Zoon: I care not, Oomuz. I come not boasting back from the hills under Aether Mountain. I shall not halt till I have told the Queen my love. I shall wed with her who is less only than Fate, if less she be. I am not as those, Oomuz. Who weds the Queen is more than the servant of Fate.
Oomuz: Master——
[He stretches out his hands towardsZoonimploringly.
Zoon: Well, Oomuz?
Oomuz: Master. There is a doom about the Queen.
Zoon: What doom, Oomuz?
Oomuz: We know not, Master. We are simple people and we know not that. But we know from of old there is a doom about her. We know it, Master; we have been told from of old.
Zoon: Yes, there could well be a doom about the Queen.
Oomuz: Follow not after, Master, when she goes to Aether Mountain. There is surely a doom about her. A doom was with her mother upon that very peak.
Zoon: Yes, Oomuz, a doom well becomes her.
Oomuz: Doubt it not, Master; there is a doom about her.
Zoon: Oomuz, I doubt not. For there is something wonderful about the Queen, beyond all earthly wonders. Something like thunder beyond far clouds or hail hurling from heaven; there should be indeed a terrible doom about her.
Oomuz: Master, I have warned you for the sake of the days when we raided the golden hoard beyond the marshes.
Zoon(taking his hand): Thank you, good Oomuz.
[He goes towards door after the others.
Oomuz: But where go you, Master?
Zoon: I wait to follow the Queen when she goes to Aether Mountain.
[Exit.Oomuzweeps silently on to the Queen's Treasure.
The Palace of Zoorm: the Hall of Queen Zoomzoomarma.
Time: Same as Scene I.
The Queen: Is none worthy to kiss my hand, Oozizi; none?
Lady Oozizi: Lady, none.
[TheQueensighs.
You should not sigh, great lady.
Queen: Why should I not sigh, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Great lady, because such things as sighs pertain only to love.
Queen: Love is a joy, Oozizi; love is a glow. Love makes them dance so lightly along rays of the sunlight. It is made of sunlight and gladness. It is like flowers in twilight. How should they sigh?
Oozizi: Lady! Great lady! Say not such things of love!
Queen: Say not such things, Oozizi? Are they not true?
Oozizi: True? Yes, great lady, true. But love is a toy of the humble; love is a common thing that the lowly use; love is ... Great lady, had any overheard you speaking then they might have thought, they might have madly dreamed ...
Queen: Dreamed what, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Incredible things.
Queen(meditatively): I must not love, Oozizi.
Oozizi: Lady! The common people love.
[She points to door.
Lady, the green fields going from here to the blueness, and bending towards it, and going wandering on, and the rivers they meet and the woods that shade the rivers, all own you for their sovereign. Lady, a million lime-trees mellow your realm. The golden hoards are yours. Yours are the deep fields and the iris marshes. Yours are the roads of wandering and all ways home. The common delights of love your mere soldiers know. Lady, you may not love.
[TheQueensighs.Oozizicontinues her knitting.
Queen: My mother loved, Oozizi.
Oozizi: Lady, for a day. For one day, mighty lady, As one might stoop in idleness to a broken toy and pick it up and throw it again away, so she loved for a day. That idle fancy of an afternoon tarnished no pinnacle that shone from her exalted station. But to love for more than a day—(Queen'sface lights up)—that were to place your high unequalled glory below a vulgar pastime. One alone may sit in the golden palace to reign over the green fields; but all may love.
Queen: Do all love but I, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Wondrous many, lady.
Queen: How know you, Oozizi?
Oozizi: The common shouts that come up at evening, the clamour of the lanes; they are but from love.
Queen: What is love, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Love is a foolish thing.
Queen: How know you, Oozizi?
Oozizi: They came tittering to me once; but I saw the foolishness of it.
Queen(a little sadly): And they came no more?
Oozizi(a little sadly too): No more.
[Both look thoughtfully out into dreams, theQueenon her throne, chin on hand.
[Suddenly a stir is heard from the Hall of the Hundred Princes.
Queen(alarmed): Hark! What was that?
Oozizi(rises, listening anxiously): It sounded ... to come from the Hall ... of the Hundred Princes.
Queen: They were never heard here before.
Oozizi: Lady, never.
Queen(anxiously): What can it mean?
Oozizi: I know not, lady.
Queen: Sound never troubled our inner chamber before.
Oozizi: All is quiet now.
