very foe boy.

04:15Well, it's natural, sir, but not with the croc.

04:17Mr. Crocker Harris.

04:19Mr. Crocker Harris.

04:20Funny thing is that in spite of everything, I do rather like him.

04:24Can't help it.

04:25Sometimes I think he sees it.

04:28Seems to shrivel him up even more.

04:30I'm sure you're exaggerating.

04:31Oh, no, sir, I'm not.

04:32Informed the other day, he made one of his little classical jokes.

04:35Of course, nobody laughed because nobody understood it.

04:38Myself included.

04:39Still, I knew he'd meant it as funny, so I laughed.

04:41Oh, not out of sucking up, sir, I swear.

04:44But ordinary common politeness.

04:46And feeling a bit sorry for him having made a dud joke.

04:49And now, I can't remember what the joke was.

04:53But let's say it was Benedictus, benedicata, benedictine.

04:58Now, you laugh, sir.

04:59Ha, ha, ha.

05:00That's it.

05:01Well, he peered at me over the top of his spectacles,

05:03and then he crooked his finger, the way he does, you know,

05:06and beckoned me up to his desk.

05:08And he said,

05:09Kaplo, you laughed at my little pun, I noticed.

05:12I must confess that I am flattered at the evident advance

05:15your Latin it is made,

05:17that you should so readily have understood

05:19what the rest of the form did not.

05:21Perhaps now you'll be good enough to explain it to them,

05:24so that they too can share your pleasure.

05:27Come along, Kaplo.

05:28Do not be so selfish as to keep a good joke to yourself.

05:32Tell the others.

05:34Oh, Lord, here's Mrs. Crocker-Harris.

05:36Oh, hello.

05:37Hello, Fen.

05:39Take some of these parcels, will you?

05:41Yes, yes, of course.

05:42I must get rid of this wretched hat.

05:44It shall be a moment.

05:45Do you think she heard?

05:46No, no.

05:47Oh, I think she did.

05:48She must have been standing by the French windows quite a time.

05:50If she didn't, she tells him, there goes my remove.

05:52Nonsense.

05:53Waiting for my husband, Taplo?

05:55Uh, yes.

05:57Oh, he's at the Bursars, and he might be there quite a time.

06:00If I were you, I'd go.

06:02He said most particularly that I was to come.

06:05Well, why don't you run away for a quarter of an hour and come back?

06:09I'm supposing he gets here before me.

06:11I'll take the blame.

06:13I tell you what, you can do a job for him.

06:17Take this to the chemist and get it made up.

06:19All right, Mrs. Crocker-Harris.

06:20And while you're there, you might as well slip into Stuart's and have an ice.

06:25Here's a bob.

06:26Can't you?

06:27Oh, thanks awfully.

06:29See, she doesn't tell him.

06:30Okay.

06:31Oh, Taplo?

06:32Yes, Mrs. Crocker-Harris?

06:34I had a letter from my father today in which he said he once had the pleasure of meeting your mother.

06:39Oh, really?

06:40Yes, it was at some fete or other in Bradford.

06:43My uncle, that Sir William Bartop, you know, he made a speech and so did your mother.

06:49My father met her afterwards at tea.

06:51Oh, really?

06:52He said he found her quite charming.

06:54Oh, yes, she's jolly good at those sort of functions.

06:56I mean, I'm sure she found him charming too.

06:59Well, I'd better get going.

07:01Goodbye.

07:02Goodbye.

07:07Thank you for coming round.

07:08Oh, that's all right.

07:09Your stay to dinner?

07:11If I may.

07:12If you may.

07:16Give me a cigarette.

07:18Here you are.

07:20Thanks.

07:22I haven't given that cigarette case away yet, I see.

07:26Did you think I would?

07:29Frankly, yes.

07:30Luckily, it's a man's case.

07:32I don't suppose any of your girlfriends would want it.

07:34Oh, don't be absurd, Millie.

07:36Where have you been all the week?

07:38Oh, correcting exam papers, making reports.

07:40You know what end of term is like.

07:42I do know what end of term is like.

07:44But even Andrew has managed this last week to have a few hours off to say goodbye to people.

07:48Well, I really have been appallingly busy.

07:50Besides, I'm coming to stay with you in Bradford.

07:52Not for over a month.

07:54Andrew doesn't start his job until September the 1st.

07:57That's one of the things I had to tell you.

07:59Oh.

08:00I had meant to be in Devonshire in September.

08:03Who with?

08:04My family.

08:05Surely you can go earlier, can't you?

08:07Or go in August.

08:09It'll be difficult.

08:11Well, then you'd better come to me in August.

08:13But Andrew will still be there.

08:15Yes.

08:16Well, I think I can manage September.

08:21That'd be better from every point of view.

08:23Except that it means I shan't see you for six weeks.

08:27You'll survive that, all right.

08:28Yes.

08:29I'll survive it.

08:31But not as easily as you will.

08:36I haven't much pride, have I?

08:40Frank, darling.

08:42I love you so much.

08:45Kiss me.

08:50Very nervous.

08:51I'm afraid of that screen arrangement in front of the door.

08:53You can't see people coming in.

08:54Oh, yes.

08:55That reminds me.

08:57What were you and Taplow up to when I came in just now?

09:01Making fun of my husband?

09:03I'm afraid, sir, yes.

09:04Sounded rather a good imitation.

09:06I must get him to do it for me sometime.

09:09It was very naughty of you to encourage him.

09:11Yes, I know.

09:12Cutting in favour with the boys.

09:14Oh, heavens, how easy it is to be popular.

09:16I've only been a master three years, but I've already slipped into an act and a vernacular that I just can't get out of.

09:22Why can't anyone ever be natural with the little blighters?

09:25They probably wouldn't like you if you were.

09:27I suppose the trouble is we're all too scared of them.

09:30Either one gets forced into an attitude of false and hearty and jocular bonhomie, like myself, or into the sort of petty soulless tyranny which your husband uses to protect himself against the lower fifth.

09:40He'd never be popular whatever he did.

09:42Possibly not.

09:43He ought never to have become a schoolmaster, really.

09:47Why did he?

09:48It was his vocation, he said.

09:50He was sure he'd make a big success of it, especially when he got this job here at first go off.

09:55Fine success he's made of it, hasn't he?

09:58You should have stopped him.

09:59Well, how was I to know?

10:00He talked about getting a house, then a headmastership.

10:03The croc?

10:04A headmaster?

10:05That's a pretty thought.

10:06Yes.

10:07It's funny to think of now, all right.

10:10Still, he wasn't always the croc, you know.

10:14He had a bit more gumption once.

10:16At least I thought he had.

10:18Oh, don't let's talk about him.

10:20It's too depressing.

10:22I'm sorry for him.

10:23He's not sorry for himself, so why should you be?

10:27It's me you should be sorry for.

10:29I am.

10:30Then show me.

10:32Kiss me again.

10:34Frank, darling.

10:35No, no, let go of me.

