is a levelling going on! [
Pause
.] What age is she now?
ADA
I have lost count of time.
HENRY
Twelve? Thirteen? [
Pause
.] Fourteen?
ADA
I really could not tell you, Henry.
HENRY
It took us a long time to have her. [
Pause
.] Years we kept hammering away at it. [
Pause
.] But we did it in the end. [
Pause. Sigh
.] We had her in the end. [
Pause
.] Listen to it! [
Pause
.] It’s not so bad when you get out on it. [
Pause
.] Perhaps I should have gone into the merchant navy.
ADA
It’s only on the surface, you know. Underneath all is as quiet as the grave. Not a sound. All day, all night, not a sound. [
Pause
.]
HENRY
Now I walk about with the gramophone. But I forgot it today.
ADA
There is no sense in that. [
Pause
.] There is no sense in trying to drown it. [
Pause
.] See Holloway.
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
Let us go for a row.
ADA
A row? And Addie? She would be very distressed if she came and found you had gone for a row without her. [
Pause
.] Who were you with just now? [
Pause
.] Before you spoke to me.
HENRY
I was trying to be with my father.
ADA
Oh. [
Pause
.] No difficulty about that.
HENRY
I mean I was trying to get him to be with me. [
Pause
.] You seem a little cruder than usual today, Ada. [
Pause
.] I was asking him if he had ever met you, I couldn’t remember.
ADA
Well?
HENRY
He doesn’t answer any more.
ADA
I suppose you have worn him out. [
Pause
.] You wore him out living and now you are wearing him out dead. [
Pause
.] The time comes when one cannot speak to you any more. [
Pause
.] The time will come when no one will speak to you at all, not even complete strangers. [
Pause
.] You willbe quite alone with your voice, there will be no other voice in the world but yours. [
Pause
.] Do you hear me?
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
I can’t remember if he met you.
ADA
You know he met me.
HENRY
No, Ada, I don’t know, I’m sorry, I have forgotten almost everything connected with you.
ADA
You weren’t there. Just your mother and sister. I had called to fetch you, as arranged. We were to go bathing together.
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
[
irritably
] Drive on, drive on! Why do people always stop in the middle of what they are saying?
ADA
None of them knew where you were. Your bed had not been slept in. They were all shouting at one another. Your sister said she would throw herself off the cliff. Your father got up and went out, slamming the door. I left soon afterwards and passed him on the road. He did not see me. He was sitting on a rock looking out to sea. I never forgot his posture. And yet it was a common one. You used to have it sometimes. Perhaps just the stillness, as if he had been turned to stone. I could never make it out.
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
Keep on, keep on! [
Imploringly
.] Keep it going, Ada, every syllable is a second gained.
ADA
That’s all, I’m afraid. [
Pause
.] Go on now with your father or your stories or whatever you were doing, don’t mind me any more.
HENRY
I can’t! [
Pause
.] I can’t do it any more!
ADA
You were doing it a moment ago, before you spoke to me.
HENRY
[
angrily
] I can’t do it any more now! [
Pause
.] Christ!
[
Pause
.]
ADA
Yes, you know what I mean, there are attitudes remain in one’s mind for reasons that are clear, the carriage of ahead for example, bowed when one would have thought it should be lifted, and vice versa, or a hand suspended in mid-air, as if unowned. That kind of thing. But with your father sitting on the rock that day nothing of the kind, no detail you could put your finger on and say, How very peculiar! No, I could never make it out. Perhaps, as I said, just the great stillness of the whole body, as if all the breath had left it. [
Pause
.] Is this rubbish a help to you, Henry? [
Pause
.] I can try and go on a little if you wish. [
Pause
.] No? [
Pause
.] Then I think I’ll be getting back.
HENRY
Not yet! You needn’t speak. Just listen. Not even. Be with me. [
Pause
.] Ada! [
Pause. Louder
.] Ada! [
Pause
.] Christ! [
Pause
.] Hooves! [
Pause. Louder
.] Hooves! [
Pause
.]
