The scene represents a well-furnished drawing-room in the house of Mr. Posket in Bloomsbury.
Beatie Tomlinson, a pretty, simply dressed little girl of about sixteen, is playing the piano, as Cis Farringdon, a manly youth wearing an Eton jacket, enters the room.
Cis.
Beatie!
Beatie.
Cis dear! Dinner isn’t over, surely?
Cis.
Not quite. I had one of my convenient headaches and cleared out. [Taking an apple and some cobnuts from his pocket and giving them to Beatie.] These are for you, dear, with my love. I sneaked ’em off the sideboard as I came out.
Beatie.
Oh, I mustn’t take them!