AT THE PLAY.
"Caroline."
A baby, did he but know it, is only happy reaching out from the bath for the soap. When he gets it, lo! it is mere froth and bitterness. That, roughly, is Mr. Maugham's idea in Caroline.
If you are to love a woman, for heaven's sake, says he, take care that she be safe bound beyond your reach. All attainment is dead-sea fruit. But how is anyone to believe this depressing sort of doctrine when the woman in question is such an engaging divinity as his Caroline Ashley, interpreted by Miss Irene Vanbrugh at the very top of her form? The doctrine, indeed, may be hanged for the nefarious half-truth it is; but this would still leave you free to appreciate one of the most brilliant and finished pieces of work which Mr. Maugham has yet done for the stage. True, it is merely an airy trifle; but it is almost perfect of its kind.
The action opens on the morning of the announcement in The Times of the death of Caroline's extremely difficult husband, who has long been a wanderer seeking spirituous consolations in out-of-the-way places of the earth. Robert Oldham, a quite delightful barrister (Mr. Leonard Boyne; so you will understand the "delightful"), has worshipped Caroline with an honourable fidelity for ten years, waiting patiently for the day on which she shall be free. Well, here is the long-desired day. Affectionate, officious friends come to congratulate each of the pair before they meet, and each confesses to a curious chilling sense of dread. When the embarrassing moment of the téte-à-téte arrives, Robert, obviously ill-at-ease and apparently more as a matter of duty than of eager conviction, suggests that Caroline shall name the day. She gives him a blank refusal. Both affect dismay at this queer ending of their long-deferred hopes, but eventually confess, mid peals of their own happy laughter, their actual relief. So ends the first chapter.
BLIGHTED TROTH.
Caroline Ashley …… Miss Irene Vanbrugh.
Robert Oldham …… Mr. Leonard Boyne.