Complete Plays of John Galsworthy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,284 pages of information about Complete Plays of John Galsworthy.

Complete Plays of John Galsworthy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,284 pages of information about Complete Plays of John Galsworthy.

Freda.  I’m quite all right, thank you, Miss Dot.

Dot.  Has Mother been givin’ you a tonic?

Freda. [Smiling a little] Not yet.

Dot.  That doesn’t account for it then. [With a sudden warm impulse]
What is it, Freda?

Freda.  Nothing.

Dot. [Switching of on a different line of thought] Are you very busy this morning?

Freda.  Only this cloak for my lady.

Dot.  Oh! that can wait.  I may have to get you in to prompt, if I can’t keep ’em straight. [Gloomily] They stray so.  Would you mind?

Freda. [Stolidly] I shall be very glad, Miss Dot.

Dot. [Eyeing her dubiously] All right.  Let’s see—­what did I want?

     Joan has come in.

Joan.  Look here, Dot; about the baby in this scene.  I’m sure I ought to make more of it.

Dot.  Romantic little beast! [She plucks the footstool out by one ear, and holds it forth] Let’s see you try!

Joan. [Recoiling] But, Dot, what are we really going to have for the baby?  I can’t rehearse with that thing.  Can’t you suggest something, Freda?

Freda.  Borrow a real one, Miss Joan.  There are some that don’t count much.

Joan.  Freda, how horrible!

Dot. [Dropping the footstool back into the basket] You’ll just put up with what you’re given.

     Then as Christine and Mabel Lanfarne Come in, Freda turns
     abruptly and goes out.

Dot.  Buck up!  Where are Bill and Harold? [To Joan] Go and find them, mouse-cat.

     But bill and Harold, followed by latter, are already in the
     doorway.  They come in, and latter, stumbling over the
     waste-paper basket, takes it up to improve its position.

Dot.  Drop that cradle, John! [As he picks the footstool out of it] Leave the baby in!  Now then!  Bill, you enter there! [She points to the workroom door where bill and Mabel range themselves close to the piano; while Harold goes to the window] John! get off the stage!  Now then, “Eccles enters breathless, Esther and Polly rise.”  Wait a minute.  I know now. [She opens the workroom door] Freda, I wanted a bandbox.

Harold. [Cheerfully] I hate beginning to rehearse, you know, you feel such a fool.

Dot. [With her bandbox-gloomily] You’ll feel more of a fool when you have begun. [To bill, who is staring into the workroom] Shut the door.  Now. [Bill shuts the door.]

Latter. [Advancing] Look here!  I want to clear up a point of psychology before we start.

Dot.  Good Lord!

Latter.  When I bring in the milk—­ought I to bring it in seriously—­ as if I were accustomed—­I mean, I maintain that if I’m——­

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Project Gutenberg
Complete Plays of John Galsworthy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.