 Great Scenes from Great Plays with your host Walter Hamden and starring tonight Ms. Gertrude Lawrence and Mr. Dennis King in What Every Woman Knows. Each week at this same hour the families of the Protestant Episcopal Church in your own community and the Episcopal Actors Guild invite you to share the dramatic inspiration of Great Scenes from Great Plays as transcribed by famous artists of stage, screen and radio. And now here is your host, the distinguished actor manager, Mr. Walter Hamden. Thank you and good evening. Our play tonight is an old favorite. One I'm sure you're going to enjoy. It is James M. Barrie's delightful drama What Every Woman Knows. And here to play the roles of Maggie Wiley and John Shand, I am privileged to present two of the theatre's truly great stars, Ms. Gertrude Lawrence and Mr. Dennis King. Thank you, Walter. I'm very happy to be here as a guest of the Episcopal Actors Guild and of course working with Gertrude Lawrence is always a pleasure. Thank you, Dennis. You know, Mr. Hamden, I've looked forward to this visit for a long time and especially to playing Maggie Wiley. She's one of my favorite characters. Yes, Ms. Lawrence. She's an unusual person in many respects as we will find out very shortly. So let us raise the curtain now on What Every Woman Knows, adapted for radio by Howard Tichman with music composed and conducted by Nathan Crowell and starring Gertrude Lawrence as Maggie Wiley and Dennis King as John Shand. To the north of England is a strange and wonderful country called by name Scotland. Its scenery is as rugged and grand as the character of its men and its skies are as soft and delicate as the charm of its women. In the well-appointed home of the owners of the rock granite quarry in a small Scottish village, two of these rugged men are spending evening discussing a rather delicate subject. Hello. Well, there's no duties. That's what Maggie said her heart on James. David, it's terrible not to be able to give her sister what she said her heart on and she's getting on in years too, though she looks so young. You know, I never can make up my mind, James, whether her curls make her look younger or older. Younger. I hear a winding the clocks. I wouldn't sit on that fine chair. Oh, I forgot again, Maggie. You're late, David. It's nearly bed day. I was kept late at a public meeting, Maggie. Was it a good meeting? Oh, very sure. That young John Shand wouldn't make a speech. John Shand? Is that the student? No, the same. The Shands were always an impudent family. Was it a good speech, David? It was very fine, but he needn't have made fun of me. He dared, David. Oh, I did feel bitterly the want of education at the meeting. Oh, David. There's ten yards of books on our shelves for you to study, David, and they were selected by the Minister of Gallo Shields. I hear, David, that the Minister of Gallo Shields is to be married to that Miss Turnbull. He's a very nice gentleman. I'm sure I hope he's chosen wisely. I expect she's full of charm. Charm? What is charm, exactly, Maggie? Oh, it's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need to have anything else, and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have. Some women, the few, have charm for all, and most have charm for one, but some have charm for none. I have a sister that has charm. Oh, no, James, you have not. Well, let's be practical. Let's go to our beds. Maggie, I don't feel very sleepy yet. Nor me either. You, too, aren't sleepy when as well-known ten o'clock is your regular bed time. No. No. There's something up. You've got to tell me, David. Maggie, there are burglars about. Hey, we set up last night waiting for them, and we're to sit up tonight again. So now that you know, if you'll go to your bed, Maggie. Me and my two brothers in danger. Oh, there's no danger. There's just one burglar. And I would be very pleased if there were three of them. Three of them? And they say my sister has no charm, James. Here the burglar comes. You can't see him through the window, David. Hey, keep back now, Maggie. Keep back. Gone to bed. No for a lamp. I hope you find the chair a comfortable young man. I have no complaints to make against the chair. John Shan, the disgrace to your family. Oh, I feel pity for the shans this night. I'll thank you, Mr. Wiley, not to pit him a family. I think you should let the young man explain. It may be so bad as we thought. Explain away, my Billy. Well, I'm desperate for books. You have all I want here. No use to you but for display. Well, I came here to study. I come twice weekly. Well, is it a case for the police? It is. It seems to me, James, it's a case for us all to go to our beds and leave the young man to study. But not on that chair. Thank you, Miss Maggie, but I couldn't be beholden to you. My opinion is that he's nobody, so oak with him. Yes, oak with