10:36I tell you, someone might come in.

10:38What have you been doing all day?

10:41Calling on the other masters' wives, saying fond farewells.

10:45I've worked off twelve.

10:47I've got another seven to do tomorrow.

10:49Oh, poor thing.

10:50I don't envy you.

10:51It's the housemasters' wives that are the worst.

10:53They're all so hideously patronizing.

10:56You should have heard Betty Carstairs.

10:59My dear, it's such terrible bad luck on you both,

11:01that your husband should get this hard trouble just when,

11:03if he'd stayed on, he'd be bound to have got a house.

11:06I mean, he's considerably senior to my Arthur as it is,

11:08and they simply couldn't have gone on passing him over, could they?

11:11There's a word for Betty Carstairs, my dear, that I'd hesitate to employ before a lady.

11:15She's got her eye on you, anyway.

11:17Betty Carstairs.

11:18What utter wrath.

11:19Oh, yes, she has.

11:22I saw you at that concert.

11:24Don't think I didn't notice?

11:26Millie, darling, really, I detest the woman.

11:28Then what were you doing in her box at Lord's?

11:30Carstairs invited me.

11:31I went there because, well, it's a good place to see the match from.

11:34Yes, I'm sure it was.

11:37Much better than the grandstand, anyway.

11:40Oh, my word.

11:42It's all right, my dear.

11:43Don't bother to apologize.

11:46We gave the seat away as it happened.

11:48I'm most terribly sorry.

11:49It's all right.

11:51We couldn't afford a box, you see.

11:53It wasn't that, you know, it wasn't that.

11:54It's just a...

11:56Well, I clean forgot.

11:57You didn't forget the Carstairs invitation.

11:59Millie, don't be a fool.

12:00It's you who are the fool.

12:04Frank, have you never been in love?

12:08I know you're not in love with me, but...

12:10Haven't you ever been in love with anyone?

12:13Don't you realize what torture you inflict on someone who loves you when you do a thing like that?

12:18I've told you, I'm sorry.

12:20I don't know what more I can say.

12:21Why not the truth?

12:22Well, the truth is, I clean forgot.

12:23The truth is, you had something better to do, and why not say it?

12:26All right, then, believe that if you like.

12:27It happens to be a lie, but believe it all the same.

12:30Only, for heaven's sake, stop this.

12:31Then, for heaven's sake, show me some pity.

12:34Do you think it's any pleasanter for me to believe that you cut me because you forgot me?

12:39Do you think that doesn't hurt, either?

12:44Oh, Blast.

12:47I was so determined to be brave and not mention Lords.

12:49Why did I?

12:52Frank, just tell me one thing.

12:55Just tell me you're not running away from me.

12:57That's all I want to hear.

12:59I'm coming to Bradford.

13:02I think if you don't, I shall kill myself.

13:07Millie, I'm coming to Bradford.

13:10I...

13:12Oh, good evening, sir.

13:13Good evening, Hunter.

13:15Millie's Taplow not here yet.

13:17I sent him to the chemist to get your prescription made up.

13:19What prescription?

13:21Your heart medicine.

13:23Don't you remember?

13:24You told me this morning it had run out.

13:27Of course I remember, my dear, but there was no need to send Taplow for it.

13:31If you had telephoned the chemist, he would have sent it round in plenty of time.

13:34He knows the prescription.

13:36Now Taplow will be late, and I'm so pressed for time, I hardly know how to fit him in.

13:41You must forgive me, Hunter.

13:43Most kind of you to drop in.

13:45But as Millie should have warned you, I'm expecting a pupil for extra work.

13:49He's staying to dinner, Andrew.

13:51Good. Then I shall see something of you.

13:52However, when Taplow returns, I'm sure you won't mind.

13:55No, of course not.

13:57I'll make myself scarce now, if you'd rather.

13:59I mean, if you're busy.

14:01Oh, no, there's no need for that.

14:03Sit down, do.

14:04Will you smoke?

14:05I don't, as you know, but Millie does.

14:07Millie, give our guest a cigarette.

14:08I haven't any, I'm afraid.

14:09I had to catch one from him.

14:13Have one.

14:14Oh, thanks.

14:15We expected you at Lord's, Hunter.

14:16What?

14:17Oh, yes.

14:18I'm most terribly sorry.

14:19I...

14:20He clean forgot, Andrew.

14:21Imagine.

14:22Forgot?

14:23I really can't apologize enough.

14:24Please don't bother to mention it.

14:26On the second day, we managed to sell the seat to a certain Dr. Lambert, who wore, I regret to say, the colors of the opposing faction, but who otherwise seemed a possibly agreeable person.

14:36You liked him, didn't you, Millie?

14:38Very much indeed.

14:40I thought him quite charming.

14:41Charming, old gentleman.

14:43You've had tea, Hunter.

14:44Yes, thank you.

14:45Is there any other refreshment I can offer you?

14:47No, thank you.

14:49Would it interest you to see the new timetable I've drafted for next term?

14:53Oh, yes, very much.

14:56I say, what a wonderful piece of work.

15:00I never knew you drafted our timetables.

15:02Didn't you?

15:03I have done so for the last 15 years.

15:05Of course, they are always issued in mimeograph under their headmaster's signature.

15:09Now, what form do you take?

15:11Upper fifth science.

15:14There you are.

15:15That's the general picture.

15:17But on the back, you will see each form specified under separate headings.

15:22There.

15:23That's a new idea of mine.

15:25Millie, this might interest you.

15:27You know it bores me to death.

15:29Millie has no head for this sort of work.

15:31There, you see?

15:33Now, here you can follow the upper fifth science throughout every day of the week.

15:38I must say, I think this is really a wonderful job.

15:41It has the merit of clarity, I think.

15:43I don't know what they'll do without you.

15:44They'll find somebody else, I expect.

15:46What sort of job is this you're going to?

15:50Hasn't Millie told you?

15:51Well, she said it was a private school.

15:54A crammer's for backward boys.

15:56It is run by an old Oxford contemporary of mine who lives in Dorset.

16:00The work will not be so arduous as here.

16:02And my doctor seems to think I will be able to undertake it without danger.

16:07That's the most rotten bad luck for you.

16:10I'm awfully sorry.

16:11My dear Hunter, there's nothing whatever to be sorry for.

16:13I'm looking forward to the change.

16:15Come in.

16:17I've brought you medicine, sir.

16:19Ah, Taplow. Good.

16:21You've been running, I see.

16:23Yes, sir.

16:24There was a queue at the chemist's, I suppose.

16:26Yes, sir.

16:27And, doubtless, an even longer one at Stuart's.

16:29Yes, sir.

16:30I mean, no, sir.

16:32I mean, yes, sir.

16:33You were late yourself, Andrew.

16:35Exactly.

16:36And for that, I apologize, Taplow.

16:38Oh, that's all right, sir.

16:39Luckily, we have still a good hour before lock-up, so nothing has been lost.

