DENNIS.  Oh, chuck it!  How would you like to be a cannibal and have nobody to eat? (CAROLINE is silent, never having thought of this before.)

ADA.  Let it be a fairy-story, Rosemary, darling.  It’s so much prettier.

ELSIE.  With a lovely princess——­

GWENDOLINE.  And a humble woodcutter who marries her——­

ISABEL (her only contribution).  P’itty P’incess.

BERTRAM.  Princesses are rot.

ELSIE (with spirit).  So are pirates! (Deadlock.)

CAROLINE. I should like something about Father Christmas, and snow, and waits, and a lovely ball, and everybody getting nice presents and things.

DENNIS (selfishly, I’m afraid).  Bags I all the presents.

(Of course, the others aren’t going to have that.  They all say so together.)

ROSEMARY (above the turmoil).  James, I must have silence.

JAMES.  Silence, all!

ROSEMARY.  Thank you. . . .  You will be interested to hear that I have decided to have a Fairy Story and a Desert Island and a Father Christmas.

ALL.  Good! (Or words to that effect)

ROSEMARY (biting her pen).  I shall begin with the Fairy Story. (There is an anxious silence.  None of them has ever seen anybody writing a play before.  How does one do it?  Alas, ROSEMARY herself doesn’t know.  She appeals to JAMES.) James, how do you begin a play?  I mean when you’ve got the title.

JAMES (a man of genius).  Well, Miss Rosemary, seeing that it’s to be called “Make-Believe,” why not make-believe as it’s written already?

ROSEMARY.  What a good idea, James!

JAMES.  All that is necessary is for the company to think very hard of what they want, and—­there we are!  Saves all the bother of writing and spelling and what not.

ROSEMARY (admiringly.) James, how clever you are!

JAMES.  So-so, Miss Rosemary.

ROSEMARY.  Now then, let’s all think together.  Are you all ready?

ALL.  Yes! (They clench their hands.)

ROSEMARY.  Then one, two, three—­Go!

(They think. . . .  The truth is that JAMES, who wasn’t really meant to be in it, thinks too.  If there is anything in the play which you don’t like, it is JAMES thinking.)

ACT I.—­THE PRINCESS AND THE WOODCUTTER

(The WOODCUTTER is discovered singing at his work, in a glade of the forest outside his hut.  He is tall and strong, and brave and handsome; all that a woodcutter ought to be.  Now it happened that the PRINCESS was passing, and as soon as his song is finished, sure enough, on she comes.)

PRINCESS.  Good morning, Woodcutter.

WOODCUTTER.  Good morning. (But he goes on with his work.)

PRINCESS (after a pause).  Good morning, Woodcutter.

WOODCUTTER.  Good morning.

PRINCESS.  Don’t you ever say anything except good morning?