me. And you'll be cheered to hear that I'm likely to be nobody for a long time. I'm a poor scholar. On the contrary, I'm a brilliant scholar. Are you serious minded? I never laughed in my life. One more question. Are you promised to a lady? Yes. I've never given one of them a single word of encouragement. I'm too much occupied thinking about my career. So James, best you and I speak of this in the other room alone. I don't know what ideas they have in their heads, but sit down, young man, till they come back. My name's Mr. Shand. Until I'm called up, I decline to sit down again in this house. Oh, then I'm thinking young sir, you have a weary weight. Oh, Mr. Shand. Maggie, don't you see that you're not wanted? I do, David. I have a proposition to put before Mr. Shand and women are out of place in business transactions. Are they now? Woman! Yes, David. Very well, then. Sit there, but don't interfere, mind. Mr. Shand, we're willing, my brother James and me, to lay out 300 pounds on your education. Mr. Wiley, take care. On condition that five years from now, Maggie Wiley, if still unmarried, can claim to marry you should such be her wish. The thing to be perfectly open on her side, but you, to be strictly tied down. I regret to say it. It doesn't matter what he regrets to say, David, because I decide against it. And I think it was very ill done of you to make any such proposal. I must say, Miss Maggie, I don't see what reasons you can have for being so set against it. You're safe, Goddy Maggie. You don't need to take him unless you like, but he has to take you. That is an unfair arrangement. It's a good arrangement for you, Mr. Shand. The chances are you'll never have to go on with it, for in all probability she'll marry soon. She's tremendous run after. Even if that's true, it's just keeping me in reserve in case she misses doing better. That's a situation in a nutshell. 300 pounds is no great sum, Mr. Wiley. A young scratchman of your ability, let loose upon the world with 300 pounds. What could he not do? Miss Maggie, what you think? I have no thoughts on the subject, either way. What's her age? She looks young, but they say it's the girls that do it. She's 25. Well, Mr. Shand, I'm willing if she's willing. Maggie? They can be no if about it. It must be an offer. A shan never gives a Wiley such a chance to humiliate him, never. Then it's all off. Come, come, come, Mr. Shand. It's just a form. Miss Maggie, will you? Is it an offer? Yes. Before I answer, I want to give you a chance of drawing back. When they said just now that I've been run after, they were misleading you. Nobody has been after me. And one thing more, David said I was 25, I'm 26. Now be practical. Do you withdraw from the bargain or do you not? It's a bargain. Then so be it. Well, six years have passed, six years of devotion on Maggie's part to the man who has now become the peregrine of the people, John Shand. It's election night this evening and a new, a stronger, a more confident John Shand is heading for Parliament. I'm elected, majority 244. I'm John Shand and Pete. You sure, John? Oh, majority 244, I've done it, Maggie, I've done it, and now a soul to help me. I've done it all over. It's Charles Venable's party. Charles Venable's? A minister of the cabinet here to see me. Who is his party, John? He is niece, lady, civil tentative. A married woman. No, no, no, no. One of those London honourables. I met her Tuesday last. Here she thinks I'm vulgar. You are not, John. I am under the countess de la Brille. You can't keep a higher member of the government waiting. What will you say to him, lad? Maggie, you say I'm very busy, but if they care to wait, I hope presently to give them a few minutes. How? John, where are you going? I'm going up on the balcony. Let the crew have a look. Wait, I'll go with you. No London honourables for me, either. I beg your pardon, is Mr Shand about? He'll be down directly, Mr Venable. You're one of his committee. Just a friend. I see. The countess de la Brille, lady, civil tentative. How do you do? Well, civil, he's in. Just as I prophesied he would be. For my part, I've known few men make a worst beginning in a campaign. He had the most atrocious public park manners. Well, at first, maybe his speeches contain some grave blunders. Not so much of judgment as of taste. I don't think so, Mr Venable. Oh, but he's right himself subsequently in the neatest way. I've always found that the man who second thoughts are good is worth watching. Charles, I wonder who gives him his second thoughts. Have you thought it might be a wife? By the way, I wonder if there is a Mrs Shand. No, he's not married, lady, civil. But he will be soon. Oh, a friend of yours? I don't think much of her. Oh, well, in that case, tell me all about her. There's not much to tell, lady, civil. What's her name? It's Maggie. Oh, our hero. I'm