ALICE. Yes, you cringe before your men, and before your sergeants, but you cannot get on with your equals or your superiors.
CAPTAIN. Ugh!
ALICE. That's the way of all tyrants—Do you think she will go?
CAPTAIN. Yes, if you don't go out and say something nice to her.
ALICE. I?
CAPTAIN. Yes, for if I should do it, you would say that I was flirting with the maids.
ALICE. Mercy, if she should leave! Then I shall have to do the work, as I did the last time, and my hands will be spoiled.
CAPTAIN. That is not the worst of it. But if Jenny leaves, Christine will also leave, and then we shall never get a servant to the island again. The mate on the steamer scares away every one that comes to look for a place—and if he should miss his chance, then my corporals attend to it.
ALICE. Yes, your corporals, whom I have to feed in my kitchen, and whom you dare not show the door——
CAPTAIN. No, for then they would also go when their terms were up—and we might have to close up the whole gun shop!