 Right, General Electric, care of KMBC, Kansas City 6, Missouri. The time now is 8.30. Remember a Hallmark card when you carry enough to send the very best. Hallmark greeting cards bring you Sarah Churchill in Rumor Gardens of Breath of Air, transcribed on the Hallmark Playhouse. Hallmark brings you Hollywood's greatest stars in outstanding stories chosen by one of the world's best-known authors. Ladies and gentlemen, this is James Hilton. Tonight on our Hallmark Playhouse we present a dramatization of the latest novel of a very fine English writer, Ruma Godden. It's called A Breath of Air, and it handles a theme which is none the worse because Shakespeare once handled it in the Tempest. The theme of an enchanted island presided over by a philosopher who has a beautiful daughter. Ms. Godden works out this idea with much originality and charm. To star in her story we are equally lucky, for we had that charming daughter of a distinguished father, Sarah Churchill. And now a word about Hallmark cards from Frank Goss before we begin the first act of A Breath of Air. When you're looking for a way to say something to someone you care for, look for a Hallmark card and you'll find the right words. Because Hallmark cards are designed to say what you want to say, the way you want to say it. And in the good taste you demand of anything that bears your personal signature. That's why Hallmark on the back of a greeting card has come to mean you cared enough to send the very best. And now Hallmark Playhouse presenting Ruma Godden's A Breath of Air starring Sarah Churchill. Fun at some time or another has visited an island, or had an island of his own. A coral island, a desert island, a treasure or Swiss family rodents an island, an island of the mind. So said Mr. Van Loomis, who with his young daughter found his island in the Pacific. An island called Terakwios. Small, fragrant, inhabited by a people who had lived there in peace for centuries. This little lovely island, Terakwios. The Terakwios, I remember mornings. I remember my father and me sitting in the garden with the voices of the natives and the sea and the wind blending like a symphony in our ears. I remember the squirrels running up and down the trees and the breeze scattering a golden windfall of acacia flowers on the grass. I remember the begonia creepers swaying and stirring and an occasional school of porpoises diving under and out of the water. Yes, when I think of Terakwios, I remember beauty. But I also remember discontentment and an uneasy feeling of being lonely and not knowing for who or for what I was lonely. And I remember how the spring that I was twenty, my father's voice suddenly became an irritation in my ears. Teres, my dear, you've finally touched your breakfast. I'm sorry, father. I don't seem to be very hungry this morning. You weren't hungry last night or yesterday morning or the morning before that? Aren't you feeling well? I really don't know. I don't like evasive answers, Teres. Either you're ill or you're not ill. It is that simple, father. Of course it is. I wish I'd known my mother. I wish I knew her now. Well, why are you crying? She's been dead over fifteen years. You didn't cry for her now. I want to know about her. I want to know who she was. I want to know who we are. It's time I was told. Who are we? Why did we come here? Who am I? Your mother came of a titled family, too. She and I both had large estates. And while she lived, I managed them. But after she died, they didn't interest me anymore. She was gone, and my life was over, and the world had come to an end. Oh, father. So I renounced my title in my brother's favor. I'd heard of this island, and I bought it. And I brought you here. I did my best to see that the natives had a good life, and that you were raised properly. Have you never been lonely? Well, I found that guiding the natives and educating you made a life both full and interesting. I feel that there is so much that I don't know, and I want to know. Out there is a world. People live in it. Of my race, of my age. I know nothing about it. I feel. I think I feel. I don't know. I see. Well, Charis, I think I understand now. Do you? Then you understand more than I do. Charis, my dear, there's an old Hindu proverb. When the pupil is ready, the teacher will come. Whether it's an airplane, and it seems to be in trouble, I've got to call the men. When I saw the stranger coming towards me, it was like a moment held in time. The sun shone. The white sand stretched silently beyond him. Even the sea seemed quiet and breathless. How do you do? My name is Bob Doubleday. I had some trouble with my plane. I know. We saw. My father went out with some men to try and help. Well, the plane seems to be all right, but we ran out of gas. We? Are there more of you? Well, just my friend McGinty. He twisted his ankle getting out of the water. He's down on the beach. So, here you are. Oh, good morning, sir. Father, this is... My name is friend Loomis. This is private property. May I ask what you're doing here? Father. I'm afraid we don't welcome strangers. So I see. Since the war, we've had to be careful. I shall have to ask to see your papers and those of your companion. Very well. I'll get McGinty. He has our papers. I'll be right back. Father, why are you doing this? He didn't land here deliberately. He had an accident. You know that. I... I should think you'd be glad to see someone of our own