sorry I kept you waiting. Ah, good evening, lady, civil. Countess. Congratulations, Shand. Thank you, Mr Venable. I heard you speak last night. Just a sort of impassioned eloquence that the House of Commons will love. It's very good that you say so. The party is going to have a big meeting in Manchester on the 24th. There's room for a third speaker. And I am authorized, Shand, to offer that place to you. Well, that would mean the government taking me up. It would be an acknowledgement that they look upon you as one of their likely young maids. John... And now we must run. I am grateful to you, Mr Venable. Good night, Countess. And good night to you, lady, civil. I, uh, I hear you think I'm vulgar. John! My dear, Mr Shand. Is it not true? You seem to know, Mr Shand. And as you asked me so bluntly, yes, that is how you struck me. I just wanted to know because if it's true, I must alter it. Well, it's very nice of you to put it that way, Mr Shand. Forgive me. Were friends again? Certainly. Then I hope you'll come and see me in London. I'll be very pleased. Any afternoon about five. Goodbye to them. Evening, Shand. Goodbye. Okay. Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, they're going. Hi, Maggie. Are you, then, the Maggie? Yes, Countess. Oh, but if I'd known I wouldn't have said those things. Please forgive an old woman. Oh, it does not matter, Countess. I dare say it'll be all right. But if I were you, Maggie, I wouldn't encourage those tetatents with lady, civil. I am the rude one, but she is the dangerous one. And I'm afraid his impudence has attracted her. Goodbye, Miss Maggie. Goodbye. Maggie, I wonder if, if I am vulgar. You are not, John. John, what did you think of lady, civil? Well, that young woman better be careful. She's beautiful. John, John, when are you to announce that we're to be married? Well, what belong? Now, Maggie, you've waited a year longer than you need have done, so I think it's yet you I should hurry things now. I think it's noble of you. Not at all, Maggie. The nobleness has been yours in waiting so patiently. Can you look me in the face, John, and deny that there is surging within you a mighty desire to be free, to begin the new life untremeled? If I were, John, Shander would no more want to take Maggie wily with me through the beautiful door that has opened wide for me than I would want to take an old pair of shoes. I'll drag you down, John. I have no fear of that. I won't let you. I'm too strong. You'll miss the prettiest thing in the world and all owing to me. What's that? Romance, John. What? David doesn't have the document. He thinks he has it locked away, but I have it here. You don't ask why I brought it. So why did you? Because I thought I might perhaps have the courage to give it back to you. All these six years, my eyes have centered on this night. I've been waiting for this night as long as you have. And now to go back there and get my whizzing and dry up when I might be married to John Shand. Will you never hold it against me in the future that I couldn't give you up? I promise you, Maggie, I never will. You have my word. No, John. Here is your release, John Shand. I'm tearing up the document. Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, last. No need, need. No need. You're acting under an impulse, Maggie. I can't take advantage of it. Now, Maggie, last. Think the matter over. No, I cannot go through it again. It ends tonight and now. Good luck to you, John Shand. Time has a way of changing a great many things, a great many thoughts. The marriage between Maggie Wiley and John Shand has taken place. Now two more years have slipped by and life in London is far different than it was in a small village in Scotland. So is John's behavior, as Maggie is finding out. Shand, Countess. In your village in Scotland, you know everyone and everyone must tell you what you should know. But here in London... You're being very kind, Countess, but I know it already. What you want to tell me is that John is in love with Lady Sybil. Yes. But how did you know? John is my husband, Countess. And I want you to know we're here as your family, Maggie. What they say of John Shand is true. All he needs is a clothe in the hand. Hi. David James, please. Go home and let me have my chance. He isn't giving you your chance, Maggie. Not now, he isn't. But let me handle this my way. Hello, Countess. This is Mrs. Shand. I hope you'll forgive me for telephoning you at this hour. But I wonder if you do me a favor. You invited John and myself to spend next weekend at your cottage in Surrey. Well, I don't think I should be able to come. But I'd appreciate it if you'd ask John. He'll need the peace and quiet to work on his speech. Oh, yes, one thing more. Would it be possible for you to arrange to have Lady Sybil as a house guest at the same time? John tells me she gives