16:43I'd better go and see about the dinner.

16:46Taplow is desirous of obtaining a remove from my form, Hunter,

16:50so that he can spend the rest of his career here playing happily with the crucibles, retorts,

16:55and bunsen burners of your science fifth.

16:58Oh.

16:59Has he?

17:00Has he what?

17:01Obtained his remove.

17:03He has obtained exactly what he deserves.

17:06No less, and certainly no more.

17:11Taplow.

17:12Sorry, sir.

17:13Well, I think I'll get back to my digs now.

17:17May I use thee short cut through the garden?

17:20Do, by all means.

17:21We dine at eight.

17:25Sit down, Taplow.

17:28Open your book at page 41, line 1399.

17:33Begin.

17:35Chorus.

17:36We are surprised at.

17:39We marvel at.

17:40We marvel at.

17:41Uh, thy tongue, how bold thou art that you.

17:46Thou.

17:47Thou?

17:49Uh, can.

17:50Canst.

17:51Canst.

17:53Boastfully speak.

17:55Utter such a boastful speech.

17:57Utter such a boastful speech.

18:00Over.

18:01Uh.

18:03Over the bloody corpse of the husband you have slain.

18:06Taplow, I presume you are using a different text from mine.

18:09No, sir.

18:10That is strange, for the line as I have it reads,

18:13Heatis Toyon Depandri Compat Zeiss Logon.

18:17However diligently I search, I can discover no bloody, no corpse,

18:22no you have slain.

18:26Simply husband.

18:27Yes, sir.

18:28Uh, that's right.

18:29Then why do you invent words that simply are not there?

18:32Well, sir, I thought it sounded better, sir.

18:34More exciting.

18:35After all, she did kill her husband, sir.

18:38She's just been revealed with his dead body

18:40and Cassandra's weltering in gall.

18:42I am delighted at this evidence, Taplow,

18:44of your interest in the rather more lurid aspects of dramaturgy,

18:47but I feel I must remind you that you are supposed to be construing Greek,

18:51not collaborating with Aeschylus.

18:53Yes, but still, sir, translator's license, sir.

18:56I didn't get anything wrong.

18:57After all, it is a play and not just a bit of Greek constru.

19:01I seem to detect a note of end of term in your remarks.

19:05I am not denying that the Agamemnon is a play.

19:08It is perhaps the greatest play ever written.

19:11Hmm. I wonder how many people in form think that.

19:13Hmm?

19:14Oh.

19:15Oh, sorry, sir.

19:17Shall I go on?

19:19Shall I go on, sir?

19:22When I was a very young man, only two years older than you are now, Taplow,

19:29I wrote for my own pleasure a translation of the Agamemnon,

19:34a very free translation, I remember, in rhyming couplets.

19:38The whole Agamemnon, sir? Inverse?

19:40Oh, that must have been hard work.

19:42It was hard work, but I derived great joy from it.

19:46The play had so excited and moved me that I wished to communicate,

19:49however imperfectly, some of that emotion to others.

19:53When I had finished it, I remember, I thought it very beautiful.

19:57Almost more beautiful than the original.

19:59Was it ever published, sir?

20:00No.

20:01Yesterday I looked for the manuscript while I was packing my papers.

20:04I was unable to find it.

20:07I fear it is lost.

20:09Like so many other things.

20:11Lost for good.

20:13Hard luck, sir.

20:14Shall I go on now, sir?

20:15No.

20:16Go back and get that last line right.

20:21That thou canst utter such a boastful speech over thy husband.

20:27Yes, and now if you would be so kind, you will do the line again,

20:31without the facial contortion which you just found necessary to accompany it.

20:35Headmaster's just coming up the drive.

20:37Don't tell him I'm in.

20:38The fish pie isn't in the oven yet.

20:40I'd better go, hadn't I, sir?

20:42I mean, I don't want to be in the way.

20:43We do not yet know that it is either Headmaster wishes to see.

20:46Other people live in this building.

20:49Come in.

20:52Ah!

20:53Crocker Harris, I've caught you in.

20:54I'm so glad.

20:56I hope I'm not disturbing you.

20:58I have been taking a pupil in extra work.

21:00On the penultimate day of term.

21:03That argues either great conscientiousness on your part,

21:06or considerable backwardness on his.

21:08Perhaps a combination of both.

21:10Quite so.

21:11But as this is the only chance of speaking to you before tomorrow that I have,

21:15I think perhaps your pupil will be good enough to excuse us.

21:18Oh, yes, sir. That's really quite all right.

21:20I'm extremely sorry, Taplow.

21:21You will please explain to your father exactly what occurred over this lost hour.

21:25And tell him that I shall in due course be writing to him to return the money involved.

21:30Uh, yes, sir.

21:31Oh, but please don't bother, sir.

21:33I know it's quite all right, sir.

21:34Thank you, sir.

21:38Have the Gilberts called on you yet?

21:40The Gilberts, sir? Who are they?

21:42Now, Gilbert is your successor with the Lower Fifth.

21:45He is down here today with his wife.

21:47And as they will be taking over this flat,

21:49I thought perhaps you wouldn't mind if they came in to look it over.

21:52Of course not.

21:53I've told you about him, I think.

21:55He's a very brilliant young man, and won exceptionally high honours at Oxford.

21:59So I understand, sir.

22:00Not, of course, as high as the honours you yourself won there.

22:04He didn't, for instance, win the Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse, or the Gainsford.

22:08He won the Harford Latin, then?

22:10No.

22:12Did you win that, too?

22:13I did.

22:14It's sometimes rather hard to remember that you are perhaps the most brilliant classical scholar we have ever had at the school.

22:21You're very kind.

22:22Hard to remember, I mean, because of your other activities.

22:25Your brilliant work on the school timetable, for instance.

22:29And also for your heroic battle for so long and against such odds as the soul-destroying Lower Fifth.

22:35I have not found that my soul has been destroyed by the Lower Fifth Headmaster.

22:40I was joking, of course.

22:42Oh, I see.

22:45Is your wife in?

22:47No, not at the moment.

22:49Well, I shall have a chance of saying goodbye to her tomorrow.

22:52I am rather glad I have got you to myself.

22:56I have a delicate matter.

22:58Two rather delicate matters to broach.

23:01Please sit down.

23:06Now, you have been with us in all 18 years, haven't you?

23:09Yes.

23:10It's extremely unlucky that you should have had to retire at so comparatively an early age.

23:15And so short a time before you would have been eligible for a pension.

23:19Pension?

23:20You have decided then not to award me a pension?

23:24Not I, my dear fellow.

23:25It has nothing at all to do with me.

23:27It is the governors who, I am afraid, have been forced to turn down your application.

23:31I put your case to them as well as I could.

23:34But they decided, with great regret, that they couldn't make an exception to the rule.

23:39But I thought, my wife thought that an exception was made some five years ago.

23:44Ah, in the case of Buller, you mean. True.

23:47But the circumstances with Buller were quite remarkable.

