[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.And this is the very child of 124 Confidential Clerk, Thewhom Lady Elizabeth had lost track.Lady Eliza- case, the world might have honored him all thebeth is not as pleased with this outcome as she more for making the lesser choice.might have been had the more refined and cultured Colby, however, sees his own spiritual kinshipColby turned out to be her mislaid child.Never- as lying instead with his putative biological father,theless, she accepts the fact that the, in her view, Mrs.Guzzard s long-deceased husband.For Colbyvulgar Barnabas Kaghan is her son, to whom she can understand his love of music not as an ambitionwill henceforth be Aunt Elizabeth instead of Lady but as a natural vocation, and as a result he plansElizabeth and shortly will be mother-in-law as well.to leave Sir Claude s employ to become a churchAnd now Mrs.Guzzard, almost as if the entire organist, since achieving great public success as ainquiry were her idea to begin with, turns her atten- musician no longer forms a part of his goal.tion to Colby, to ask if he too is pleased with the Sir Claude virtually begs Colby to reconsiderresults, considering that it was his true parentage these new plans, but Colby insists on follow-that had been meant to be uncovered originally.ing through with them.Now that they have bothColby answers in his typically elaborate and overly been enabled to abandon their ambitions and theirconsidered way, coming to the conclusion that, if illusions about each other and about themselves,he truly could choose had his wish then since Colby explains, it would be wrong to perpetuatehe never knew his real mother in any case, he the charade, even one as innocent and well-moti-would prefer to have a dead obscure man for a vated as their own. All that s left is love, Colbyfather rather than Sir Claude.explains, and love requires that they let each otherAnd then, to Colby s utter surprise, and Sir be.Frustrated, Sir Claude turns to Eggerson to dis-Claude s considerable consternation, Mrs.Guzzard suade Colby from his new plans, but Eggerson onlyannounces that Colby shall have his wish.Colby, reenforces them by not only proposing that Colbyshe explains, is her own child by her now long- might apply for the position of organist that has justdeceased husband, who had been, like Colby, a become available at the Eggersons parish churchfrustrated musician.Sir Claude is outraged that and offering him a room in their home, but bythere is a deception of some order in this latest going on to suggest that he sees a call to the minis-revelation, but Mrs.Guzzard convinces him that it try in Colby s future.was his own presumptions, not anything that she The play ends with Sir Claude s being forced tohad ever particularly told him, that had convinced accept his fate.As Mrs.Guzzard explains it as shehim years ago that Colby was his child by Mrs.prepares to take her leave, her services no longerGuzzard s sister, who died before she gave birth to being required, she and Sir Claude had each hadher and Sir Claude s child.Whatever the truth may their expectations their wish fulfilled 25 yearsbe, Colby embraces the idea that his father is a man before.Sir Claude got a chance to fulfill a sensehe never did and never can know. I must believe of obligation to a son he would otherwise neveryou, he proclaims to Mrs.Guzzard. This gives me acknowledge, and she would obtain help in rais-freedom. ing her child. [B]ut, she concludes, we failed toOn that note, Sir Claude, without conceding observe./ That there was a time-limit clause inthat it is the truth, yields as well to Mrs.Guzzard s the contract. More bewildered than broken, Sirversion of the circumstances surrounding Colby s Claude is left to ponder if he might ever again seebirth.Sir Claude makes the mistake of thinking, Colby, who has departed with Mrs.Guzzard, hishowever, that nothing else has changed with regard Aunt Sarah, to call her a taxi.to his and Colby s relationship, one that had from Both Lucasta and Kaghan, his daughter andearly on in the play seemed to be marked by a spiri- future son-in-law, as well as his wife s son, aretual kinship typical of a father and son.That bond there to comfort and reassure him, however
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]