BROADBENT [rising into view]I must introduce myself--NORA [violently startled,retreating].It's not you!Who are you?
What do you want?
BROADBENT [advancing].I'm really so sorry to have alarmed you,Miss Reilly.My name is Broadbent.Larry's friend,you know.
NORA [chilled].And has Mr Doyle not come with you?
BROADBENT.No.I've come instead.I hope I am not unwelcome.
NORA [deeply mortified].I'm sorry Mr Doyle should have given you the trouble,I'm sure.
BROADBENT.You see,as a stranger and an Englishman,I thought it would be interesting to see the Round Tower by moonlight.
NORA.Oh,you came to see the tower.I thought--[confused,trying to recover her manners]Oh,of course.I was so startled--It's a beautiful night,isn't it?
BROADBENT.Lovely.I must explain why Larry has not come himself.
NORA.Why should he come?He's seen the tower often enough:it's no attraction to him.[Genteelly]An what do you think of Ireland,Mr Broadbent?Have you ever been here before?
BROADBENT.Never.
NORA.An how do you like it?
BROADBENT [suddenly betraying a condition of extreme sentimentality].I can hardly trust myself to say how much I like it.The magic of this Irish scene,and--I really don't want to be personal,Miss Reilly;but the charm of your Irish voice--NORA [quite accustomed to gallantry,and attaching no seriousness whatever to it].Oh,get along with you,Mr Broadbent!You're breaking your heart about me already,I daresay,after seeing me for two minutes in the dark.
BROADBENT.The voice is just as beautiful in the dark,you know.
Besides,I've heard a great deal about you from Larry.
NORA [with bitter indifference].Have you now?Well,that's a great honor,I'm sure.
BROADBENT.I have looked forward to meeting you more than to anything else in Ireland.
NORA [ironically].Dear me!did you now?
BROADBENT.I did really.I wish you had taken half as much interest in me.
NORA.Oh,I was dying to see you,of course.I daresay you can imagine the sensation an Englishman like you would make among us poor Irish people.
BROADBENT.Ah,now you're chaffing me,Miss Reilly:you know you are.You mustn't chaff me.I'm very much in earnest about Ireland and everything Irish.I'm very much in earnest about you and about Larry.
NORA.Larry has nothing to do with me,Mr Broadbent.
BROADBENT.If I really thought that,Miss Reilly,I should--well,I should let myself feel that charm of which I spoke just now more deeply than I--than I--NORA.Is it making love to me you are?
BROADBENT [scared and much upset].On my word I believe I am,Miss Reilly.If you say that to me again I shan't answer for myself:all the harps of Ireland are in your voice.[She laughs at him.He suddenly loses his head and seizes her arms,to her great indignation].Stop laughing:do you hear?I am in earnest--in English earnest.When I say a thing like that to a woman,Imean it.[Releasing her and trying to recover his ordinary manner in spite of his bewildering emotion]I beg your pardon.
NORA.How dare you touch me?
BROADBENT.There are not many things I would not dare for you.
That does not sound right perhaps;but I really--[he stops and passes his hand over his forehead,rather lost].
NORA.I think you ought to be ashamed.I think if you were a gentleman,and me alone with you in this place at night,you would die rather than do such a thing.
BROADBENT.You mean that it's an act of treachery to Larry?
NORA.Deed I don't.What has Larry to do with it?It's an act of disrespect and rudeness to me:it shows what you take me for.You can go your way now;and I'll go mine.Goodnight,Mr Broadbent.
BROADBENT.No,please,Miss Reilly.One moment.Listen to me.I'm serious:I'm desperately serious.Tell me that I'm interfering with Larry;and I'll go straight from this spot back to London and never see you again.That's on my honor:I will.Am Iinterfering with him?