race. We know nothing about this man. Does that mean we have to be suspicious and rude? That means we have to be on guard. Come, my child, and walk down the beach and talk to him. And I walk down the beach towards Bob Doubleday and his friend McGinty. And now the sea pounded in my ears with all the excitement of new music heard for the first time. And I had all I could do to keep from running down the beach to meet them. How ordinary our conversation was that day. How extraordinary were my emotions as I listened. I heard my father say... We don't allow strangers on this island. And my heart paused as McGinty said... Well, we certainly have no desire to be here. And we'll get out of here as soon as we can. You don't have to worry about us. I wanted to say to them, stay, please stay. You're the world. And if you go, I may have lost the world forever. Well, I've got to get back. I'm a playwright. I have an opening in New York next week. We can cable for gasoline, can we? We have no cable station. I listened. I was glad for the first time that we had no means of communication. Well, can't we radio somebody? There is no wireless, Mr. McGinty. Well, what do you do when something urgent arises? When you have lived as long as I have, you'll know that nothing is urgent. Nothing was urgent, my father said. How could he miss the urgency of this very moment? I repeat, nothing is urgent. You'll have to wait and see what happens. I accept your story now that you've landed. You may stay on the island, provided you do as I say. Thanks for nothing. You'll both go to my house, and you must give me your word that you will not try to leave the island, either of you, without my permission. What try by any means to reach the outside world? Bob and McGinty stare at my father for a moment. A long moment. And then Bob said, Why do you ask that? We've kept the world away from this island. And if you want my help, you'll have to respect my wishes and let me go about helping you in my own way. Otherwise, I'll not help you at all. Do you agree? Well, we seem to have no choice. Very well. You, McGinty, you must wear a hat at all times. I'll see that you get one. The sun is treacherous on this part of the globe, particularly for someone of your complexion. We're in your hands, Mr. Van Loomis. Bob turned to me and smiled. And my heart beat faster. I couldn't say a word, but inside I was thinking, Welcome. Welcome to Terracuse. I showed our island to Bob. I took him to the native villages and watched the people at work. I took him to their festivals. He swam along our beaches. He climbed our mountains. He set at the edge of our cliffs at sunrise and sunset. And gradually I saw the island weave its spell about him. Look down below the cliff. See, the fishermen are coming in with their horn. This is like another world. What is it like in your world, Bob? My world? My world is made up of cities, of electric lights, of buildings, taller than these cliffs, and then of narrow streets jammed with automobiles and taxi cabs of dust and gasoline fumes, mechanical devices. I can turn a knob and hear someone sing thousands of miles away. This couldn't be making much sense to you. What are the women like in your world? Well, let's see. They wear stockings for one thing. Have you ever seen a pair of stockings? No, I haven't, but I've seen pictures. Well, they wear shoes with high heels and they wear elaborate dresses and coats. I'm afraid I could never understand that world. I'm afraid I could never live in it. Well, I don't think you'd want to. This is a better world here, Charis. Here you have simplicity and peace and contentment. I want excitement. Well, I've had excitement and I tell you this is better. I have had this. The excitement seems better. Charis, there's something that I want to ask you. Your father doesn't like McGinty or me. Why is that? It doesn't that he doesn't like you. He doesn't trust you. Why? I don't know. Except that you come from a world he has rejected. He doesn't want the world to discover this island. He doesn't want people coming here. That's why he wants to get you off in his own way. Well, McGinty doesn't believe your father intends to let us get off at all. McGinty has a girl in San Francisco and he wants to get back to it. And you? Do you want to get back to America, too, Bob? Charis, if anyone had told me a girl like you existed, I wouldn't have believed him. You live here like a princess in the middle of an enchanted island. You're beautiful. No one ever told me I was beautiful before. Traingey, I don't feel as though I ever kissed anyone before. Zula! Zula! One of the men just told me, the American McGinty, every night he goes out in the lighthouse and he blinks the light in the sky. They say he sends signals. You've broken your word. No, no, believe me. I had no idea McGinty was up to anything like this, but since he has been, perhaps it's best. You want to return? Of course. I thought you were beginning to like it here. I do like it here, but each man must live in the world he knows, very well, Bob. New, you will not say anything about this and you will ask the men who saw not to say anything either. Do you hear me? As you wish, Zula. And now, I think we better start back to the house. It's almost dinner time. Charis, is something wrong? No, nothing is wrong. It's time to get back, that's all. More than time to get back. But you were in bed asleep hours ago. I couldn't