GOVERNESS. I am talking to Oliver, Geraldine. Where is that book, Oliver? OLIVER. Oh, _I_ know the one you mean. I must have put it down somewhere. (He looks vaguely about the room.) GOVERNESS. Perhaps you put it in your desk. OLIVER. My desk? JILL (going up to MISS PINNIGER with her work). You see, it's all gone wrong here, and I think I must have multiplied---- (Moving in front of her as she moves) I think I must have multiplied---- (Under cover of this, OLIVER makes a great effort to get the book into JILL'S desk, but it is no good.) GOVERNESS (brushing aside JILL and advancing on OLIVER). Thank you, _I_ will take it. OLIVER (looking at the title). Oh yes, this is the one. GOVERNESS. And I will speak to your aunt at _once_ about the behaviour of both of you. [She goes out. OLIVER (gallantly). _I_ don't care. JILL. I did try to help you, Oliver. OLIVER. You wait. Won't I jolly well bag something of hers one day, just when she wants it. JILL. I'm afraid you'll find the afternoon rather tiring without your book. What will you do? OLIVER. I suppose I shall have to think. JILL. What shall you think about? OLIVER. I shall think I'm on my desert island. JILL. Which desert island? OLIVER. The one I always pretend I'm on when I'm thinking. JILL. Isn't there any one else on it ever? OLIVER. Oo, lots of pirates and Dyaks and cannibals and--other people. JILL. What sort of other people? OLIVER. I shan't tell you. This is a special think I thought last night. As soon as I thought of it, I decided to keep it for (impressively) a moment of great emergency. JILL (silenced). Oh! . . . Oliver? OLIVER Yes? JILL. Let me be on your desert island this time. Because I did try to help you. OLIVER. Well--well---- (Generously) Well, you can if you like. JILL. Oh, thank you, Oliver. Won't you tell me what it's about, and then we can both think it together this afternoon. OLIVER. I expect you'll think all sorts of silly things that _never_ happen on a desert island. JILL. I'll try not to, Oliver, if you tell me. OLIVER. All right. JILL (coming close to him). Go on. OLIVER. Well, you see, I've been wrecked, you see, and the ship has foundered with all hands, you see, and I've been cast ashore on a desert island, you see. JILL. Haven't I been cast ashore too? OLIVER. Well, you will be this afternoon, of course. Well, you see, we land on the island, you see, and it's a perfectly ripping island, you see, and--and we land on it, you see, and. . . . * * * * *