him such help and inspiration with his work. And I wouldn't want to deny him of that. Thank you, Countess. Shand, how abominable not to let me know you were coming to Surrey. It's just a surprise visit, Countess. How is everybody? He is quite well. But my child, he seems to me to be a most unhappy man. Now, why should that tease you? I won't tell you. Oh, I could take you and shake you, Maggie. Here I've put my house at your disposal for some sly scuff purpose. And you won't tell me what it is. No. Very well, then. I have a nasty shock for you. Charles? Charles? Yes, Countess. Oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Shand. Charles, I want you to tell Mrs. Shand what you think of her husband's speech. Huh? Oh. Shand will prefer to do that himself. Please, Mr. Venables, I should like to know is there anything wrong with this speech? Oh, nothing, nothing. He can still deliver it. It's a powerful, well-thought-out piece of work. Such as only a very able man could produce. But it has no special quality of its own. None of the little touches that used to make an old stage like myself want to patch Shand on the shoulder. Mr. Venables, now that I think of it, surely John wrote to me that you would be satisfied with his first speech and that he was writing another. Another speech? I've heard nothing of that, Mrs. Shand. And in any case, I'm afraid... But you said yourself that his second thoughts were sometimes an improvement on the first. I remember you're saying that, Charles. Yes, yes, that has stuck me. If he has anything to show me, in the meantime, if you'll forgive me, I have some letters to write. What are you up to now, Maggie? You know as well as I do, there is no such speech. I do not. And what precisely is that you're taking from your first? John's speech. You have written it yourself. No, it's typed. You guessed that the speech he wrote, unaided, wouldn't satisfy. And you prepared this one to take its place. It is the draft of his speech that he left at home with a few trivial alterations by yourself. Can you deny it? Countess, where is my husband? Oh, I see through you. You're not to show him your speech, but you're to get him to write another one. And somehow all your additions will be in it. Now, if you would allow me to glance at that speech, I will tell you where and with whom your husband is. Very well. Thank you. Now, where is he? You rang the lady. Yes, Stephen. Take the speech to Mr. Venables, please. Say it's for Mr. Shand. Yes, my lady. That's all, Stephen. Countess, where is he? He's in the Dutch garden. I see. You're not going there? Yes, I must know. Know what? As soon as I look into John's face, I shall know. Hello, John. Good afternoon, Lady Sybil. Good afternoon. You never wrote that you were coming. No, John. It's a surprise visit. I just ran down to say goodbye. To say goodbye? But to whom, Mr. Shand? To John. You see, Lady Sybil, you and John have fallen in love with one another. What? Maggie. Oh, yes, I've known of it all along. I'll be leaving for Scotland tomorrow, and I'll be leaving John to you now, Lady Sybil. No, Maggie. You're leaving him. Good heavens. But Maggie, you're here. Wait. Wait, but why, Lady Sybil? He, well, he must make satisfactory arrangements about you first. Thank you, Lady Sybil, but I have made all my arrangements. I... I... Oh, the way you put things. My things are all packed. I think you'll find the house in good order, Lady Sybil. The carpet on the upper landing is a good deal. Please, I don't want to hear any more. Maggie, why should you be so ready to leave? I promised long ago not to stand in your way, John. Now can I make my arrangements to leave unwed instead? No. What? No, you can't go. John, I'm not going on with this. I'm very sorry for you, John, but I can see now I couldn't face it. Do you not love him any more, Lady Sybil? John, I'm tired of you. I'm ashamed of myself, but I am weary of you. I think you... Oh, so dull. Are you sure that's how you come to think of me? I'm sorry, but yes. Yes, yes. Oh, forgive me and goodbye. Maggie, I don't want to talk of this again. No, John. There's one thing then another. It's a very curious thing, Maggie, but the pitch should be so disappointing, too. It's just that Mr. Venable hasn't the brains to see how good it is. Aye, that must be it. Nay, nay, Maggie, it's not. Somehow I... I seem to have lost my neat way of saying things. It'll come back to you. Maggie. What is it, John? What if it was you that put those queer ideas into my head? Oh, me? Oh, without you knowing it, I mean. But how? Well, we used to talk them over, and it may be that you dropped the seeds, so to speak. John, could it be that I sometimes had an idea in a rough, womanish sort of way, and then you polished it up until it came out a shandism? I believe you've hit it, Maggie. And to think that you have