The Schoolmistress: A Farce in Three Acts

by Arthur Wing Pinero

RANKLING.

[Panting, and releasing Peggy.] You good-for-nothing girl! Do you know you have upset your mother?

MRS. RANKLING.

Archibald, that isn't Dinah!

MISS DYOTT.

That is another young lady.

RANKLING.

[Aghast.] What—not——Who—who has led me into this unpardonable error of judgment?

MRS. RANKLING.

[To Peggy, who is rubbing her shoulders and looking vindictively at Rankling.] Oh, my dear young lady, pray think of this only as an amusing mistake. The Admiral has been away for more than four years—Dinah was but a child when he last saw her. [Weeping.] Oh, dear me!