Queen: Hark! (They listen.)
Oozizi: All is quiet.
Queen: Sound from beyond our wall, Oozizi. How it disturbs. I could not rule over the green fields if sounds came up to me from the further halls full of their strange thoughts. Why do sounds come to me, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Great lady, it has never been before. It will never be again. You must forget it, lady. You must not let it disturb your reign.
Queen: It brought strange thoughts with it, Oozizi.
Oozizi: All is quiet now.
Queen: If it came again....
Oozizi: Lady, it will not come again. It will come no more. It is quiet.
Queen: If it came again ... Is the door open, Oozizi? Yes ... If it came again I should almost flee from the palace.
Oozizi: Lady! Think not of leaving the golden palace!
Queen: If it came again.
Oozizi: It will not come again.
[The heels of the Princes drum louder, off.
Queen: Again, Oozizi:
[Oozizipants.TheQueenwaits, listening, in fear. Again the heels are heard.
[TheQueenruns to the small door. She looks out.
Oozizi: Lady! Lady!
Queen: Oozizi.
Oozizi: Lady! Lady! You must never leave the palace. You must never leave it. You must not.
Queen: Hark, it is quiet now.
Oozizi: Lady, it would be terrible to leave the golden palace. Who would reign? What would happen?
Queen: It is quiet now. What would happen, Oozizi?
Oozizi: The world would end.
Queen: It is quiet now; perhaps I need not fly.
Oozizi: Lady, you must not.
Queen: And yet I would fain go over those green fields all gleaming with summer, and see the golden hoards that no man guards, glittering with such a light as glows this June.
Oozizi: O, speak not, great lady, of the green fields and June. It is these that have intoxicated the Princes so that they do this unrecorded thing, letting sound of them be heard in your sacred room.
Queen: Has June intoxicated them, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Oh, lady, speak not of June.
Queen: Is June so terrible?
[She returns towardsOozizi.
Oozizi: It does strange things.
[The noise breaks out again.
Hark!
[TheQueenruns to the door again.Oozizistretches out her arms to theQueen.
O, lady, never leave the golden palace.
[TheQueenlistens; all is silent; she looks outside.
Queen: I see the green fields gleaming. Strange flowers are standing among them, like princes I have not known.
Oozizi: Oh, lady, speak not of the bewildering fields. They are all enchanted with Summer, and they have maddened the Princes. It is dangerous to look at them, lady.
[TheQueengazes on over the fields.
And yet you look.
Queen: I would fain go far over the strange soft fields; far and far to the high heathery lands——
Oozizi: Lady, all is quiet; there is no danger; you must not leave the palace.
Queen: Yes, all is quiet.
[TheQueenreturns.
Oozizi: It was a passing madness seized the Princes.
Queen: Oozizi, when I hear the sound of all their feet it is dreadful, and I must fly. And when I see the wonderful fields in the sunlight sloping away to lands I have never known, then I long to fly away and away for ever, passing from field to field and land to land.
Oozizi: Lady, no, no!
Queen: Oozizi.
Oozizi: Yes, great lady.
Queen: There is a mountain there that towers above the earth. It goes up into a calm of which our world knows nothing. Heaven, like a cloak, is draped about its shoulders. Why have none told me of this mountain, Oozizi?
Oozizi(awed): Aether Mountain.
Queen: Why has none told me?
Oozizi: When your glorious mother, lady, loved for a day ...
Queen: Yes, Oozizi ...
Oozizi: She went, as all songs tell, to Aether Mountain.
Queen(entranced): To Aether Mountain?
Oozizi: So they sing at evening, when they throw down their loads of gold and rest.
Queen: To Aether Mountain.
Oozizi: Lady, Destiny sent her; but you must not go. You must not leave your throne to go to Aether Mountain.
Queen: There is a calm upon it not of earth.
Oozizi: You must not go, lady, you must not go.
Queen: I will not go.
[The Princes drum again, still louder with their heels.
Hark!
[Ooziziis frightened, TheQueenruns to the door.
It is louder! They are nearer! They are coming here!
Oozizi: No, lady. They would not dare!
Queen: I must go, Oozizi; I must go.
Oozizi: No, lady. They will never dare. You must not. Hark! They come no nearer. June has maddened them, but they come no nearer. They are quiet now. Come back, lady. Leave the door, they come no nearer. See, it is all quiet now. They come no nearer, lady. (Oozizicatches her by the sleeve.) Lady, you must not.
