DAVID: I don’t want to be disturbed. (_He takes his tray and goes upstairs; then he turns._) Listen, Simon. There’s a perfectly sweet flapper coming down by the four-thirty. Will you go and meet her and be nice to her? She’s an abject fool, but a useful type, and I want to study her a little in domestic surroundings. She can sleep in the Japanese room. [_He goes off, leaving behind him a deathly silence._ JUDITH: I should like someone to play something very beautiful to me on the piano. SIMON: Damn everything! Damn! Damn! Damn! SOREL: Swearing doesn’t help. SIMON: It helps me a lot. SOREL: What does Father mean by going on like that? JUDITH: In view of the imminent reception, you’d better go and shave, Simon. SOREL (_bursting into tears of rage_): It’s perfectly beastly! Whenever I make any sort of plan about anything it’s always done in by someone. I wish I were earning my own living somewhere—a free agent—able to do whatever I liked without being cluttered up and frustrated by the family—— JUDITH (_picturesquely_): It grieves me to hear you say that, Sorel. SOREL: Don’t be infuriating, Mother. JUDITH (_sadly_): A change has come over my children of late. I have tried to shut my eyes to it, but in vain. At my time of life one must face bitter facts! SIMON: This is going to be the blackest Saturday till Monday we’ve ever spent. JUDITH (_tenderly_): Sorel, you mustn’t cry. SOREL: Don’t sympathise with me; it’s only temper. JUDITH (_clasping her_): Put your head on my shoulder, dear. SIMON (_bitterly_): Your head like the golden fleece.... SOREL: Richard’ll have to have “Little Hell” and that horrible flapper the Japanese room. JUDITH: Over my dead body! SIMON: Mother, what _are_ we to do? JUDITH (_drawing him forcibly into her arms so that there is a charming little motherly picture_): We must all be very, very kind to everyone! SIMON: Now then, Mother, none of that! JUDITH (_aggrieved_): I don’t know what you mean, Simon. SIMON: You were being beautiful and sad. JUDITH: But I am beautiful and sad. SIMON: You’re not particularly beautiful, darling, and you never were. JUDITH (_glancing at herself in the glass_): Never mind; I made thousands think I was. SIMON: And as for being sad—— JUDITH: Now, Simon, I will not be dictated to like this. If I say I’m sad, I _am_ sad. You don’t understand, because you’re precocious and tiresome.... There comes a time in all women’s lives—— SOREL: Oh dear! JUDITH: What did you say, Sorel? SOREL (_recovering_): I said, “Oh dear!” JUDITH: Well, please don’t say it again, because it annoys me. SOREL: You’re such a lovely hypocrite. JUDITH (_casting up her eyes_): I’m sure I don’t know what I’ve done to be cursed with such ungrateful children. It’s very cruel at my time of life—— SIMON: There you go again! JUDITH (_inconsequently_): You’re getting far too tall, Sorel. SOREL: Sorry, Mother.