Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Stan Goodman, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team BELINDA An April Folly in Three Acts BY A. A. MILNE CHARACTERS Produced by Mr. Dion Boucioault at the New Theatre, London, on April 8, 1918, with the following cast:-- BELINDA TREMAYNE .......... _Irene Vanbrugh_. DELIA (her Daughter) ...... _Isabel Elsom_. HAROLD BAXTER ............. _Dion Boucicault_. CLAUDE DEVENISH ........... _Dennis Neilson-Terry_. JOHN TREMAYNE ............. _Ben Webster_. BETTY ..................... _Anne Walden_. The action takes place in Belinda's country-house in Devonshire at the end of April, the first act in the garden and the second and last acts in the hall [Illustration] BELINDA ACT I _It is a lovely April afternoon--a foretaste of summer--in_ BELINDA'S _garden_. BETTY, _a middle-aged servant, is fastening a hammock--its first appearance this year--to a tree down_ L. _In front there is a garden-table, with a deck-chair on the right of it and a straight-backed one to the left. There are books, papers, and magazines on the table_. BELINDA, _of whom we shall know more presently, is on the other side of the open windows which look on to the garden, talking to_ BETTY, _who crosses to_ R. _of hammock, securing it to tree_ C. BELINDA (_from inside the house_). Are you sure you're tying it up tightly enough, Betty? BETTY (_coming to front of hammock_). Yes, ma'am; I think it's firm. BELINDA. Because I'm not the fairy I used to be. BETTY (_testing hammock_). Yes, ma'am; it's quite firm this end too. BELINDA (_entering from portico with sunshade open_). It's not the ends I'm frightened of; it's the middle where the weight's coming. (_Comes down_ R. _and admiring_.) It looks very nice. (_She crosses at back of wicker table, hanging her hand-bag on hammock. Closes and places her sunshade at back of tree_ C.) BETTY. Yes, ma'am. BELINDA (_trying the middle of it with her hand_). I asked them at the Stores if they were quite _sure_ it would bear me, and they said it would take anything up to--I forget how many tons. I know I thought it was rather rude of them. (_Looking at it anxiously, and trying to get in, first with her right leg and then her left_.) How does one get in! So trying to be a sailor! BETTY. I think you sit in it, ma'am, and then (_explaining with her hands_) throw your legs over. BELINDA. I see. (_She sits gingerly in the hammock, and then, with a sudden flutter of white, does what_ BETTY _suggests_.) Yes. (_Regretfully_.) I'm afraid that was rather wasted on you, Betty. We must have some spectators next time. BETTY. Yea, ma'am BELINDA. Cushions. (BETTY _moves to and takes a cushion from deck-chair_. BELINDA _assists her to place it at back of her head_. BETTY _then goes to back of hammock and arranges_ BELINDA'S _dress_.) There! Now then, Betty, about callers. BETTY. Yes, ma'am.