Time and the Conways

by J.B. Priestley

Act II

GERALD [dryly]: Well, the position is this. Mrs. Conway for a long time now has derived her income from two sources. A holding in Farrow and Conway Limited. And some property in Newlingham, the houses at the north end of Church Road. Farrow and Conway were hit badly by the slump and have not recovered yet. The houses in Church Road are not worth anything like what they were, and the only chance of making that property pay is to convert the houses into flats. But this would demand
a substantial outlay of capital. Mrs. Conway has received an offer for her holding in Farrow and Conway Limited, but it is a very poor offer. It would not pay for the reconstruction of the Church Road property. Meanwhile that property may soon be a liability instead of an asset. So, you see, the position is very serious.

MADGE [coldly]: I must say I’m very much surprised. I always understood that mother was left extremely well provided for.

Mrs. C. [proudly]: Certainly I was. Your father saw to that.

GERALD: Both the shares and the property have declined in value.

MADGE: Yes, but even so – I’m still surprised. Mother must have been very extravagant.

GERALD: Mrs. Conway hasn’t been as careful as she might have been.

Mrs. C: There were six of you to bring up and educate –

MADGE: It isn’t that. I know how much we cost. It’s since then that the money’s been spent. And I know who must have had most of it – Robin!

Mrs. C. [angry now]: That’ll do, Madge. It was my money –

MADGE: It wasn’t. It was only yours to hold in trust for us. Alan, you’re the eldest and you’ve been here all the time, why didn’t you do something?

ALAN: I’m afraid – I – haven’t bothered much about – these things –

MADGE [with growing force]: Then you ought to have done.
I think it’s absolutely wicked. I’ve been working hard earning my living for over twenty years, and I’ve looked forward to having something from what father left, enough to pay for a few really good holidays or to buy myself a little house of my own – and now it’s all gone – just because mother and Robin between them have flung it away –

Mrs. C. [angrily]: You ought to be ashamed of yourself, talking like that! What if I have helped Robin? He needed it, and I’m his mother.
If you’d needed it, I’d have helped you too –

MADGE: You wouldn’t. When I told you I had a chance to buy
a partnership in that school, you only laughed at me –

Mrs. C: Because you were all right where you were and didn’t need to buy any partnerships.

MADGE: And Robin did, I suppose?

Mrs. C: Yes, because he’s a man – with a wife and children to support. This is just typical of you, Madge. Call yourself a Socialist and blame people for taking an interest in money, and then it turns out you’re the most mercenary of us all.

MADGE: I don’t call myself a Socialist – though that’s nothing
to do with it –

ERNEST [who has been glancing at an evening paper, breaking
in brutally]: How long does this go on? Because I’ve something else to do.

Mrs. C. [trying hard to placate him]: That’s all right, Ernest. Look what you’ve done now, Madge. Made Joan cry.

JOAN [suddenly weeping quietly in the background]: I’m sorry –
I just – remembered – so many things – that’s all –

GERALD: At the present moment, Mrs. Conway has a considerable overdraft at the bank. Now there are two possible courses of action. One is to sell the houses for what they’ll fetch, and to hold on to the Farrow and Conway shares. But I warn you that the houses won’t fetch much. The alternative is to sell the shares, then to raise an additional sum – probably between two or three thousand pounds – and to convert the houses into flats –

Mrs. C. [hopefully]: We’ve had a sort of scheme from an architect, and really it looks most attractive. There’d be at least thirty nice flats, and you know what people will pay for flats nowadays. Don’t you think it’s a splendid idea, Ernest? [He does not reply. She smiles at him and then her smile falters, but she returns hopefully to the theme.] I felt if we all discussed it in a nice friendly way, we could decide something. I know you business men like everything cut-and-dried, but I believe it’s better to be nice and friendly. It isn’t true that people will only do things for money. [Looks at the women, more intimate tone.] Only last week, I went to old Mrs. Jepson’s funeral, and I was walking back through the cemetery with Mrs. Whitehead – I hadn’t been round there for years – and I saw Carol’s grave – and, of course, I was rather upset, suddenly coming on it like that – but it was so beautifully kept, with flowers – lovely flowers – growing there. And I thought, now there’s an instance – nobody’s told them to do that or paid them for it – it’s just natural kindness –

MADGE [harshly]: No it isn’t. Somebody must have been paying for it.

KAY [turning]: Alan! It must be you. Isn’t it?

ALAN: Well – I do send them something – once every year, y’know – it isn’t much.

HAZEL: Oh, Mother – I’d forgotten about Carol – it’s sixteen years ago.

ALAN: Seventeen.

KAY: I’d nearly forgotten about Carol too.

Mrs. C. [with some emotion]: Don’t think I had – because I was so stupid about that grave. I’m not one of those people who remember graves, it’s human beings I remember. Only the other day, when I was sitting upstairs, I heard Carol shouting “Mo-ther, mo-ther” – you know how she used to do. And then I began thinking about her, my poor darling, and how she came in that awful day, her face quite greyish, and said, “Mother, I’ve the most sickening pain,” and then it was too late when they operated –

HAZEL: Yes, Mother, we remember.

ERNEST [harsh and astonishing]: I’ll tell you what you don’t remember – and what some of you never even knew. She was the best of the lot – that one – little Carol – worth all the rest of you put together.

HAZEL [a shocked wife]: Ernest!

ERNEST: Yes, and I’m counting you in. You were the one I wanted – that’s all right, I got the one I wanted – but it didn’t take me two hours
to see that little Carol was the best of the lot. [Adds gloomily.] Didn’t surprise me when she went off like that. Out! Finish! Too good to last.