Queen(much calmer, gazing away): Oozizi, I must go.
Oozizi: No, no, lady! All is quiet; you must not go.
Queen(calmly): It is calling for me, Oozizi.
Oozizi: What is calling, lady? Nothing calls.
Queen: It is calling, Oozizi.
Oozizi: Oh, lady, all is silent. No one calls.
Queen: It is calling for me now, Oozizi.
Oozizi: No, no, lady. What calls?
Queen: Aether Mountain is calling. I know now who called my mother. It was Aether Mountain, Oozizi; he is calling.
Oozizi: I—I scarce dare look out of the golden palace, lady, to where we must not go. Yet, yet I will look. (She peers.) Yes, yes, indeed; there stands old Aether Mountain. But he does not call. Indeed he does not call. He is all silent in Heaven.
Queen: It is his voice, Oozizi.
Oozizi: What, lady? I hear no voice.
Queen: That great, great silence is his voice, Oozizi. He is calling me out of that blue waste of Heaven.
Oozizi: Lady, I cannot understand.
Queen: He calls, Oozizi.
Oozizi: Come away, lady. It is bad to look so long. Oh, if the Princes had not made their clamour heard! Oh, if they had not you had not gone to the door and seen Aether Mountain, and this trouble had not come. Oh! Oh! Oh!
Queen: There is no trouble upon Aether Mountain.
Oozizi: Oh, lady, it is terrible that you should leave the palace.
Queen: There is no trouble there. Aether Mountain goes all calm into Heaven. His grey-blue slopes are calm as the sky about him. There he stands calling. He is calling to me, Oozizi.
Oozizi(reflecting): Can it be?
Queen: What would you ask, Oozizi?
Oozizi: Can it be that it is with you, great lady, as it was with the Queen, your mother, when Destiny sent her hence to Aether Mountain?
Queen: Aether Mountain calls.
Oozizi: Lady, for a moment hear me. Come with me but a little while.
[She leads theQueenslowly by the arm back to the throne.
Lady, be seated here once more and take up the orb and sceptre in your small hands as of old.
[TheQueenpatiently does as she is told.
Now, if Destiny calls you, let him call to you as to a Queen. Now, if it be for no whim of those that pass, that you would go so far from here to that great mountain, say, seated upon your throne in the golden palace with sceptre and orb in hand, say would you go forth, lady?
Queen(almost dreaming): Aether Mountain calls.
[Oozizibursts into tears. She helps theQueenby the arm from her throne and leads her part of the way to the door. There she stops. TheQueengoes on to the door alone.
Oozizi: Farewell, lady.
[TheQueengazes out rapturously towards Aether Mountain. Then she walks back and embraces Oozizi.
Queen: Farewell, Oozizi.
Oozizi: Farewell, great lady.
[TheQueenturns, then suddenly she runs swiftly and nimbly through the door and disappears.
[At once there is a murmur of voices from the Hall of the Hundred Princes.
Voices(off): Ah, ah, ah.
[Oozizistands still weeping.
[Enter the Princes, exquisite and frivolous. They crowd past each other.
Meliflor: And where is our little Queen?
[Oozizianswers with a defiant look through her tears, which has its effect on them.
Moomoomon(foppishly): There, there.
Ximenung: Gone!
Meliflor: Come! Let us follow.
Moomoomon: Shall we?
Several: Yes.
Moomoomon: Come.
[They stream across from the side door R to the door in back,Ooziziregarding them haughtily.
Oozizi(menacingly): It is Aether Mountain.
[Entranced, silent, last of allZoonfollows. Exeunt all the Princes. Sounds as of rough protest heard from the workers off. The grim brown heads of two or three peer round the door by which the Princes entered. Many come on, dumb, puzzled, turning their brown heads, searching. At last they cluster roundOozizi. "Er"?they say.
Oozizi: Aether Mountain has called her.
[They nod dumb heads gravely.
On the base of Aether Mountain.
Right, heather sloping up to left, which is rugged with tumbled grey rocks.
Further left all the scene is filled with the rising bulk of Aether Mountain.
Low down, far off and small in the background to the right appears a little palace of pure gold.
Enter right theQueenrunning untired and nimble, unchecked by those grey rocks.
Following her the tiredPrincescome.
Zoonis no longer last, but about fourth, and gaining.
Meliflorleads.