Pause
.] What age is she now?
ADA
I have lost count of time.
HENRY
Twelve? Thirteen? [
Pause
.] Fourteen?
ADA
I really could not tell you, Henry.
HENRY
It took us a long time to have her. [
Pause
.] Years we kept hammering away at it. [
Pause
.] But we did it in the end. [
Pause. Sigh
.] We had her in the end. [
Pause
.] Listen to it! [
Pause
.] It’s not so bad when you get out on it. [
Pause
.] Perhaps I should have gone into the merchant navy.
ADA
It’s only on the surface, you know. Underneath all is as quiet as the grave. Not a sound. All day, all night, not a sound. [
Pause
.]
HENRY
Now I walk about with the gramophone. But I forgot it today.
ADA
There is no sense in that. [
Pause
.] There is no sense in trying to drown it. [
Pause
.] See Holloway.
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
Let us go for a row.
ADA
A row? And Addie? She would be very distressed if she came and found you had gone for a row without her. [
Pause
.] Who were you with just now? [
Pause
.] Before you spoke to me.
HENRY
I was trying to be with my father.
ADA
Oh. [
Pause
.] No difficulty about that.
HENRY
I mean I was trying to get him to be with me. [
Pause
.] You seem a little cruder than usual today, Ada. [
Pause
.] I was asking him if he had ever met you, I couldn’t remember.
ADA
Well?
HENRY
He doesn’t answer any more.
ADA
I suppose you have worn him out. [
Pause
.] You wore him out living and now you are wearing him out dead. [
Pause
.] The time comes when one cannot speak to you any more. [
Pause
.] The time will come when no one will speak to you at all, not even complete strangers. [
Pause
.] You willbe quite alone with your voice, there will be no other voice in the world but yours. [
Pause
.] Do you hear me?
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
I can’t remember if he met you.
ADA
You know he met me.
HENRY
No, Ada, I don’t know, I’m sorry, I have forgotten almost everything connected with you.
ADA
You weren’t there. Just your mother and sister. I had called to fetch you, as arranged. We were to go bathing together.
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
[
irritably
] Drive on, drive on! Why do people always stop in the middle of what they are saying?
ADA
None of them knew where you were. Your bed had not been slept in. They were all shouting at one another. Your sister said she would throw herself off the cliff. Your father got up and went out, slamming the door. I left soon afterwards and passed him on the road. He did not see me. He was sitting on a rock looking out to sea. I never forgot his posture. And yet it was a common one. You used to have it sometimes. Perhaps just the stillness, as if he had been turned to stone. I could never make it out.
[
Pause
.]
HENRY
Keep on, keep on! [
Imploringly
.] Keep it going, Ada, every syllable is a second gained.
ADA
That’s all, I’m afraid. [
Pause
.] Go on now with your father or your stories or whatever you were doing, don’t mind me any more.
HENRY
I can’t! [
Pause
.] I can’t do it any more!
ADA
You were doing it a moment ago, before you spoke to me.
HENRY
[
angrily
] I can’t do it any more now! [
Pause
.] Christ!
[
Pause
.]
ADA
Yes, you know what I mean, there are attitudes remain in one’s mind for reasons that are clear, the carriage of ahead for example, bowed when one would have thought it should be lifted, and vice versa, or a hand suspended in mid-air, as if unowned. That kind of thing. But with your father sitting on the rock that day nothing of the kind, no detail you could put your finger on and say, How very peculiar! No, I could never make it out. Perhaps, as I said, just the great stillness of the whole body, as if all the breath had left it. [
Pause
.] Is this rubbish a help to you, Henry? [
Pause
.] I can try and go on a little if you wish. [
Pause
.] No? [
Pause
.] Then I think I’ll be getting back.
HENRY
Not yet! You needn’t speak. Just listen. Not even. Be with me. [
Pause
.] Ada! [
Pause. Louder
.] Ada! [
Pause
.] Christ! [
Pause
.] Hooves! [
Pause. Louder
.] Hooves! [
Pause
.]
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