"Don’t shove! One by one! Close the door!”
Fine, very well, so the other one’s playing, the old guy’s keeping more or less quiet. That is, he’s wheezing less.. We hear Big Ben ring out eleven o’clock. Boom! Boom!.. The strokes roll off into the clouds..
Briefly that’s the setting..
It’s not much of a risk now… I can tell you everything.. the whole comedy. It’s been ages and ages! Boy, and how! That’s all done with!. It’s a dream. just images left.. imagination!. and then there’s been the war of 1939- and then what you know about. It’s like another world now.. Too bad.. Really too bad.. I’ll probably never see the real places again.. They won’t let me go back there.. still, let me tell you, it would be my last wish. They’ll hang me first.. It’s too bad.. it’s a pity.. I’m forced to imagine.. I'm going to create a little artistic effect. You’ll excuse me. I wouldn’t have liked being reduced to melodrama. All the same isn’t that my case?. Just put yourself in my place. I wouldn’t like someone to be telling you things the wrong way.. later on.. when there won’t be a single witness left… no one living. when it’ll be just loose talk. old wives’ tales.. scraps of cheap smears.. Ah! They’ll get a good kick out of my suffering, tossing dirt at me right and left!.. If I don’t take full precautions I’ll be blackened in advance, if I don’t tell all the details starting today, starting now! not in an hour!
everything very scrupulous, exact, meticulous!.. So I’ll go on with my whole story, at Big Ben’s Boom! Boom!. the strokes rolling off into the clouds.. rumbling in the echo.. that’s exactly how it was… I’m not trying to play on your feelings. I’m not straining for effect. The foghorn. the boat going upstream. You hear its big puffing close by. It’s true, it’s passing right alongside you.. The power it breathes, the way it inhales, its propellers grinding away like all sixty.. right near the bank. the water whispering.. just enormous.. "Choo! Choo! ”… It’s passed by..
Upstairs Boro’s fallen asleep playing the Merry Widow Waltz. He’s slumped on the keyboard, his head on his elbows.. That’s how he’s sleeping, very uncomfortable..
Downstairs in the shop the two of us and Delphine are dozing. We’ve finally fallen asleep.. But the old guy’s starting to choke.. He’s asking someone to go get his salts!.. He’s acting up again.. Delphine’s all in. she’s also choking a bit.. muzzled up. the atmosphere’s awful.. thick with fumigations, all the muck for asthma. Ah! I’m getting fed up!.. getting tired of all the guy’s quirks!..
"Hello, Mr. Claben! Hello! Please now, try a little air!”
She pleads with him to let her… let her open the door a bit. it’s true that we’re dying in the joint, it’s so thick and close, but he’s hostile, he won’t have it!..
"Open it?. Open it?” he gasps..
He stays like that with his mouth open..
"Mr. Claben! Mr. Claben!” Delphine groans.
But he absolutely won’t even let her touch the latch.
The stubborn louse!..
I go to get the brandy, we wet his lips with it..
I can’t find the salts. The brandy’s strong, he writhes and squirms. Then Delphine and I have a drink. I’m not a drinker but there’re times you need it… need it or not, Del-phine’s always boozing… I leave her the bottle, she helps herself.. two.. three.. four stiff ones, one after the other.. then she gets an idea..
"I’m going,” she says.. "Don’t hold me back! Neither of you! I’m going to get the doctor!”
There’s decision for you! She rearranges her gear, her skirts..
"Dr. Clodovitz! naturally!. The perfect man! the perfect man!”
A pronouncement!.. It wasn’t a bad idea. I’d even say it was a fine one.. but the hospital wasn’t around the corner.. Boy, what a stretch!.. First she had to go to the Tunnel. then cross under the river. and then all along Wapping, on foot, in the dark, and all alone.
It was foolhardy. pretty unhealthy alleys.. and not lit up at all.. well, almost not. They were expecting attacks, maybe some more Zeppelins and they were saying even airplanes which were supposed to fly all over Wapping because of the factories and loaded with terrific bombs. The streets weren’t at all safe. Not only because of the Zeppelins!. There were also prowlers taking advantage of the darkness. But she insisted, she wanted to save her Claben!. At once!.. absolutely!. It’s true he was having a pretty bad time. He wasn’t red now, as he’d been awhile before but pale pallid almost gray… He was fully conscious.. He was groaning quietly between gasps. We finished the bottle and a second one, too, discussing whether she’d go for Dr. Clodovitz or not.. The second bottle was cognac.. We got so excited that we woke up Boro. He was grunting upstairs.
He comes down. He starts wanting to drink everything!.. So does the old guy!. "Myum! Myum!” he mutters. with his whole mouth… he can’t budge, still and all he winks at us so we’ll understand. We soak his lips with booze but ne can’t swallow anything.. Seeing him so sick Boro starts petting him, smiling at him… he kisses him.. soothes him.. That starts Delphine wheedling him.. what a big tender moment!
You can see she’s jealous. she wants all the kisses for herself.. Finally they huddle together.. they fiddle about and cuddle, they get all tangled up right in the poor patient’s bed… I hardly knew what to say or do with all that going on, but I was comfortable, that was all I asked for, I’d fixed up a kind of litter with the oriental rugs, the woolens and the coverlets, stuck in between the wall and the wardrobe… It was pretty good!.. I wasn’t asking for anything else.. It reminded me of when I used to be on stable watch, but I wasn’t in the manure now! in brocades and plush! "All right!” I said to myself.. "Let them enjoy themselves! let them enjoy themselves! youth doesn’t last! That’s all right with me.. But I’m going to take a serious nap! afterward I’ll go to the kitchen. I’ll find a bite to eat. But after the workout I’ve had, hit the hay first!. Ah! a good snooze!. hunger can wait!”.. Go fuck yourself! Just at that moment Delphine starts yelling! Bawls us out!
We’re murderers and ought to be ashamed! we’re not letting her get the doctor! Our behavior is frightful!. She’s raving!..
"Mr. Claben! Mr. Claben!” she yelps. "You need a doctor!
.. You need a doctor!”
The old man’s in a state of collapse but he’s still wary, damn it!.. He’s not staying alone with us!.. He doesn’t have confidence! He grabs on to her lace!..
"Be a lady!. Be a lady!” he whines. "Don’t go out at night! ”
"But I am a lady, sir!.. I am!”
She a lady?. Ah! What a question! a lady and how! quite a lady!. and of the very finest quality!. He mustn’t doubt that! She immediately takes offense! She shows him!.. She grabs her gloves, she straightens her hair, her hat, her flowers, her plume, a pin for her veil! and there she is all dressed up!
absolutely ready!. Mind all made up!
Hail Delphine! Hail you beauty! O hail! Nobody’ll prevent her! So have a drink!. and courage!. hurrah for her determination!. Madame Daredevil!. Even Claben’s singing, gasping hoarsely! The dashing verses! the galloping send-off! The parting shot!. So all together!. Glory to valor! She’s not scared of anything!. of the darkness! of hoodlums! of ruffians! no more of Zeppelins than of butter! Let 'er bring back Clodovitz!
Delphine! oh! Delphine! oh!
For she’s a jolly good fellow!