sleep. I came out here to think. What about? Why did you want to keep Bob and McGinty here? You could have sent some of the natives over to the mainland. It would take four days for them to get there. Why didn't you send them? Well, perhaps I wanted the Americans to see how things can be in our world. Did you think you could keep them here? I thought perhaps they might want to stay. I thought... I thought you might want them to stay. I want them to leave. Do you hear me, Father? I want them to leave. I want them to leave. You were lonely before they came. I'm lonely enough. Oh, Father, I'm lonely enough. Let's go to the second act of A Breath of Air starring Sarah Churchill. Mother's Day, a week from Sunday, gives us all a wonderful opportunity to tell our mother just how much she means to us. To express our love and gratitude for her kindness and care. You can find the words to do this in a beautiful way, a way she'll cherish and long remember if you look for a hallmark card. For hallmark cards have a way of saying what you want to say, just the way you want to say it. The words echo your feelings and seem to go straight to the heart of the person receiving the message. At the fine stores where hallmark cards are sold, you'll also find cards to send to the others you want to remember on Mother's Day. Your wife, your grandmother, a favorite aunt. It's also a perfect time to say, thank you or I'm thinking of you to the mother of your friends, the mother of the one you love, a mother to be. All of these you'll find in the beautiful collection of hallmark Mother's Day cards. Each one will carry your thoughts across time and space, letting them live forever in a mother's heart. And remember, that hallmark on the back of the card you send is proof that you cared enough to send the very best. Now back to James Hilton and the second act of A Breath of Air starring Sarah Churchill. This was to remember forever went on. And now she was remote, distant with Bob. The kid who went out to the lighthouse night after night, sending his message for help out into the blackness. And during the day, he wandered disconsolidately around the island, forgetting Mr. Van Loomis' caution to wear his hat. And at last, one day... Sulla, come quickly, come quickly, the American is ill of the fever. It was night when Neil brought me the news. I'd been walking across the island and I ran back. And it seemed as though there were leaden weights on my feet and on my heart. I didn't know which American it was until I reached the house. Curse this island. Curse it. Sink it into the sea. Don't go too close to the men's cherries. He's thrashing around quite a bit. Neil, have you sent for the native doctors? I haven't taken care of Sulla McGinty myself. I heard the medicine ready for him. Are there a real doctor on the island? Neil is refined as doctor. We have, Bob. But he really takes care of anyone personally. You see, he is the chieftain of the tribe. Chieftain of the tribe? Well, he works in this house as a servant. His job is of his own choosing. Those are the ceremonial drums. The natives are asking their gods to spare the life of your friend. Fog in San Francisco. You must lie still. But this was a beautiful spot. It is beautiful. There's something I must tell you. My father could have sent you to the mainland in native boats. It's a dangerous trip and it takes four days. But it could have been done. If McGinty dies, then we have killed him. No. If McGinty dies, I've killed him. Why do you say that? Because I knew about the trip to the mainland. McGinty has told me the first few days we were here. You knew? Then why didn't you say something? Well, because I kept finding reasons I should stay on Taraquas. You kept finding reasons? I'd fallen in love. It became very difficult to leave. I've been thinking. Ever since the other day when I kissed you, I've been going over and over and over the thing in my mind. Could I stay here with you? Do you realize you can't? Now I realize I can't. And whether you could live in America, there are worlds between us, Charis. When you put your arms around me, those worlds are gone. Charis. Father. Well, Mr. Doubleday. Oh, Father, how is McGinty? He's sleeping. He's going to be all right. Thanks God for that. I can't tell you how grateful I am. And is this how you show your gratitude to my daughter and then going off and leaving her? Well, I'm afraid you don't understand that. On the contrary, I understand perfectly. You broke your word. Your friend has been sending signals. Yes, he has. A while ago there was an answer to your signal. The lights were flashing right out there. If you hadn't been so preoccupied, you would have seen them. They're hunting for you. Mr. Van Loomis, I'd like to marry Charis. You would like to... Yes, very much. What do you feel about this? I would like... very much to marry Bob. And leave the island? Yes, Father. You'd leave the island? Yes. She knows nothing of the world. She has no idea what she's saying. But did you think that you could keep her on an island forever? Did you think that you could stay yourself? I shall stay. You can't hide from the world indefinitely. If one is to live, one must learn to live in the world. Charis will do as she pleases. But I shall stay here. Look. Darling, that plane must be hunting for you. Come, we must get down to the lighthouse quick and signal it. Won't you please change your mind and come with