23:50It was, after all, in playing rugger against the school that he received that injury.

23:54Yes, I remember.

23:56And then the governors received a petition from boys, old boys and parents with over 500 signatures.

24:01Your own case, of course, is equally deserving.

24:04If not more so for Buller with a younger man.

24:08Unfortunately, rules are rules and are not made to be broken every few years.

24:13At any rate, that is the governor's view.

24:15I quite understand.

24:16I knew you would.

24:18Now, might I ask you a rather impertinent question?

24:22Certainly.

24:23You have, I take it, private means?

24:25My wife has some.

24:26Ah, yes, yes.

24:27Your wife has often told me of her family connections.

24:29I understand her father has a business in, er, Bradford, isn't it?

24:33Yes.

24:34He runs a men's clothing shop in the arcade.

24:37Indeed.

24:38Your wife's remarks have led me to imagine something a little more extensive.

24:43My father-in-law made a settlement on my wife at the time of our marriage.

24:47She has about 300 a year of her own.

24:49I have nothing.

24:50Is that the answer to your question, headmaster?

24:53Yes.

24:54Thank you for your frankness.

24:56And all this private school you're going to?

24:59My salary at the Crammers is to be 200 pounds a year.

25:02Quite so.

25:03With the board and lodging, of course.

25:05For eight months of the year.

25:06Yes, I see.

25:07Yes, I had hoped that your own means had proved a little more ample.

25:12Your wife had certainly led me to suppose...

25:14I am not denying that a pension would have been very welcome, headmaster.

25:17But I see no reason to quarrel with the governor's decision.

25:20What is the other delicate matter you have to discuss?

25:23Well, it concerns the arrangements at prize-giving tomorrow.

25:27You are, of course, prepared to say a few words.

25:30I had assumed you would call upon me to do so.

25:32Of course.

25:33Of course.

25:34It's always done.

25:35And I know the boys appreciate the custom.

25:37I've already made a few notes of what I'm going to say.

25:40Perhaps you would care...

25:41No, no, no.

25:42That isn't necessary at all.

25:44I know I can trust your discretion.

25:46Not to say your wit.

25:48It will be, I know, a very moving moment for you.

25:52Indeed, for us all.

25:54But as I'm sure you realize,

25:56it is far better to keep these occasions from becoming too heavy and distressing.

26:00You know how little the boys appreciate sentiment.

26:03I do.

26:04That is why I planned my own reference to you at the end of my speech to be rather more light and jocular than I would otherwise have made it.

26:11I quite understand.

26:13I too have prepared a few little jokes and puns for my speech.

26:16One, a play of words on Wally, farewell.

26:19And Wally, the Christian name of a backward boy in my class, is, I think, rather happy.

26:26Yes.

26:27Hmm?

26:28Ha!

26:29Yes, very neat.

26:30That should go down extremely well.

26:32I'm glad you like it.

26:33Well, now, there is a particular favor I have to ask of you in connection with the ceremony.

26:38And I know I shall not have to ask in vain.

26:41Fletcher, as you know, is leaving too.

26:44Yes.

26:45He is going to the city, they tell me.

26:46Yes.

26:47Now, he is, of course, considerably junior to you.

26:50He has only been here, let me see, five years.

26:55But, as you know, he has done great things for our cricket.

26:59Positive wonders when you remember what doldrums we were in before he came.

27:03Our win at Lord's this year was certainly most inspiriting.

27:06Exactly.

27:07Now, I am sure that tomorrow the boys will make the occasion of his farewell speech a tremendous demonstration of gratitude.

27:13The applause might go on for minutes.

27:16You know what the boys feel about lords.

27:18And I seriously doubt my ability to cut it short, or even, I admit, the propriety of trying to do so.

27:24Now, you see the quandary in which I am placed.

27:27Perfectly.

27:28You wish to refer to me and for me to make my speech before you come to Fletcher.

27:33It's extremely awkward, and I feel wretched about asking it of you.

27:38But it's more for your own sake than for mine or Fletcher's that I do.

27:41After all, a climax is what one must try to work up to on these occasions.

27:45Naturally, headmaster, I wouldn't wish to provide an anti-climax.

27:49You really mustn't take it amiss, my dear fellow.

27:51The boys, in applauding Fletcher for several minutes and yourself, say for, well, for not quite so long,

27:58won't be making any personal demonstration between you.

28:00It will be quite impersonal, I assure you. Quite impersonal.

28:04I understand.

28:05I knew you would.

28:07I can hardly tell you how wisely I think you've chosen.

28:11Well, now, as that is all my business, I think perhaps I'd better be getting along.

28:17This has been a terribly busy day for me.

28:19For you too, I imagine.

28:21Yes.

28:22Ah, headmaster, how good of you to drop in.

28:27Mrs Crocker-Harris, how are you?

28:29Well, looking extremely well, I must say.

28:31Has anyone ever told you, Crocker-Harris, that you have a very attractive wife?

28:35Many people, sir, but then I hardly need to be told.

28:37Can I persuade you to stay for a few moments and have a drink, headmaster?

28:41It's so rarely we have the pleasure of seeing you.

28:43Unfortunately, dear lady, I was just on the point of leaving.

28:46Ah.

28:47I have two frantic parents waiting for me at home.

28:50You are dining with us tomorrow, both of you, aren't you?

28:52Yes, indeed, and so looking forward to it.

28:54I'm so glad.

28:55We can say our fair farewells then.

28:58Yes.

28:59Au revoir, Crocker-Harris, and thank you very much.

29:02I'll see you out, headmaster.

29:04Don't forget to take your medicine, dear, will you?

29:07No.

29:08Lucky invalid to have such a very charming nurse.

29:11Really, I don't know what to say to all these compliments, headmaster.

29:15I don't even mean a word of it.

29:17Every word.

29:19Till tomorrow then, goodbye.

29:22Goodbye.

29:28Well, do we get it?

29:30Get what?

29:31The pension, of course. Do we get it?

29:33No.

29:34The governors are afraid of establishing a precedent.

29:36My God, why not?

29:38It's against the rules.

29:39Buller got it, didn't he?

29:40Buller got it?

29:41What's the idea of giving it to him and not to us?

29:44The mean old brutes.

29:46My God, what I wouldn't like to say to them.

29:49And what did you say?

29:50Just sat there and made a joke in Latin, I suppose.

29:53There wasn't very much I could say in Latin or any other language.

29:56Oh, wasn't there?

29:57I'd have had something to say, all right.

29:59I wouldn't just have sat there twiddling my thumbs and taking it from that old phony of a headmaster.

30:04But then, of course, I'm not a man.

30:08What do they expect you to do?

30:10Live on my money, I suppose.

30:13Come in.

30:15Mr. Crocker Harris?

30:17Yes.

30:18Is it Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert?

30:19Uh, yes.

30:20The headmaster told me you might look in.

30:22I do hope we're not disturbing you.

30:24Not at all.

30:25This is my wife.

