By-by, Thaddeus; don't shirk. I'll come in after
the salade course and hear you, and if you don't know your lesson
I'll send you to bed without your supper.
[All go out, leaving Perkins alone.
Perkins (forcing a laugh). Ha! ha! ha! Good joke, confound your
eyes! Humph! very well. I'll do it. Whole thing, eh? Curtain,
babies, audience, host. All right, my noble Thespians, wait!
(Shakes fist at the door.) I _will_ do the whole thing. Wait till
they ring you up, O curtain! Up you will go, but then--then will I
come forth and read that book from start to finish, and if any one of
'em ventures to interfere I'll drop thee on their most treasured
lines. They little dream how much they are in the power of you and
me!
Enter Jennie.
Jennie. Mrs. Perkins says aren't you coming to dinner, sir; and Mr.
Yardsley says the soup is getting cold, sir.
Perkins. In a minute, Jennie. Tell Mrs. Perkins that I am just
learning the last ten lines of the third act; and as for Mr.
Yardsley, kindly insinuate to him that he'll find the soup quite hot
enough at 8.30.
[Exit Jennie. Perkins sits down, and, taking up two books of the
play, one in each hand, begins to read.
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