Don't shake him, Miss, don't shake him! [Peggy Hesslerigge enters through the hall, and comes between Tyler and Gwendoline. Peggy is a shabbily dressed, untidy girl, with wild hair and inky fingers, her voice is rather shrewish and her actions are jerky: altogether she has the appearance of an overwise and neglected child.].

PEGGY.

Leave the boy alone, Gwendoline Hawkins! What has he done?

GWENDOLINE.

He won't feed my darling pets.

ERMYNTRUDE.

And he is generally a Lower Order.

PEGGY.

Go away, Tyler. [Tyler and Jane deposit the trunk in the hall with the other baggage, and disappear.] You silly girls! To make an enemy of the boy at the very moment we depend upon his devotion! It's just like you, Ermyntrude Johnson!

ERMYNTRUDE.