Scene
Nine
Lights rise. The port of Falmouth, England, October 2, 1836.
Behind Emma stands Elizabeth and two men, Charles Lyell, age 39, and Richard
Owen, age 32.
CHARLES
Emma!
He runs to her, hugs her.
CHARLES
I’m
home.
EMMA
Praise
God.
CHARLES
I’m
so giddy I don’t even
know
what I’m thinking.
(releases
his embrae, looks at her)
How
grand you look.
Elizabeth opens her arms for a hug. Charles leaves Emma to
oblige.
CHARLES
And
you also, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH
Thank
you. You look better for being thinner,
Charles.
CHARLES
You
are most kind, Elizabeth. Where’s
my
father?
ELIZABETH
Speaking
with the dockmaster about
transporting
your things.
CHARLES
(turns
back to Emma)
Emma...
I can’t believe it.
LYELL
Mr.
Darwin? I am Sir Charles Lyell.
Charles immediately forgets Emma and turns to Lyell.
CHARLES
Lyell?
Sir, your fine book on geology is one
of
the few I brought on my journey.
This
is an honor.
LYELL
The
honor is mine, sir.
CHARLES
Really?
Why?
LYELL
(laughs)
Your
reputation proceeds you.
CHARLES
I
was unaware I had a reputation.
OWEN
Not
you, Mr. Darwin, but your specimens from
South
America.
LYELL
This
is Dr. Richard Owen.
CHARLES
Yes,
I think I’ve heard that name.
OWEN
I’m
certain you have. I am the
Hunterian
Professor
for the College of Surgeons
at
Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
LYELL
(beat)
He
dissects the dead zoo animals.
CHARLES
Ah!
OWEN
Mr.
Lyell assumed you would like to ask me
to
catalogue and study some of
your
ancient fossils.
CHARLES
By
all means!
OWEN
Your
voyage was an amazing success, it seems.
CHARLES
(hesitantly)
It
was.
EMMA
Did
you meet any cannibals?
CHARLES
Yes.
But we were fine. The Fuegans only eat
their
old women and the Maori find Englishmen
too
salty.
Lyell laughs.
CHARLES
Truly.
Maori flesh is sweeter they say.
Lyell stops laughing.
ELIZABETH
Did
you not try to bring them to Jesus?
CHARLES
Bringing
them to not wanting to eat us
was
mission enough.
LYELL
What
a story.
OWEN
Yes,
perhaps you should write a travel book!
(he
chuckles)
CHARLES
I
thought I might.
LYELL
I
could help with that endeavor.
EMMA
How
wonderful!
CHARLES
You
are very kind.
EMMA
You
said in your last letter that you
felt
changed, Charley.
CHARLES
Yes.
EMMA
You
seem very much the same to me.
Emma smiles, he smiles back.
CHARLES
Do
I?
ELIZABETH
Our
sister died, you know.
CHARLES
Yes.
(to
Emma)
I’m
sorry, I should have said something
immediately.
EMMA
Thank
you.
ELIZABETH
Our
fathers had hoped you two would marry.
(Emma
and Charles look to her)
You
and Fanny Wedgewood.
(tearfully)
We
thought she would make a perfect
Parson’s
wife, owing to her plainness.
EMMA
Yes.
We all miss Fanny deeply. But here we are.
CHARLES
I
would have only disappointed, Elizabeth.
For
I have no interest in marriage at present.
ELIZABETH
I
see.
(looks
at Emma)
CHARLES
For
the present, the amount of cataloguing
and
verifying will keep me quite overwhelmed
with
work.
EMMA
Well...
regardless, I hope we will still see
you
often at Maer Hall.
CHARLES
Oh,
yes, Emma. As soon as possible. I plan to spend
the
next year warm and comfortable in the country.
LYELL
But
Mr. Darwin, London is where you must
be
to advance your projects.
EMMA
Charley
hasn’t finished up at Christ’s College.
LYELL
You
are a clergymen?
CHARLES
Oh.
Well. I don’t know.
LYELL
Still,
no reason not to live in London,
is
there?
CHARLES
I
do have my brother, Erasmus,
in
the city.
LYELL
Excellent.
OWEN
Come!
Lyell and I are keen to hear more about
your
speculations on rising continents.
CHARLES
Of
course! Thank you.
The two men lead Charles off.
EMMA
Don’t
worry, Charley, we can wait.
CHARLES
(exiting)
After
an earthquake in Chile, I
noticed
a bed of dead shellfish well above
high
tide, which suggested, as you
theorized,
Lyell, that mountains were
not
thrown up in one cataclysmic event,
but
created a few inches at a time--
Emma can’t hide feeling a little hurt which Elizabeth picks
up on.
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