The Dwarfs by Harold Pinter

Author:Harold Pinter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Fourteen

- Why don’t you put it on the table? What’s up your nose now?

- What do you want me to say?

- Open it up, Len. I can’t see you for the cobwebs.

- You must excuse me. I’m in the centre of a holy plague.

- Do you want me to send out a cart to bury the dead?

- Are you a nonprofitmaking concern?

- Of course I’m not, Mark said. Who is? What are you saying?

- Sometimes you’re a snake, to me, Len hissed.

- Now don’t get me against the ropes, Len.

- You’re a snake in my house.

- Really?

- It’s a question of motive. I don’t trust your motives, Mark. I can understand you’re after some profit from all comers. Yes, who isn’t. But I smell a rat when it seems you’re trying to buy and sell my firm. It’s the action of a snake. What do you think I am, a ventriloquist’s dummy? I object to opening my mouth and saying something you’ve put into it. By insinuation. That happens. As for you, you sit and watch points. You weigh me. You keep a tab on me. You cash in all the time. How much are you making? You think you’re on to a good thing. I could even accuse you of working out my casehistory, though I have no substantial evidence. Quite honestly I wouldn’t put it past you. But I object very strongly to this buying and selling of me, this sticking labels on my every word, my every action. You’ve got the scientific mind, not Pete. That’s what the world doesn’t appreciate. Am I wronging you? All right, how calculated is it? It appears to me quite often, Mark, very calculated. I don’t like the smell. I don’t want to see through your eyes or anybody’s eyes. I have enough trouble making ends meet as it is. What are you after? I tell you I won’t have a snake in my house.

Mark stood up, walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He drank it and stood in the doorway.

- Balls, he said.

- That doesn’t mean a thing to me.

- What are you waiting for, a statement for the defence?

- That’s up to you.

- Aaah! Mark grated.

He sat down on the edge of a chair, coughed shortly and spat in the fireplace.

- Still, I’m glad you’ve said all this, he said, belching and wiping his mouth. Who knows? You may be right. Your conclusion is I’m a snooper? Why should I answer?

- You want me to leave your house?

- Do what you like.

Len clenched his fist and thumped the chairarm.

- So you’ve got nothing to say?

- No.

- Do you understand what I was talking about?

- Yes.

- And you don’t agree?

Mark shrugged.

- You disagree?

Mark cleared his throat and hawked. He banged his chest and spat.

- What?

- You think I’m mistaken?

Mark shrugged.

- But am I? Apart from what I think and you think, am I?

- Am you?

- Am I?

Mark shrugged and sniffed. He blew his nose.

- What’s the matter with you tonight? Len said.

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