the shelf! ROGER ( snatching the books and bringing them ): I suppose it cannot be helped. Such beautiful bindings too! ( He picks the wet cloth off the edge of the pail, dropping it on the carpet, and plunges the books into the water, which very naturally overflows at this new incursion ).
WESTON ( letting go his hold on the package and siting back on his heels with a sigh of relief ): Ah! Well and truly drowned. ( He mops his forehead and ROGER collapses into the nearest chair ). ( Enter LADY WESTON, with a tray on which is a glass of wine and some biscuits .) LADY WESTON ( seeing their strange occupation ): Richard!
What have you got in the pail? WESTON: A package that came this morning. The man who brought it was the same fellow that knocked against me yesterday and slipped that paper into my pocket. They thought I would open it, the fools!
( He is beginning to feel better ) But we have been one too many for them! LADY WESTON ( in wild dismay )You are making a mess of the beautiful, brand- new---- WESTON ( interrupting her angrily ): Frances! ( The thunder of her name quenches her speech .) What does your ‘beautiful brand-new’ carpet matter when your husband’s life is at stake? You shock me.
LADY WESTON ( who was not going to say ‘carpet’ ): Carpet? (After a pause, mildly) No, of course not, my dear. I should never dream of weighing your safety against even the finest product of Asia. You know how the doctor disapproves of excitement for you.
WESTON: Perhaps the doctor has never had an infernal machine handed in at his door of a spring morning. LADY WESTON ( contemplative, her eyes on the portrait which hangs opposite the 12th - - Remember Caesar Page side window ): Do you think we had better remove Great-aunt Cicely? WESTON: In the name of heaven, why? LADY WESTON: She is in the direct line of shots coming through that