Act I - Page 2

east side and a long garden seat on the west.

A young lady, gloved and hatted, with a dust coat on, is sitting
in the window-seat with her body twisted to enable her to look
out at the view. One hand props her chin: the other hangs down
with a volume of the Temple Shakespeare in it, and her finger
stuck in the page she has been reading.

A clock strikes six.

The young lady turns and looks at her watch. She rises with an
air of one who waits, and is almost at the end of her patience.
She is a pretty girl, slender, fair, and intelligent looking,
nicely but not expensively dressed, evidently not a smart idler.

With a sigh of weary resignation she comes to the draughtsman's
chair; sits down; and begins to read Shakespeare. Presently the
book sinks to her lap; her eyes close; and she dozes into a
slumber.

An elderly womanservant comes in from the hall with three
unopened bottles of rum on a tray. She passes through and
disappears in the pantry without noticing the young lady. She
places the bottles on the shelf and fills her tray with empty
bottles. As she returns with these, the young lady lets her book
drop, awakening herself, and startling the womanservant so that
she all but lets the tray fall.

THE WOMANSERVANT. God bless us! [The young lady picks up the book
and places it on the table]. Sorry to wake you, miss, I'm sure;
but you are a stranger to me. What might you be waiting here for
now?

THE YOUNG LADY. Waiting for somebody to show some signs of
knowing that I have been invited here.

THE WOMANSERVANT. Oh, you're invited, are you? And has nobody
come? Dear! dear!

THE YOUNG LADY. A wild-looking old gentleman came and looked in
at the window; and I heard him calling out, "Nurse, there is a
young and attractive female waiting in the poop. Go and see what
she wants." Are you the nurse?

THE WOMANSERVANT. Yes, miss: I'm Nurse Guinness. That was old
Captain Shotover, Mrs Hushabye's father. I heard him roaring; but
I thought it was for something else. I suppose it was Mrs
Hushabye that invited you, ducky?

THE YOUNG LADY. I understood her to do so. But really I think I'd
better go.

NURSE GUINNESS. Oh, don't think of such a thing, miss. If Mrs
Hushabye has forgotten all about it, it will be a pleasant
surprise for her to see you, won't it?

THE YOUNG LADY. It has been a very unpleasant surprise to me to
find that nobody expects me.

NURSE GUINNESS. You'll get used to it, miss: this house is full
of surprises for them that don't know our ways.

CAPTAIN SHOTOVER [looking in from the hall suddenly: an ancient
but still hardy man with an immense white beard, in a reefer
jacket with a