Meliflor: Permit me, great lady. My hand over the rocks. Permit ...
[He falls and cannot rise.
Moomoomon: Permit me. (He falls too.) These rocks; it is these rocks.
Ximenung(going wearily): Great lady. A moment. One moment, great lady. Allow me.
[ButZoondoes not speak. Exeunt L. the Queen and those Princes that have not fallen. The curtain falls on stragglers crossing the stage.
The Summit.
On the snow on the pinnacle of Aether Mountain, with only bright blue sky all round and everywhere, reclineQueen Zoomzoomarmaand thePrince of Zoon.
The Queen: You had known no love before, First of a Hundred?
Prince of Zoon: There is no love on earth, O Queen of all.
Queen: Only here.
Zoon: Pure love is only here on this peak lonely in heaven.
Queen: Would you love me elsewhere if we went from here?
Zoon: But we will never go from here.
Queen: No, we will never leave it.
Zoon: Lady, look down. (She looks.) The earth is sorrowful. (She sighs.) Cares. Cares. All over the wide surface we can see are troubles; troubles far off and grey, that harm not Aether Mountain.
Queen: It looks a long way off and long ago.
Zoon(wonderingly): Only to-day we came to Aether Mountain.
Queen: Only to-day?
Zoon: We crossed a gulf of time.
Queen: It lies below us, all drowsy with years.
Zoon: Lady, here is your home, this peak that has entered heaven. Let us never leave your home.
Queen: I knew not until to-day of Aether Mountain. None had told me.
Zoon: Knew you never, lady, of love?
Queen: None had told me.
Zoon: This is your home; not Earth; no golden palace. Reign here alone, not knowing the cares of men, without yesterday or to-morrow, untroubled by history or council.
Queen: Yes, yes, we will return no more.
Zoon: See, lady, see the Earth. Is it not as a dream just faded?
Queen: It is dim indeed, grey and dream-like.
Zoon: It is the Earth we knew.
Queen: It is all dream-like.
Zoon: It is gone; we can dimly see it.
Queen: Was it a dream?
Zoon: Perhaps. It is gone now and does not matter.
Queen: Poor Earth. I hope it was real.
Zoon(seizing her hand): Oh, Zoomzoomarma, say not you hope that Earth was real. It is gone now. See; it is so far away. Sigh not for Earth, oh lady, sigh not for Earth.
Queen: Why not, King of Aether Mountain?
Zoon: Because when you sigh for tiny things I tremble for your love. See how faint and small it is and how far away.
Queen: I do not sigh for Earth, King of the Mountain. I only wish it well.
Zoon: Oh, wish it not well, lady.
Queen: Let us wish the poor Earth well.
Zoon: No, lady, no. Be with me always wholly, living not partly in dreams. There is no Earth. It is but a dream that left us. See, see (pointing down) it is a dim dream.
Queen(looking down): The people move there still. See, there is Prince Ximenung. Something down there seems almost unlike dreams.
Zoon: No, lady, it cannot be.
Queen: How know you, Lord of the Mountain?
Zoon: It was too unreal for life. Love was not there. Surely it was a dream.
Queen: Yes, I knew not love in the golden palace of Zoorm.
Zoon: Then indeed it was unreal, Golden Lady. Forget the dream of Earth.
Queen: If love be real ...
Zoon: Can you doubt it?
Queen: No. It was a dream. Just now I dreamt it. Are dreams bad, my Prince?
Zoon: No. They are just dreams.
Queen: We will think of dreams no more.
Zoon: This is where love is, and here only. We should not dream too much or think of dreams, because the place is holy.
Queen: Is love here only, darling?
Zoon: Here only, Golden Queen. Do any others elsewhere love as we.
Queen: No, I think not.
Zoon: Then how can pure love be elsewhere?
Queen: It is true.
Zoon: On this clear peak that just enters Heaven love is and only here. The rest is dreams.
Queen: Could we awake from love and find Earth true?
Zoon: No, no, no. Sweet Lady, let not such fancies alarm you.
Queen: And yet folks wake from dreams. It would be terrible.
Zoon: No, no, there are things too real for dreams. You cannot waken from love. Dreams are of fantastic things, things fanciful and weak, and things confused and intricate like Earth. When you think of them in your dreams you see their unreality. But if love were not real what could there be to wake to.
Queen: True. How wise you are. It was but a fancy that troubled me. (Looking down.) It was one of those dreams at dawn. It is faint and far-off now.