maybe been of helping me all the time, and neither of us knew it. Hello there, Shand. Oh, hello, Mr. Venable. I'd like a word with you about your second speech. What second speech? You left the first speech of the... you dropped of your speech home, John, and I brought it here with me. My dear fellow, my dear Shand, give me your hand. Your speech has been improved tremendously. I mean, speech, but those new touches make all the difference. Well, you must excuse me. I'm off to read the whole thing again. I think this is rather bold you over, Shand. How this will go down in fall. Maggie, what did you do to my speech? Just try for us. If you liked any of the changes, you could have polished them and turned them into something good. I left the speech up on the table in the house, and now the countess must have shown it to Mr. Venable. That's my work! It is your work, nine-tenths of it. You presume, Maggie Shand! Is it so terrible that my love for you has made me able to help you in the little things? The little things? Maggie, it's as if I looked on you for the first time. Then look at me, John, for the first time. What do you see? I see a woman who has brought her husband low. I see the tragedy of a man who's found himself out. I can't live with you again, Maggie. And I should have been wondering how for so long you live with me. And I suppose you've forgiven me all the time. Yes. And forgive me still. Yes. Oh, good heavens. John, am I to go, or are you going to keep me on? Maggie. It's nothing unusual I've done, John. Every man who is high up loves to think that he's done it all himself. And the wife smiles and lets it go at that. It's our only joke. Every woman knows that. Oh, John, if only you could laugh with me. Maggie, I can't laugh. Oh, laugh, John, laugh. Watch me. See how easy it is. Oh, Maggie. Oh, John. Maggie, you're the same. If only you could laugh with me. Oh, Maggie, laugh. Small to hand, then, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be back in a moment with a few words about next week's play. But first, an important message I know you will want to hear. The mutual love and honor pledged in the sacred marriage contract must always be maintained if the marriage is to be a happy and rewarding one. Tonight's penetrating play by the great Sir James Barry shows how one couple, John Shand and his wife Maggie, drifted apart because of John's vanity and overpowering ambition. John, like many another husband, forgot his marriage vows, forgot the importance of true cooperation, and it was largely because courageous Maggie had a clear understanding of the Christian ideals of marriage that their union and his career were safe. Right now, there are many, many married couples deeply perplexed with the difficulty of finding for themselves a happy, secure married life. Many marriages end in divorce today, but they could be prevented if the couples involved would take their problems to the church and talk them out before a sympathetic, experienced clergyman. Thousands of happily married couples who are members of some church already know from their own experience how much the church has done for them and how important it has been in keeping their marriage happy and secure. But whether you are married or single, whether you do or do not have any specific problems at this time, nevertheless you do need spiritual help in order to live a complete and satisfying life. Perhaps you will be able to find that help in the Episcopal Church. Of course, you are always welcome at your nearest Episcopal Church, and its clergyman is always ready and eager to give you whatever counsel you may require. But to help you know something about the Episcopal Church and how it offers you and your loved ones a faith, with which to find security and happiness in these difficult times, we have prepared an informative booklet called Finding Your Way. It will be sent to you promptly if you will simply write your name and address together with the words Finding Your Way on a postcard and mail it to the station to which you are listening. I would like to thank our cast and especially you, Gertrude Lawrence and Dennis King for a wonderful performance. Next week, friends, the families of your Protestant Episcopal Church in your own community and the Episcopal Actors Guild will present an unusual play entitled The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Bene. Our guest will be the well-known star of Stage and Screen, Mr. Raymond Massie. I hope you will join us. Now, an invitation from the church. You are cordially invited to attend services this coming Sunday morning at the Episcopal Church nearest your home. If you're not familiar with its location or of the hours of service, you'll find both listed in your local newspaper or church directory. Your rector will be happy to have you join his parish family