My dear father, you’re infatuated about your De Mullins. Who are the De Mullins, after all? Mere country squires who lived on here down at Brendon generation after generation. What have they ever done that I should want Johnny to be like them? Nothing. There’s not one of them who has ever distinguished himself in the smallest degree or made his name known outside his native village. The De Mullins are, and have always been, nobodies. Look at their portraits. Is there a single one of them that is worth a second glance? Why they never even had the brains to be painted by a decent artist. With the result that they aren’t worth the canvas they’re painted on. Or is it board? I’d make a bonfire of them if they were mine. MRS. DE MULLIN Janet! JANET _(impatiently)_ I would. You seem to think there’s some peculiar virtue about always living in the same place. I believe in people uprooting themselves and doing something with their lives. What was the good of the De Mullins going on living down here century after century, always a little poorer and a little poorer, selling a farm here, mortgaging another there, instead of going out into the world to seek their fortunes? We’ve stayed too long in one place, we De Mullins. We shall never be worth anything sleeping away our lives down at Brendon. DE MULLIN _(sharply)_ Janet, you are talking foolishly. What you say only makes it clearer to me that you cannot be allowed to live by yourself in London any longer. Such a life is demoralizing to you. You must come back to Brendon. JANET I shall not come back to Brendon, father. On that I am quite determined. DE MULLIN _(with dignity)_ My dear, this is not a matter that rests with you. My mind is made up. Hitherto I have only asked you to return. Do not force me to command you. JANET _(fiercely)_ Command? By what right do you command? DE MULLIN By the right of a father, Janet. By that right I insist on your obedience. JANET _(losing her temper)_ Obedience! Obedience! I owe no one obedience. I am of full age and can order my life as I please. Is a woman never to be considered old enough to manage her own affairs? Is she to go down to her grave everlastingly under tutelage? Is she always to be obeying a father when she’s not obeying a husband? Well, I, for one, will not submit to such nonsense. I’m sick of this everlasting _obedience_. DE MULLIN _(fiercely)_ JANET...! [_Door opens l. Ellen enters with the lamp. There is a considerable pause, during which Ellen puts down the lamp, turns it up, pulls down the blind and begins to draw the curtains. In the middle of the last process De Mullin intervenes._ DE MULLIN (irritably) You can leave the curtains, Ellen. ELLEN Very well, sir. [_Exit Ellen l. with maddening deliberation. Pause._ JANET Father, I’m sorry if what I said vexed you. Perhaps I spoke too strongly. DE MULLIN _(with great dignity)_ Very well, Janet. You will remain with us. JANET