Zoon: Will you love me for ever, Golden Queen?
Queen: For ever. Why not? You will love me for ever?
Zoon: For ever. I cannot help it.
Queen: Let us look at the dream far off, in the dimness our thoughts have forsaken.
Zoon: Aye, let us look. It was a sad dream somewhat; and yet upon this peak where all is love all that we see seems happy.
Queen: See the dream there. Look at those. They seem to walk dreamily as they walk in the dream.
Zoon: It is because they have not love, which is only here.
Queen: Look! Look at those dreamers in the dream.
Zoon: They are running.
Queen: Oh! Look!
Zoon: They are pursued.
Queen: The brown ones are pursuing them with spears.
Zoon: It is Prince Meliflor, Prince Moomoomon, Prince Ximenung that run in the dream. And the Prince of Huz. The brown men are close.
Queen: The brown ones are overtaking them.
Zoon: Yes, they are closer.
Queen: Look! Prince Ximenung!
Zoon: Yes, he is dead in the dream.
Queen: The Prince of Huz?
Zoon: Speared.
Queen: Still, still they are killing them.
Zoon: It is all the Hundred Princes.
Queen: They are killing them all.
Zoon: A sad sight once.
Queen: Once?
Zoon: I should have wept once.
Queen: It is so far off now.
Zoon: It is so far, far off. We can only feel joy upon this holy mountain.
Queen: Only joy. (He sighs as he looks.) Look! (He sighs again.)
Zoon: There falls the poor Prince Meliflor.
Queen: How huge a thrust it was with the great spear.
Zoon: He is dead.
Queen: Are you not happy?
Zoon: Yes.
Queen: In your voice there seemed to sound some far-off thing. Some strange thing. Was it sorrow?
Zoon: No; we are too high; sorrow cannot come. No grief can touch us here, no woe drift up to us from the woes of Earth.
Queen: I thought there was some strange thing in your voice, like sorrows we have dreamed.
Zoon: No, Golden Queen. Those fancied sorrows of dreams cannot touch reality.
Queen: You will never be sorry we have woken and left the dream of Earth?
Zoon: No, glorious lady; nothing can bring me trouble ever again.
Queen: Not even I?
Zoon: Never you, my Golden Zoomzoomarma, for on this sacred peak where there is only love you cannot.
Queen: We will dwell here for ever in endless joy.
Zoon(looking down): All dead now, all the Princes.
Queen: Turn, my Prince, from the dream of Earth, lest trouble come up from it.
Zoon: It cannot drift up here; yet we will turn from the dream.
Queen: Let us think of endless joy upon the edge of heaven.
Zoon: Yes, Queen; for ever in reality while all else dream away.
Queen: It is the years that make them drowsy. They dream to dream the years away. Time cannot reach so high as here, the years are far below us.
Zoon: Far below us, making a dream and troubling it.
Queen: They do not know in the dream that only love is real.
Zoon: If time could reach us here we should pass, too. Nothing is real where time is.
Queen: How shall we spend the calm that time does not vex, together here for ever?
Zoon: Holding your hand. (She gives it.) And kissing it often in the calm of eternity. Sometimes watching, a moment, the dream go by; then kissing your hand again all in eternity.
Queen: And never wearying?
Zoon: Not while eternity lingers here in heaven.
Queen: Thus we will live until the dream goes by and Earth has faded under Aether Mountain.
Zoon: And then we shall watch the calm of Eternity.
Queen: And you will still kiss my hand at times.
Zoon: Yes, while eternity wiles Heaven away.
Queen: The silence is like music on Aether Mountain.
Zoon: It is because all is real. In the dream nothing was real. Music had to be made and then soon passed trembling away. Here all things always are as the desire of Earth, Earth's desire that groped among fantasies finding them false.
Queen: Let us forget the dream.
Zoon(kissing her hand): I have forgotten for ever.
Queen: Ah!
Zoon: What trouble has drifted up to you from Earth?
Queen: An old saying.
Zoon: It was said in the dream.
Queen: It was true!
[She snatches her hand away.
Ah, I remember it. It was true.
Zoon: All is unreal but love, my crownéd Zoomzoomarma. Where there was not love it cannot have been true.
[He tries to take her hand again.
Queen: Touch not my hand. It was true.
Zoon: What was the saying heard in the dream of Earth that was true?
Queen: None is worthy to touch my hand; no, none.
