FIVE LITTLE PLAYS FIVE LITTLE PLAYS BY ALFRED SUTRO BRENTANO NEW YORK 1922 _Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_ CONTENTS THE MAN IN THE STALLS A MARRIAGE HAS BEEN ARRANGED.... THE MAN ON THE KERB THE OPEN DOOR THE BRACELET THE MAN IN THE STALLS A PLAY IN ONE ACT THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY HECTOR ALLEN ELIZABETH ALLEN (BETTY) WALTER COZENS _This play was produced at the Palace Theatre on October 6, 1911_ THE MAN IN THE STALLS _The sitting-room of a little flat in Shaftesbury Avenue. At back is a door leading to the dining-room--it is open, and the dinner-table is in full view of the audience. To the extreme right is another door, leading to the hall._ _The place is pleasantly and prettily, though quite inexpensively, furnished. To the left, at angles with the distempered wall, is a baby-grand piano; the fireplace, in which a fire is burning merrily, is on the same side, full centre. To the right of the door leading to the dining-room is a small side-table, on which there is a tray with decanter and glasses; in front of this, a card-table, open, with two packs of cards on it, and chairs on each side. Another table, a round one, is in the centre of the room--to right and to left of it are comfortable armchairs. Against the right wall is a long sofa; above it hang a few good, water-colours and engravings; on the piano and the table there are flowers. A general appearance of refinement and comfort pervades the room; no luxury, but evidence everywhere of good taste, and the countless feminine touches that make a room homelike and pleasant._ _When the curtain rises,_ HECTOR ALLEN, _a youngish man of forty, with an attractive intellectual face, is seen standing by the dining-table in the inner room, draining his liqueur-glass, with_ WALTER COZENS _to the right of him, lighting a cigarette._ WALTER _is a few years younger than his friend, moderately good-looking, with fine, curly brown hair and a splendid silky moustache. His morning-clothes are conspicuously well-cut--he is evidently something of a dandy;_ HECTOR _wears a rather shabby dress-suit, his boots are awkward, and his tie ready-made._ BETTY, _a handsome woman of thirty, wearing a very pretty tea-gown, is talking to the maid at the back of the dining-room._ HECTOR _puts down his glass and comes into the sitting-room, followed by_ WALTER. HECTOR _is puffing at a short, stumpy little black cigar._