30:26How do you do?

30:27How do you do?

30:28Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert are our successors to this flat, my dear.

30:31Oh, yes.

30:32How nice to meet you both.

30:34Aren't you do?

30:35We really won't keep you more than a second.

30:37My wife thought that as we were here, you wouldn't mind us taking a squint at our future home.

30:41This room is charming.

30:43Oh, do you think so?

30:44I'm afraid it is nearly as nice as I'd like to make it, but a schoolmaster's wife has to think of so many other things besides curtains and covers.

30:52Boys with dirty boots and a husband with leaky fountain pens, for instance.

30:58Yes.

30:59I suppose so.

31:00Of course, I haven't been a schoolmaster's wife for very long, you know.

31:03Don't swing, darling.

31:04You haven't been a schoolmaster's wife at all yet?

31:06Oh, yes, I have.

31:07For two months.

31:09You were a schoolmaster when I married you.

31:11Prep school doesn't count.

31:12Have you only been married for two months?

31:14Two months and sixteen days.

31:16Seventy.

31:17Seventy.

31:18Andrew, did you hear?

31:20They've only been married for two months.

31:22Indeed.

31:23Is that all?

31:24Oh, look, darling, they've got a garden.

31:27It is yours, isn't it?

31:29Oh, yes.

31:30It's only a pocket handkerchief, I'm afraid.

31:32Shall I show you the rest of the flat?

31:34It's a bit untidy, but you must forgive that.

31:37Oh, of course.

31:38Well, the kitchen is in a terrible mess.

31:40I'm in the middle of cooking dinner.

31:41Huh?

31:42Do you cook?

31:43Oh, yes, I have to.

31:44We haven't had a maid for five years.

31:46Oh, I think that's wonderful of you.

31:49I'm scared stiff of having to do it for Peter.

31:51I know the first dinner I have to cook for him will wreck our married life.

31:55Highly probable.

31:56Well, these days we've all got to try and do things we weren't really brought up to.

32:01Come along, Mrs. Gilbert, and I'll show you the work.

32:04Oh, thank you.

32:08Don't you want to see the rest of the flat, Mr. Gilbert?

32:11Uh, no, I leave all that sort of thing to my wife.

32:14She's the boss.

32:16I, uh, I thought perhaps you could tell me something about the lower fifth.

32:22What would you like to know?

32:24Well, sir, quite frankly, I'm petrified.

32:28I don't think you need to be.

32:30May I give you some sherry?

32:33They are mostly boys of about fifteen or sixteen.

32:37They are not very difficult to handle.

32:39There you are.

32:40Thanks.

32:41The headmaster said that you ruled them with a rod of iron.

32:47He called you the Himmler of the lower fifth.

32:51Did he?

32:53The Himmler of the lower fifth?

32:56I think he exaggerated.

32:58I hope he exaggerated.

33:01The Himmler of the lower fifth.

33:04He only meant that you kept the most wonderful discipline.

33:07I must say I do admire you for that.

33:11From the very beginning,

33:12I realized that I didn't possess the knack of making myself liked.

33:17A knack that you will find you do possess.

33:20Oh, do you think so?

33:21Oh, yes, I'm quite sure of it.

33:23It's not a quality of great importance to a schoolmaster, though.

33:26For too much of it, as you may also find,

33:28is as great a danger as the total lack of it.

33:32Forgive me lecturing, won't you?

33:34I want to learn.

33:35I can only teach you from my own experience.

33:37For two or three years,

33:39I tried very hard to communicate to the boys

33:42some of my own joy in the great literature of the past.

33:46Of course, I failed, as you will fail, 99 times out of 100.

33:50But a single success can atone,

33:53and more than atone, for all the failures in the world.

33:56And sometimes, very rarely, it's true,

33:59but sometimes I had that success.

34:03That was in the early years.

34:05Please go on, sir.

34:06In early years, too, I discovered an easy substitute for popularity.

34:11I had, of course, acquired, we all do,

34:14many little mannerisms and tricks of speech,

34:17and I found that the boys were beginning to laugh at me.

34:20I was very happy at that,

34:22and encouraged the boys' laughter by playing up to it.

34:25It made our relationship so very much easier.

34:28They didn't like me as a man,

34:30but they found me funny as a character.

34:32And you can teach more things by laughter than by earnestness,

34:36for I never did have much sense of humor.

34:39So for a time, you see, I was quite a success as a schoolmaster.

34:44I fear this is all very impersonal and embarrassing to you.

34:48Forgive me.

34:49You need have no fears about the lower fifth.

34:55I'm afraid I said something that hurt you very much.

34:58It's myself you must forgive, sir.

35:01Believe me, I'm desperately sorry.

35:03There's no need.

35:04You were merely telling me what I should have known for myself.

35:07Perhaps I did in my heart and hadn't the courage to acknowledge it.

35:11I knew, of course, that I was not only not liked,

35:14but now positively disliked.

35:17I had realized, too, that the boys, for many long years now,

35:21had ceased to laugh at me.

35:23I don't know why they no longer found me a joke.

35:26Perhaps it was my illness.

35:28No, I don't think it was that.

35:30Something deeper than that.

35:32Not a sickness of the body, but a sickness of the soul.

35:36At all events, it didn't take much discernment on my part

35:40to realize I had become an utter failure as a schoolmaster.

35:44Still, stupidly enough, I hadn't realized that I was also feared.

35:51The Himmler of the lower fifth.

35:54I suppose that will become my epitaph.

35:57Oh, please, Si.

36:00Oh, I cannot for the life of me.

36:02Imagine why I should choose to unburden myself on you,

36:05a total stranger, when I've been silent to others for so long.

36:09Perhaps it is because my very unworthy mantle

36:14is about to fall on your shoulders.

36:17If that is so, I shall take a profit's privilege

36:21and foretell that you will have a very great success

36:25with the lower fifth.

36:26Thank you, sir.

36:27I shall do my best.

36:29I can't offer you a cigarette, I'm afraid.

36:31I don't smoke.

36:32That's all right, sir.

36:33Nor do I.

36:34Thank you so much for showing me right.

36:36Just imagine, Peter, Mr and Mrs Crocker Harris

36:40first met each other on a holiday in the Lake District.

36:42Isn't that a coincidence?

36:44Yes.

36:45Yes, it certainly is.

36:47On a walking tour, too?

36:49Andrew was on a walking tour.

36:51No walking for me.

36:52I can't abide it.

36:54I was staying with my uncle.

36:56That's Sir William Bartop, you know.

36:58You may have heard of him.

36:59He'd taken a house near Windermere.

37:01Quite a mansion it was, really.

37:03Rather silly for an old gentleman living alone.

37:06And Andrew knocked on our front door one day

37:08and asked the footman for a glass of water.

37:11So my uncle invited him in to tea.

37:14Our meeting wasn't quite as romantic as that.

37:17I knocked her flat on her face.

37:19Not with love at first sight.

