Pause.

DEVLIN (cont.) A man who doesn’t give a shit. A man with a rigid sense of duty.

Pause.

DEVLIN (cont.) There’s no contradiction between those last two statements. Believe me.

Pause.

DEVLIN (cont.) Do you follow the drift of my argument?

REBECCA Oh yes, there’s something I’ve forgotten to tell you. It was funny. I looked out of the garden window, out of the window into the garden, in the middle of summer, in that house in Dorset, do you remember? Oh no, you weren’t there. I don’t think anyone else was there. No. I was all by myself. I was alone. I was looking out of the window and I saw a whole crowd of people walking through the woods, on their way to the sea, in the direction of the sea. They seemed to be very cold, they were wearing coats, although it was such a beautiful day. A beautiful, warm, Dorset day. They were carrying bags. There were . . . guides . . . ushering them, guiding them along. They walked through the woods and I could see them in the distance walking across the cliff and down to the sea. Then I lost sight of them. I was really quite curious so I went upstairs to the highest window in the house and I looked way over the top of the treetops and I could see down to the beach. The guides . . . were ushering all these people across the beach. It was such a lovely day. It was so still and the sun was shining. And I saw all these people walk into the sea. The tide covered them slowly. Their bags bobbed about in the waves.

DEVLIN When was that? When did you live in Dorset? I’ve never lived in Dorset.

Pause.

REBECCA Oh, by the way, somebody told me the other day that there’s a condition known as mental elephantiasis.

DEVLIN What do you mean, “somebody told” you? What do you mean, “the other day"? What are you talking about?

REBECCA This mental elephantiasis means that when you spill an ounce of gravy, for example, it immediately expands and becomes a vast sea of gravy. It becomes a sea of gravy which surrounds you on all sides and you suffocate in a voluminous sea of gravy. It’s terrible. But it’s all your own fault. You brought it upon yourself. You are not the victim of it, you are the cause of it. Because it was you who spilt the gravy in the first place, it was you who handed over the bundle.

Pause.

DEVLIN The what?

REBECCA The bundle.

Pause.

DEVLIN So what’s the question? Are you prepared to drown in your own gravy? Or are you prepared to die for your country? Look. What do you say, sweetheart? Why don’t we go out and drive into town and take in a movie?