JILL (pointing).  What’s that tree over there?

OLIVER.  That one?  Rice-pudding tree.

JILL (getting up indignantly).  Oliver!  Take me back to the boat at once.

OLIVER.  I say, shut up, Jill.  You didn’t think I meant it for you, did you?

JILL.  But there’s only you and me on the island.

OLIVER.  What about the domestic animals?  I suppose they’ve got to eat.

JILL.  Oh, how lovely!  Have we got a goat and a parrot, and a—­a—­

OLIVER.  Much better than that.  Look in that cage there.

JILL.  Oh, is that a cage?  I never noticed it.  What do I do?

OLIVER (going to it).  Here, I’ll show you (He draws the blind, and the DOCTOR is exposed sitting on a stump of wood and blinking at the sudden light) What do you think of that?

JILL.  Oliver!

OLIVER (proudly).  I thought of that in bed one night.  Spiffing idea, isn’t it?  I’ve got some other ones in the plantation over there.  Awfully good specimens.  I feed ’em on rice-pudding.

JILL.  Can this one talk?

OLIVER.  I’m teaching it. (Stirring it up with a stick) Come up there.

DOCTOR (mumbling).  Ninety-nine, ninety-nine . . .

OLIVER.  That’s all it can say at present.  I’m going to give it a swim in the lagoon to-morrow.  I want to see if there are any sharks.  If there aren’t, then we can bathe there afterwards.

(The DOCTOR shudders.)

JILL.  Have you given it a name yet?  I think I should like to call it
Fluffkins.

OLIVER.  Righto!  Good night, Fluffkins.  Time little doctors were in bed. (He pulls down the blind.)

JILL (lying down again).  Well, I think it’s a lovely island.

OLIVER (lying beside her).  If there’s anything you want, you know, you’ve only got to say so.  Pirates or anything like that.  There’s a ginger-beer well if you’re thirsty.

JILL (closing her eyes).  I’m quite happy, Oliver, thank you.

OLIVER (after a pause, a little awkwardly).  Jill, you didn’t ever want to marry a pirate, did you?

JILL (still on her back with her eyes shut).  I hadn’t thought about it much, Oliver dear.

OLIVER.  Because I can get you an awfully decent pirate, if you like, and if I was his brother-in-law it would be ripping.  I’ve often been marooned with him, of course, but never as his brother-in-law.

JILL.  Why don’t you marry his daughter and be his son-in-law?

OLIVER.  He hasn’t got a daughter.

JILL.  Well, you could think him one.

OLIVER.  I don’t want to.  If ever I’m such a silly ass as to marry, which I’m jolly well not going to be, I shall marry a—­a dusky maiden.  Jill, be sporty.  All girls have to get married some time.  It’s different with men.

JILL.  Very well, Oliver.  I don’t want to spoil your afternoon.

OLIVER.  Good biz. (He stands up, shuts his eyes and waves his hands about.)