Children -- Drama; Comedy plays; England -- Drama; Fathers -- Drama; Runaway husbands -- Drama; Wives -- Drama
BOHUN (rising). It's no use, Miss Clandon: you can't put me down. I tell
you your name will soon be neither Clandon nor Crampton; and I could
tell you what it will be if I chose. (He goes to the other end of the
table, where he unrolls his domino, and puts the false nose on the
table. When he moves they all rise; and Phil goes to the window. Bohun,
with a gesture, summons the waiter to help him in robing.) Mr. Crampton:
your notion of going to law is all nonsense: your children will be of
age before you could get the point decided. (Allowing the waiter to put
the domino on his shoulders.) You can do nothing but make a friendly
arrangement. If you want your family more than they want you, you'll get
the worse of the arrangement: if they want you more than you want them,
you'll get the better of it. (He shakes the domino into becoming
folds and takes up the false nose. Dolly gazes admiringly at him.) The
strength of their position lies in their being very agreeable people
personally. The strength of your position lies in your income. (He claps
on the false nose, and is again grotesquely transfigured.)
DOLLY (running to him). Oh, now you look quite like a human being.
Mayn't I have just one dance with you? C a n you dance? (Phil, resuming
his part of harlequin, waves his hat as if casting a spell on them.)
BOHUN (thunderously). Yes: you think I can't; but I can. Come along. (He
seizes her and dances off with her through the window in a most powerful
manner, but with studied propriety and grace. The waiter is meanwhile
busy putting the chairs back in their customary places.)
PHILIP. "On with the dance: let joy be unconfined." William!
WAITER. Yes, sir.
PHILIP. Can you procure a couple of dominos and false noses for my
father and Mr. McComas?
McCOMAS. Most certainly not. I protest--
CRAMPTON. No, no. What harm will it do, just for once, McComas? Don't
let us be spoil-sports.
McCOMAS. Crampton: you are not the man I took you for. (Pointedly.)
Bullies are always cowards. (He goes disgustedly towards the window.)
CRAMPTON (following him). Well, never mind. We must indulge them a
little. Can you get us something to wear, waiter?
WAITER. Certainly, sir. (He precedes them to the window, and stands
aside there to let them pass out before him.) This way, sir. Dominos and
noses, sir?
McCOMAS (angrily, on his way out). I shall wear my own nose.
WAITER (suavely). Oh, dear, yes, sir: the false one will fit over it
quite easily, sir: plenty of room, sir, plenty of room. (He goes out
after McComas.)
CRAMPTON (turning at the window to Phil with an attempt at genial
fatherliness). Come along, my boy, come along. (He goes.)
PHILIP (cheerily, following him). Coming, dad, coming. (On the window
threshold, he stops; looking after Crampton; then turns fantastically
with his bat bent into a halo round his head, and says with a lowered
voice to Mrs. Clandon and Gloria) Did you feel the pathos of that? (He
vanishes.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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