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Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour

Год написания книги
2017
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[Indifferently.] Yes. He called the other day. [To change the conversation.] You're unusually silent, Mr. Brackley.

Brackley

[Smiling.] I have nothing whatever to say.

Mabel

That's usually when clever people talk most.

Hilda

Are you doing anything now?

Brackley

Oh yes, I'm writing a play in blank verse.

Hilda

You brave man. What is it about?

Brackley

Cleopatra.

Hilda

Dear me! Shakespeare wrote a play about Cleopatra, didn't he?

Brackley

I daresay. I haven't read it. Shakespeare bores me. He lived so long ago.

Mabel

Of course there are people who read him.

Brackley

Are there? What do they look like?

Hilda

[Smiling.] They bear no distinctive mark of their eccentricity.

Brackley

The English are so original.

Mabel

I think I shall go and ring up the flat. I wonder if John has gone straight home.

Brackley

Do. I'm growing very uneasy about him.

Mabel

[Laughing.] You absurd creature.

    [She goes out.

Hilda

You talk more nonsense than anyone I ever met.

Brackley

That's my stock in trade. You don't imagine people would read my poems if they knew that I was sober, industrious, and economical. As a matter of fact I lead the virtuous life of a clergyman's daughter, but not a reviewer would notice me if he knew it.

Hilda

And the little things that the indiscreet read of in the papers…

Brackley

Are merely another proof of my passion for duty. The British public wants its poets to lead romantic lives.

Hilda

Are you ever serious?

Brackley

May I come to lunch with you on Thursday?

Hilda

[A little surprised.] Certainly. But why on Thursday?

Brackley

Because on that day I intend to ask you to marry me.

Hilda

[With a smile.] I'm sorry, I've just remembered that I'm lunching out.

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