The Big Drum: A Comedy in Four Acts

by Arthur Wing Pinero

[Bertram returns, out of breath.

Bertram.

I caught her on the stairs. [Closing the door.] She'll bring him down.

Lady Filson.

[Weakly.] I won't be civil to him. I refuse to be civil to him.

Sir Randle.

[Replacing the book in the rack and sitting in the chair at the oblong table—groaning again.] Oh!

[There is a short silence. Bertram slowly advances.

Bertram.

[Heavily, drawing his hand across his brow.] Of course, my dear father—my dear mother—we must do our utmost to quash it—strain every nerve, I mean t'say, to stop my sister from committing this stupendous act of folly.