37:21With the swing doors of our hotel bar.

37:23So, of course, then he apologised and...

37:25Darling, Mr and Mrs Crocker Harris, I'm sure,

37:27have far more important things to do

37:29than to listen to your details,

37:31but inaccurate account of our very sordid little encounter.

37:34Why not just say I married you for your money and leave it at that?

37:37Come on, we must go.

37:39Oh, isn't he awful to me, Mrs Crocker Harris?

37:41Men have no souls, my dear.

37:43My husband is just as bad.

37:46Goodbye, Mr Crocker Harris.

37:49Goodbye.

37:50I think your idea about the dining room is awfully good, Mrs Crocker Harris.

37:53If only I can get permission from the school.

37:56Goodbye, sir.

37:57You will, I know, respect the confidences I have just made to you.

38:02I should hate you to think that I wouldn't.

38:04I'm sorry to have embarrassed you.

38:06I don't know what came over me.

38:08I've not been very well, you know.

38:10Goodbye, my dear fellow.

38:12And my best wishes.

38:15The very best of good luck to you too, sir.

38:18In your future career.

38:19My future career?

38:20Yes.

38:22Well, goodbye, sir.

38:25Goodbye.

38:26Goodbye.

38:27Goodbye.

38:28And thank you so much.

38:34Good looking couple.

38:35Very.

38:36What's the matter with you?

38:37Nothing.

38:38You're not going to have another of your attacks, are you?

38:41You look dreadful.

38:42I'm perfectly all right.

38:43You know best.

38:45Your medicine's on the table anyway, if you want it.

38:48I'm just going to see you about dinner.

38:57Come in.

39:00Yes, Taplow.

39:01What is it?

39:02I just came back to say goodbye, sir.

39:04Oh.

39:05I didn't have a chance with the head here.

39:07I rather dashed out, I'm afraid.

39:09I thought I'd just come back and wish you luck, sir.

39:11Thank you, Taplow.

39:13That's good of you.

39:14I...

39:15I thought this book might interest you, sir.

39:18What is it?

39:19First translation of the Agamemnon, sir.

39:22The Browning version.

39:23It's not much good.

39:25I've been reading it in the chapel gardens.

39:28Very interesting, Taplow.

39:31I know the translation, of course.

39:33It has its faults.

39:35I agree, but I think you will enjoy it more when you get used to the meter he employs.

39:41Thanks for showing it to me.

39:43It's for you, sir.

39:46For me?

39:47Yes, sir.

39:48I've written in it.

39:49Look, on the flyleaf.

39:51Did you buy this?

39:52Yes, sir.

39:53It was only second hand.

39:55You shouldn't have spent your pocket money this way.

39:57Oh, that's all right, sir.

39:59It wasn't very much.

40:01Oh, the price isn't still inside, is it?

40:03No.

40:05Just what you've written.

40:06Nothing else.

40:07That's all right, then.

40:09What's the matter, sir?

40:11Have I got the accent wrong on humanos?

40:13No, the Peris Permanon is perfectly correct.

40:18Taplow, would you be good enough to take that bottle of medicine which you so kindly brought in and pour me out one dose in a glass which you will find in the bathroom through there?

40:33Yes, sir.

40:37The doses are clearly marked on the bottle.

40:40I usually put a little water with it.

40:42Yes, sir.

40:43Won't be a moment, sir.

40:54Here you are, sir.

40:57You must forgive this exhibition of weakness, Taplow.

41:04The truth is I've been going through rather a strain lately.

41:07Of course, sir.

41:08I quite understand.

41:10Come in.

41:12Oh, I'm sorry.

41:13I thought you'd be finished by now.

41:15Oh, come in.

41:16Hunter, do.

41:17It's perfectly all right.

41:18Our lesson was over some time ago.

41:20But, uh,

41:22Taplow most kindly came back to say goodbye.

41:24Are you sure I'm not intruding?

41:27No, no, no.

41:28I want you to see this book that Taplow's given me, Hunter.

41:32Look.

41:33A translation of the Agamemnon by Robert Browning.

41:38Do you see the inscription he's put into it?

41:40Oh, yes.

41:41But it's no use to me, I'm afraid.

41:43I never learnt Greek.

41:44Then we'll have to translate it for him.

41:46Won't we, Taplow?

41:47That means, in a rough translation, God from afar looks graciously upon a gentle master.

42:04It comes from a speech of Agamemnon's De Clytemnestra.

42:08I see.

42:10It's very pleasant.

42:13And very apt.

42:14Very pleasant.

42:16But perhaps not, after all, so very apt.

42:19Cut along, Taplow.

42:20Very well, sir.

42:22Goodbye, sir.

42:23And the best of luck.

42:25Goodbye, Taplow, and thank you very much.

42:28Goodbye.

42:31Dear me, what a fool I made of myself in front of that boy.

42:34And in front of you, Hunter.

42:36I can't imagine what you must think of me.

42:38Oh, nonsense.

42:39I'm not a very emotional person, as you know,

42:41but there was something so very touching and kindly about his action.

42:46And coming as it did, just after.

42:50This is a very delightful gift, don't you think?

42:54Delightful.

42:56Hello, Frank.

42:57I'm glad you're in time.

42:59Lend me a cigarette.

43:00I've been gasping for one for an hour.

43:02Yes, certainly.

43:05Your husband's just had a very nice present.

43:08Oh, who from?

43:09The Taplow.

43:11Oh, Taplow.

43:14Let's see.

43:15This book, the Browning translation of the Agamemnon.

43:19He bought it with his own pocket money, Millie,

43:21and wrote a very charming inscription inside.

43:24Look.

43:25God looks kindly upon a gracious master.

43:28No, no, no, not gracious.

43:31Gentle, I think.

43:34Yes, I think gentle is the better translation.

43:38I would rather have had this present than almost anything I can think of.

43:42The artful little beast.

43:48Millie.

43:50Artful.

43:51Why artful?

43:52Millie, please.

43:53Why artful, Millie?

43:54My dear, because I came into this room this afternoon to find him giving an imitation of you to Frank here.

44:01Obviously, he was scared stiff, I was going to tell you, and you'd ditch his remove or something.

44:06I don't blame him for trying on a few bobs worth of appeasement.

44:10I see.

44:11Well, take your book.

44:12Put it on the table, will you?

44:13Where are you going, dear?

44:14Dinner's nearly ready.

44:15Only to my room for a moment.

44:16I won't be long.

44:17Millie, how could you?

44:18Well, why not?

44:19Why should he be allowed his comforting little illusions?

44:20I'm not.

44:21Well, that's that.

44:22We are finished, Millie, you and I.

44:25Frank, really?

44:26Don't be a stir.

44:27I'm not, I mean it.

44:28You can't scare me, Frank.

44:29I know that's what you're trying to do, but you can't do it.

44:31Well, it's fine.

44:32Don't be a stir, dear.

44:33Dinner's nearly ready.

44:34Only to my room for a moment.

