A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ _NOVELS_: _REGIMENT OF WOMEN_ _FIRST THE BLADE_ _LEGEND_ _LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN_ A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT A PLAY IN THREE ACTS BY CLEMENCE DANE [Illustration: colophon 1921] LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN _Copyright: London, William Heinemann, 1921._ This play was produced on Monday, March 14th, 1921, at the St. Martin’s Theatre, with the following cast: MARGARET FAIRFIELD MISS LILIAN BRAITHWAITE MISS HESTER FAIRFIELD MISS AGNES THOMAS SYDNEY FAIRFIELD MISS MEGGIE ALBANESI BASSETT MISS DOROTHY MARTIN GRAY MEREDITH MR. C. AUBREY SMITH KIT PUMPHREY MR. IAN HUNTER HILARY FAIRFIELD MR. MALCOLM KEEN DR. ALLIOT MR. STANLEY LATHBURY THE REV. CHRISTOPHER PUMPHREY MR. FEWLASS LLEWELLYN THE PEOPLE OF THE PLAY _In the order of their appearance._ MARGARET FAIRFIELD. MISS HESTER FAIRFIELD. SYDNEY FAIRFIELD. BASSETT. GRAY MEREDITH. KIT PUMPHREY. HILARY FAIRFIELD. DR. ALLIOT. THE CHRISTOPHER. SCENE.--_A small house in the country. The action passes on Christmas Day, 1933. The audience is asked to imagine that the recommendations of the_ Majority Report of the Royal Commission on Divorce _v._ Matrimonial Causes _have become the law of the land_. ACT I.--THE HALL. MORNING. ACT II.--THE DRAWING ROOM. EARLY AFTERNOON. ACT III.--THE HALL. LATE AFTERNOON. ACT I. _The curtain rises on the hall, obviously used as the common-room of a country house. On the right (of the audience) is the outer door and a staircase that runs down from an upper landing towards the middle of the room, half hiding what has once been a separate smaller room with a baize door at the back. In the corner a French window opens on to a snowbound garden. On the left, facing the entrance, a log fire is blazing. Staircase, pictures, grandfather clock, etc., are wreathed with holly and mistletoe. At the breakfast table, which is laid for three and littered with paper and string, sit_ MISS HESTER FAIRFIELD _and_ MARGARET FAIRFIELD, _her niece by marriage. The third chair has two or three parcels piled up on it._