The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith

E-text prepared by Stephen Bishop <sbishop100@btinternet.com>
The Scene is laid in Venice—first at the Palazzo Arconati, a lodging house on the Grand Canal; afterwards in an apartment in the Campo S. Bartolomeo.
It is Easter-tide, a week passing between the events of the First and Second Acts.
The Scene is a room in the Palazzo Arconati, on the Grand Canal, Venice. The room itself is beautiful in its decayed grandeur, but the furnishings and hangings are either tawdry and meretricious or avowedly modern. The three windows at the back open on to a narrow covered balcony, or loggia, and through them can be seen the west side of the canal. Between recessed double doors on either side of the room is a fireplace out of use and a marble mantelpiece, but a tiled stove is used for a wood fire. Breakfast things are laid on the table. The sun streams into the room.
NELLO. Con suo fratello. (With her brother.)
GERTRUDE. Now, Fortune, you ought to have told us downstairs that Dr. Kirke is with Mrs. Cleeve.
AMOS. Come away, Gerty. Mrs. Cleeve can't want to be bored with us just now.
FORTUNE. Mrs. Cleeve give 'er ordares she is always to be bored wiz Madame Thorpe and Mr. Winterfield.
AMOS. Ha, Ha!
FORTUNE. Besides, ze doctares vill go in 'alf a minute, you see.
GERTRUDE. Doctors!
AMOS. What, is there another doctor with Dr. Kirke?