Zoon: By Aether Mountain, I will kiss your hand again! What is this saying out of a dream that dares deny reality?
Queen: It is true! Oh, it is true!
Zoon: Out of that hurried, aimless dream, that knows not its own end even, you have brought me a saying and say it against love.
Queen: I say it is true!
Zoon: Nothing is true against love. Fate only is greater.
Queen: Then it is Fate.
Zoon: Against Fate I will kiss your hand again.
Queen: None are worthy. No, none.
[She draws her rapier.
Zoon: I will kiss your hand again.
Queen: It must be this (pointing with rapier) for none are worthy.
Zoon: Though it be death I kiss your hand again.
Queen: It is certain death.
Zoon: Oh, Zoomzoomarma, forget that troubled dream, and things said by dreamers, while I kiss your hand in heaven if only once again.
Queen: None are worthy. It is death. None are worthy. None.
Zoon: Though it be death, yet once again upon Aether Mountain in heaven I kiss your hand.
Queen: Away! It is death. Upon the word of a Queen.
Zoon: I kiss your h ...
[She standing kills him kneeling. He falls off Aether Mountain, behind it out of sight.
[As he falls he calls her name after intervals. She kneels upon the summit and watches him falling, falling, falling.
[Fainter and fainter as he falls from that tremendous height comes up her name as he calls it.
Zoomzoomarma! Zoomzoomarma! Zoomzoomarma!
[Still she is watching and he is falling still.
[At last when his cry ofZoomzoomarmacomes almost unheard to that incredible height and then is heard no more, she turns, and with infinite neatness picking up her skirts steps down daintily over the snow.
[She is going Earthward as the curtain falls.
Sladder,a successful man.Splurge,his secretary and publicity agent.The Rev. Charles Hippanthigh.Butler.Mrs. Sladder.Ermyntrude Sladder.
The big house thatSladderhas bought in the country.Sladder'sstudy. Large French window opening on to a lawn.
Time: Now.
Sladder'sdaughter is seated in an armchair tapping on the arm of it a little impatiently.
The door opens very cautiously, and the head ofMrs. Sladderis put round it.
Mrs. Sladder: O, Ermyntrude. Whatever are you doing here?
Ermyntrude: I wanted to speak to father, mother.
Mrs. Sladder: But you mustn't come in here. We mustn't disturb father.
Ermyntrude: I want to speak to father.
Mrs. Sladder: Whatever about, Ermyntrude?
Ermyntrude(taps the arm of the chair): O, nothing, mother. Only about that idea of his.
Mrs. Sladder: What idea, child?
Ermyntrude: O, that idea he had, that—er—I was some day to marry a duke.
Mrs. Sladder: And why shouldn't you marry a duke, child? I am sure father would make it worth his while.
Ermyntrude: O well, I don't think I want to, mother.
Mrs. Sladder: But why not, Ermyntrude?
Ermyntrude: O well, you know Mr. Jones——
Mrs. Sladder: That good man!
Ermyntrude: ——did say that dukes were no good, mother. They oppress the poor, I think he said.
Mrs. Sladder: Very true.
Ermyntrude: Well, there you are.
Mrs. Sladder: Yes, yes, of course. At the same time, father had rather set his heart on it. You wouldn't have any other reason now, child, would you?
Ermyntrude: What more do you want, mother? Mr. Jones is a Cabinet Minister; he must know what he's talking about.
Mrs. Sladder: Yes, yes.
Ermyntrude: And I hear he's going to get a peerage.
Mrs. Sladder(with enthusiasm): Well, I'm sure he deserves it. But child, you mustn't talk to father to-day. You mustn't stay here any longer.
Ermyntrude: But why not, mother?
Mrs. Sladder: Well, child, he's been smoking one of those big cigars again, and he's absent-like. And he's been talking a good deal with Mr. Splurge. It's one of his great days, I think, Ermyntrude. I feel sure it is. One of those days that has given us all this money, and all these fine houses, with all those little birds that his gentlemen friends shoot. He has an idea!
Ermyntrude: O, mother, do you really think so?
Mrs. Sladder: I'm sure of it, child. (Looking out.) There! There he is! Walking along that path that they made. I can see he's got an idea. How like Napoleon.*He's walking with Mr. Splurge. They're coming in now. Come along, Ermyntrude, we mustn't disturb him to-day. He has some great idea, some great idea.