LEONARD. It’s your weak point, sir. If I haven’t pointed it out before I ought to have done—you will meet everything with exclamations and interjections. Conversation can’t be carried on like that. There must be some reasonable way of looking at me. I may be an extraordinary specimen, but you ought to get used to me.
PENDLETON. Never mind, Leonard, my boy, I was a bit eccentric myself when I was young. I wanted to go on the stage.
LEONARD. I never wanted to go on the stage. I’m ready if they’ll give me Harry Lauder’s salary.
PENDLETON. Do you know what my old father did? He gave me a good hiding and I’ve been all the better for it.
LEONARD. How do you know?
PENDLETON. [With a shrug that is half exhibition.] Well—
LEONARD. I can hardly blame fathers. They are in an impossible position. They pretend to teach and they ought to learn.
TIMBRELL. Who makes the position impossible? You and Edgar were treated alike—up to a certain point. I never allowed any favouritism; what one got the other got. There was never the slightest difference—
LEONARD. But why should you treat us alike when we were totally different?
TIMBRELL. Up to a point, I said.