44:35I won't be long.

44:36Millie, how could you?

44:37Well, why not?

44:38Why should he be allowed his comforting little illusions?

44:40I'm not.

44:41Well, that's that.

44:42We are finished, Millie, you and I.

44:43Frank, really?

44:44Don't be a stir.

44:45I'm not, I mean it.

44:46You can't scare me, Frank.

44:48I know that's what you're trying to do, but you can't do it.

44:50I'm not trying to scare you, Millie.

44:51I'm telling you the simple truth.

44:54I'm not coming to Bradford.

44:57All right, my dear.

44:58If that's the way you feel about it, don't come to Bradford.

45:01Right. Now, I think you ought to go to your room and look after Andrew.

45:05I'm leaving.

45:06No, no, no. Stop a minute.

45:08Frank, I don't understand. Really, I don't.

45:13What have I done?

45:14I think you know what you've done, Millie.

45:16Go and look after Andrew.

45:19Andrew? Why this sudden concern for Andrew?

45:22Because I think he's just been about as badly hurt as a human being can be.

45:27And as he's a sick man and in rather a hysterical state,

45:29it might be a good plan to go and see how he is.

45:32Hurt? Andrew hurt?

45:35You can't hurt Andrew. He's dead.

45:40Why do you hate him so much?

45:42Because he keeps me from you.

45:43That isn't true.

45:44Because he's not a man at all.

45:45He's a human being.

45:47You've got a fine right to be so noble about him after deceiving him for six whole months.

45:51Twice in six months? At your urgent invitation?

45:53Oh.

46:00Thank you for that. I deserved it.

46:03I deserve a lot worse than that, too.

46:05Frank, forgive me. I didn't mean it.

46:07You'd better have the truth, Millie. It had to come sometime.

46:10I've never loved you. I've never told you to love you.

46:12I know, Frank. I know. I've always accepted that.

46:14You asked me just now if I was running away from you. Well, I was.

46:17I knew that, too.

46:18But I was coming to Bradford.

46:20It was going to be the very last time I was ever going to see you.

46:23And at Bradford, I would have told you that.

46:24You wouldn't. You wouldn't.

46:25You've tried to tell me so often before, and I've always stopped you somehow.

46:30Somehow.

46:31I would have stopped you again.

46:33I don't think so, Millie.

46:35Not this time.

46:36Frank, I don't care what humiliations you heap on me.

46:41I know you don't give two hoots for me as a person.

46:43I've always known that.

46:45I've never minded so long as you cared for me as a woman.

46:48And you do, Frank.

46:50You do.

46:51You do, don't you?

46:54It'll be all right at Bradford.

46:57You'll see.

46:58It'll be all right there.

47:00I'm not coming to Bradford, Millie.

47:03Perhaps you'd be so kind as to put this medicine bottle away, Millie.

47:07How much have you taken?

47:09You should know me well enough by now, my dear,

47:11to realise how unlikely it is that I should ever take an overdose.

47:16All right.

47:17I'll put it away.

47:23I'm not staying to dinner, Alfred.

47:25Indeed.

47:26I'm sorry to hear that.

47:29You'll have a glass of sherry, won't you?

47:30No, thank you.

47:32Huh?

47:33Perhaps I'll change my mind.

47:37About Teplow.

47:39Oh, yes?

47:41It is perfectly true that he was imitating you.

47:44I, of course, was mostly to blame on that, and I'm very sorry.

47:47That's perfectly all right.

47:48Was it a good imitation?

47:49No.

47:50I expect it was.

47:52Boys are often very clever mimics.

47:54We talked about you, of course, before that.

47:56He said, you probably won't believe this, but I thought I ought to tell you.

48:00He said he liked you very much.

48:02Indeed.

48:03I can remember very clearly his exact words.

48:05He said, he doesn't seem to like people to like him, but in spite of that, I do.

48:11Very much.

48:11So, you see, it looks, after all, as if the book might not have been a mere question of

48:17appeasement.

48:19The book?

48:20Dear me, what a lot of fuss about a little book.

48:23And a not very good little book at that.

48:26It will mean a perpetual reminder to myself of the story with which Teplow is at this very

48:32moment regaling his friends in the house.

48:35I gave the croc a book to buy him off, and he blubbed.

48:42The croc blubbed.

48:44I tell you, I was there.

48:45I saw it.

48:46The croc blubbed.

48:49My mimicry is not as good as his, I fear.

48:52Forgive me.

48:53If Teplow ever breathes a word of that story to anyone at all, I'll murder him, but he won't.

48:57And if you think I will, you greatly underestimate my character as well as his.

49:03Goodbye.

49:03Are you leaving so soon?

49:06Goodbye, my dear fellow.

49:10As this is the last time I shall probably ever see you, I'm going to offer you a word

49:16of advice.

49:17I shall be glad to listen to it.

49:20Leave your wife.

49:22So that you may the more easily carry on your intrigue with her.

49:29How long have you known that?

49:31Since it first began.

49:32How did you find out?

49:35By information.

49:36By whose information?

49:38By someone whose word I could hardly discredit.

49:41Oh, no.

49:45That's too horrible to think of.

49:47Nothing is ever too horrible to think of, Hunter.

49:50It is simply a question of facing facts.

49:52She might have told you a lie.

49:54Have you faced that fact?

49:55She never tells me a lie.

49:58In 20 years, she has never told me a lie.

50:00Only the truth.

50:01This was a lie?

50:02No, my dear Hunter.

50:04Do you wish me to quote you dates?

50:05And she told you six months ago?

50:08Isn't it seven?

50:10Then why have you allowed me inside your home?

50:12Why haven't you done something?

50:13Reporting me to the governor's anything?

50:15Made a scene?

50:15Knocked me down?

50:16Knocked you down?

50:17You didn't have to invite me here to dinner.

50:19My dear Hunter, if over the last 20 years I had allowed such petty considerations to influence

50:23my choice of dinner guests, I would have found it increasingly hard to remember which master to invite

50:29and which to refuse.

50:32You see, Hunter, you mustn't flatter yourself.

50:34You are the first.

50:36My information is a good deal better than yours, you understand.

50:39It's authentic.

50:43She's evil.

50:44That's hardly a kindly epithet to apply to a lady whom I gather you have asked to marry.

50:49Did she tell you that?

50:50She's a dutiful wife.

50:52She tells me everything.

50:52Well, that at least was a lie.

50:54She never lied.

50:55That was a lie.

50:58Do you want the truth?

51:01Can you bear the truth?

51:02I can bear anything.

51:03Well, what I did, I did cold-bloodedly out of weakness and ignorance and crass stupidity.

51:08I'm bitterly, bitterly ashamed of myself.

51:11But in a sense, I'm glad you know.

51:13Though I'd rather a thousand times that you'd heard it from me than from your wife.

51:18I want to ask you to forgive me.

51:19I can only tell you with complete truth that the only emotion she has ever succeeded in arousing in me, she aroused in me for the first time ten minutes ago.