us? Oh, my dear, I'm too old to be transplanted. I belong here now, Charis. I don't agree with you. You belong where you are needed. You can't run from responsibility indefinitely. I need peace. I need peace. I need peace. I need tranquility. I need terracuous. Father, don't you see? You carry peace and tranquility and terracuous within you. Terracuous from now on must be an island of the heart of the mind. A symbol of our... of our own ability to find what we seek within ourselves. A symbol of our own ability to live within the world and yet have another world within us. You came here when you were hurt and alone. But the skies have long since healed. You can go back to your own world now. You can go back and carry with you all the terracuous has given you. All it could ever give you. Are you ready, darling? Father. Bob, will you ask them if they can wait another hour? I think I can pack in that tower. I think I can pack in that tower. I think I can pack in that time. Father. Oh, father. So we left terracuous. Bob and McGinty, father. We rode on gleaming wings back to the civilized world. I alone watched the island disappear below it. And then I went up to the front of the plane and sat beside Bob and put my hand in his. And Bob turned to me and said, Are you happy, darling? I answered him with my whole heart. Happy? Oh, Bob. The world is opening in front of me. The whole shining, wonderful world. You don't look like a princess on an enchanted island anymore. No. She certainly doesn't. She looks like a woman alive, awake, and in love. Well, in all the fairy tales I ever read, that's what the princess on the enchanted island was waiting to be. I looked at Bob, and I thought, Father, you said it better before he arrived. You said then, when the pupil is ready, the teacher will come. And as I once whispered to myself, welcome the terraculous. I now whispered, welcome to my heart. Churchill and James Hilton will return in a moment. There's no gift you could give your mother anything as much to her as your love, expressed in both words and actions. Now, of course, only you can express your love in action, but you can find a hallmark card to help you express it in words, and sometimes the right words inspire action, you know? So during this week before Mother's Day, resolve to stop in and see the beautiful collection of Mother's Day cards at the fine stores where you buy all your hallmark cards. Choose one that says what you want to say or the one above all others that seems as if it's written just for the two of you. You can find such a one, you know. You can find a hallmark card to say what you want to say just the way you want to say it, including that hallmark on the back which says you cared enough to send the very best. Here again is James Hilton. You were certainly grand as Charis in our story tonight, Miss Churchill. Thank you for being with us. You know, when I first read a breath of air, I was very proud of you in the part. How nice of you, Mr. Hilton. Thank you. I was delighted to play Charis because I've admired Rumer Garten's books. She's English, too, you know. So I was very happy when I heard it was in her story that I would make my debut on Hallmark Playhouse. That's right. This is your first visit with us, isn't it, Sarah? Well, after your performance, I can understand why the audience loved you so much the other night when your play opened. I bet your father would be very proud as I am of him. I can well imagine that. You know, while I've never had the honour of meeting your father, I've long admired him as a statesman and as a writer. And it was also my pleasure last year to take part in Hallmark's announcement that his delightful paintings would appear exclusively on Hallmark cards. Yes, I know. I loved them. And since then I've discovered how nice it is to find a Hallmark card for so many different occasions and to say what you want to say that's a very gracious tribute from a very charming person and we do appreciate it. And now, before we say good night, I want to tell you about next week's show on the Hallmark Playhouse. We'll have the first lady of the American Theatre as our guest, Miss Ethel Barrymore. That's wonderful. What story will she play in, Mr. Hilton? It's called A Man's Mother by Gladys Hastie Carroll and it tells of her rather magnificent mother who isn't going to stand any nonsense from anybody, not even from her own son and daughter. Our Hallmark Playhouse is every Thursday. Our director-producer is Bill Gay and our script tonight was by Jean Holloway. And in next Thursday then this is James Hilton saying, good night. The scores that have been carefully selected to give you expert and friendly service. Remember a Hallmark card when you carry it up to send the very best. Our music tonight was composed and conducted by Bernard Herman. The part of Bob Doubleday was played by Carl Swenson. Mr. Van Loomis was Eric Dressler. McGinty was Dan Tobin. And Neo Jackson Beck. This is Frank Goss saying, good night to you all until next week at the same time when Hallmark Playhouse returns to present Gladys Hastie Carroll's A Man's Mother starring Ethel Barrymore. And the week following, we shall present her illustrious brother, Lionel Barrymore, in Carl Van Doren's Benjamin Franklin on the Hallmark Playhouse. This is the preceding program we're transcribed. This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System. Celebrating. Celebrating.