Betrayal by Harold Pinter

Author:Harold Pinter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2013-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

1973

SCENE FIVE

Hotel Room. Venice. 1973. Summer.

Emma on bed reading. Robert at window looking out.

She looks up at him, then back at the book.

EMMA It’s Torcello tomorrow, isn’t it?

ROBERT What?

EMMA We’re going to Torcello tomorrow, aren’t we?

ROBERT Yes. That’s right.

EMMA That’ll be lovely.

ROBERT Mmn.

EMMA I can’t wait.

Pause.

ROBERT Book good?

EMMA Mmn. Yes.

ROBERT What is it?

EMMA This new book. This man Spinks.

ROBERT Oh that. Jerry was telling me about it.

EMMA Jerry? Was he?

ROBERT He was telling me about it at lunch last week.

EMMA Really? Does he like it?

ROBERT Spinks is his boy. He discovered him.

EMMA Oh. I didn’t know that.

ROBERT Unsolicited manuscript.

Pause.

You think it’s good, do you?

EMMA Yes, I do. I’m enjoying it.

ROBERT Jerry thinks it’s good too. You should have lunch with us one day and chat about it.

EMMA Is that absolutely necessary?

Pause.

It’s not as good as all that.

ROBERT You mean it’s not good enough for you to have lunch with Jerry and me and chat about it?

EMMA What the hell are you talking about?

ROBERT I must read it again myself, now it’s in hard covers.

EMMA Again?

ROBERT Jerry wanted us to publish it.

EMMA Oh, really?

ROBERT Well, naturally. Anyway, I turned it down.

EMMA Why?

ROBERT Oh . . . not much more to say on that subject, really, is there?

EMMA What do you consider the subject to be?

ROBERT Betrayal.

EMMA No, it isn’t.

ROBERT Isn’t it? What is it then?

EMMA I haven’t finished it yet. I’ll let you know.

ROBERT Well, do let me know.

Pause.

Of course, I could be thinking of the wrong book.

Silence.

By the way, I went into American Express yesterday.

She looks up.

EMMA Oh?

ROBERT Yes. I went to cash some travellers cheques. You get a much better rate there, you see, than you do in an hotel.

EMMA Oh, do you?

ROBERT Oh yes. Anyway, there was a letter there for you. They asked me if you were any relation and I said yes. So they asked me if I wanted to take it. I mean, they gave it to me. But I said no, I would leave it. Did you get it?

EMMA Yes.

ROBERT I suppose you popped in when you were out shopping yesterday evening?

EMMA That’s right.

ROBERT Oh well, I’m glad you got it.

Pause.

To be honest, I was amazed that they suggested I take it. It could never happen in England. But these Italians . . . so free and easy. I mean, just because my name is Downs and your name is Downs doesn’t mean that we’re the Mr and Mrs Downs that they, in their laughing Mediterranean way, assume we are. We could be, and in fact are vastly more likely to be, total strangers. So let’s say I, whom they laughingly assume to be your husband, had taken the letter, having declared myself to be your husband but in truth being a total stranger, and opened it, and read it, out of nothing more than idle curiosity, and then thrown it in a canal, you would never have received it and would have been deprived of your legal right to open your own mail, and all this because of Venetian je m’en foutisme.

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