_In the middle of the right hand wall is the front door; glass double doors can be seen and there is evidently a porch beyond. On the left of the front door a small window. On the right a large fireplace, in which a large fire is roaring. Over the front door, a clock (the hands pointing to half-past one.) Over the fireplace a family portrait (temp. Queen Anne) below this a blunderbuss and several horse-pistols. Above the sofa full-length family portraits (temp. George I.) Before the front door a wooden screen, of lighter wood than the wainscot, and in the middle of it a small glass panel. Before this a heavy square table on which are whips and sticks, a hat or two and brushes; by the table a wooden chair. On either side the fire stand tall closed-in armchairs, and between the fireplace and the door a smaller red-baize screen._ _When the dining-room doors are thrown open another wooden screen is to be seen._ _There are a few rugs on the floor, formally arranged._ MRS. OPIE _stands in the middle of the hall, holding out a woman's brown cloak: she drops one side to fetch out her handkerchief and apply it to her eye_. DIMMUCK _comes in by the front door, which he carefully closes behind him. He is wrapped in a hooded cloak and carries a pair of boots and a newspaper. The boots he arranges to warm before the fire. Then he spreads the Chronicle newspaper upon the arm of a chair, then takes off his cloak and hangs it upon a peg close to the door._ DIMMUCK. Mrs. Opie . . will you look to its not scorching? MRS. OPIE _still mops her eyes_. DIMMUCK _goes towards the dining-room door, but turns_. DIMMUCK. Will you kindly see that the _Chronicle_ newspaper does not burn? MRS. OPIE. I was crying. DIMMUCK. I leave this tomorrow sennight . . thankful, ma'am, to have given notice in a dignified manner. MRS. OPIE. I understand . . Those persons at table . . DIMMUCK. You give notice. MRS. OPIE. Mr. Dimmuck, this is my home. LORD ARTHUR CARP _comes out of the dining-room. He is a thinner and more earnest-looking edition of his brother_. MRS. OPIE _turns a chair and hangs the cloak to warm before the fire, and then goes into the dining-room_. LORD ARTHUR. My chaise round? DIMMUCK. I've but just ordered it, my lord. Your lordship's man has give me your boots. LORD ARTHUR. Does it snow? DIMMUCK. Rather rain than snow. LORD ARTHUR _takes up the newspaper_. DIMMUCK. Yesterday's, my lord. LORD ARTHUR. I've seen it. The mails don't hurry hereabouts. Can I be in London by the morning? DIMMUCK. I should say you might be, my lord. LORD ARTHUR _sits by the fire, while_ DIMMUCK _takes off his pumps and starts to put on his boots_. LORD ARTHUR. Is this a horse called "Ronald?" DIMMUCK. Which horse, my lord? LORD ARTHUR. Which I'm to take back with me . . my brother left here. I brought the mare he borrowed. DIMMUCK. I remember, my lord. I'll enquire. LORD ARTHUR. Tell Parker . . DIMMUCK. Your lordship's man?