51:29An intense and passionate disgust.

51:31What a delightfully chivalrous thing.

51:33Oh, forget chivalry, croc, for heaven's sake.

51:36Forget your scruples.

51:37You must leave her.

51:38It's your only chance.

51:40She's my wife, Hunter.

51:41You seem to forget that as long as she wishes to remain my wife, she may.

51:44She's out to kill you.

51:45My dear Hunter, if that was indeed her purpose, you should know by now that she fulfilled it long ago.

51:50But why won't you leave her?

51:52Because I wouldn't wish to add another grave wrong to one I have already done her.

51:56What wrong have you done her?

51:58To marry her.

51:58You see, my dear Hunter, she is really quite as much to be pitied as I.

52:05We are both of us interesting subjects for your microscope.

52:08Both of us needing from the other something that would make life supportable for us both.

52:14And neither of us able to give it.

52:16Two kinds of love, hers and mine.

52:19Worlds apart, as I know now.

52:22Though when I married her, I didn't think they were incompatible.

52:26In those days, I hadn't thought that her kind of love, the love she requires, and which I was unable to give her,

52:34was so important that its absence would drive out the other kind of love, the kind of love that I require,

52:42and which I thought, in my folly, was by far the greater part of love.

52:46I may have been, you see, Hunter, a brilliant classical scholar, but I was woefully ignorant of the facts of life.

52:54I know better now, of course.

52:57I know that in both of us, the love that we should have borne each other has turned to bitter hatred.

53:04That's all the problem is.

53:06Not a very unusual one, I venture to think, nor nearly as tragic as you seem to imagine.

53:11Merely the problem of an unsatisfied wife and a hen-pecked husband.

53:17You will find it all over the world.

53:19It is usually, I believe, a subject for farce.

53:24And now, if you have to leave us, my dear fellow, please don't let me detain you any longer.

53:29Don't go to Bradford. Stay here until you take up your new job.

53:32I think I've already told you I am not interested in your advice.

53:34Leave her! It's the only way!

53:36You please go!

53:37All right.

53:42I'd just like you to say goodbye to me properly, though.

53:45Will you?

53:46I shan't see you again.

53:47Oh, I know you don't want my pity, but I would like to be of some help.

53:51If you think by this expression of kindness, Hunter, that you can get me to repeat the shameful exhibition of emotion I made to Taplow a moment ago,

53:59I must tell you that you have no chance.

54:00My hysteria over that book just now was no more than a sort of reflex action of the spirit.

54:08The muscular twitchings of a corpse.

54:11It can never happen again.

54:13A corpse can be revived.

54:15I don't believe in miracles.

54:16Don't you?

54:17Funnily enough, as a scientist, I do.

54:20Your faith would be touching if I were capable of being touched by it.

54:23You are, I think.

54:29I'd like to come and visit you at this, Kramers.

54:31That's an absurd suggestion.

54:33I suppose it is, rather, but all the same, I'd like to do it.

54:36May I?

54:36Of course not.

54:37Your term begins on the 1st of September, doesn't it?

54:40I tell you, the idea is quite childish.

54:41I could come about the second week.

54:42You would be bored to death.

54:44So probably would I.

54:45Oh, where's my diary?

54:48Let's say Monday the 12th, then.

54:51Say anything you like, only please go.

54:53Please go, Hunter.

54:54That's fixed, then.

54:55Monday, September the 12th.

54:56Will you remember that?

54:59I suppose I am at least as likely to remember it as you are.

55:03That's fixed, then.

55:05Goodbye, Antoinette.

55:07Goodbye.

55:08May I go out through your garden?

55:10Of course.

55:11Oh, I'm off to have a quick word with Taplow.

55:13By the way, may I take him a message from you?

55:16What message?

55:17Has he or has he not got his remove?

55:20He has.

55:21May I tell him?

55:23It is highly irregular.

55:26Yes, you may.

55:28Good.

55:29Oh, by the way, I'd better have the address of that crammer.

55:32Dinner's ready.

55:34You're staying, Frank, aren't you?

55:35No, I'm afraid not.

55:37What's that address?

55:40The old deanery.

55:42Malcolm.

55:43Dorset.

55:45I'll write to you and you can let me know about trains.

55:48Goodbye.

55:49That's a laugh, I must say.

55:54What's a laugh, my dear?

55:55You're inviting him to stay with you.

55:57I didn't.

55:58He suggested it.

55:59He's coming to Bradford.

56:00Yes, I remember you're telling me so.

56:02He's coming to Bradford.

56:03He's not going to you.

56:04The likeliest contingency is that he's not going to either of us.

56:07Shall we have dinner?

56:07He's coming to Bradford.

56:09I expect so.

56:10Oh, by the way, I'm not.

56:12I shall be staying here until I go to Dorset.

56:15Suit yourself.

56:17What makes you think I'll join you there?

56:19I don't.

56:21You needn't expect me.

56:23I don't think either of us has the right to expect anything further from the other.

56:27I don't.

56:31Excuse me.

56:33Hello?

56:35Yes, Headmaster.

56:37The timetable.

56:39It's perfectly simple.

56:40The middle 4th B division will take a 10-minute break on Tuesdays and a 15-minute break on alternate Wednesdays,

56:47while exactly the reverse procedure will apply to the lower shell C division.

56:52I thought I had sufficiently explained that on my chart.

56:56Oh, I see.

57:00That is very good of you.

57:02Yes.

57:03I think you will find it'll work out quite satisfactorily.

57:07Oh, by the way, Headmaster,

57:08I've changed my mind about the prize-giving ceremony.

57:12I intend to speak after, instead of before, Fletcher,

57:17as is my privilege.

57:20Yes, I quite understand.

57:22But I am now seeing the matter in a different light.

57:26I know.

57:28But I am of the opinion that occasionally an anti-climax

57:31can be surprisingly effective.

57:35Goodbye.

57:38Come along, my dear.

57:39We mustn't let our dinner get cold.

57:41That was John Gielgud,

58:09as Arthur Crocker-Harris

58:11and Angela Baddeley as Millie Crocker-Harris

58:14in The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan.

58:19The Headmaster was played by Clive Morton,

58:22Frank Hunter by Brewster Mason

58:24and Taplow by Anthony Adams.

58:27Production for BBC World Theatre

58:30was by Norman Wright.

58:31The Headmaster.

58:34, Think of this one across the river.

58:34The Earth Through the Coronavirus

58:35the House ofaland

58:35was by Thomas Lawrence

58:36in the Southwick

58:36and chairman from the Melbourne

58:36and the support of the ALISSA

58:37and the Lilie Crocker-Harris

58:37in the говорить

58:38and shepherd from the Dub oak

58:39was by Thomas Adams in the lobby.

58:42The belt is a Supergirl Peninsula from the Bunny

58:55there on the at- Bearさ Parce

58:56which is safe andham

58:57being performed by the Bailey

58:58is aаксимaga-about

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