(CHARLIE exits at right.)
(MR. MAYNARD enters from house.)
CHLORINDA: Did you hear what happened to Charlie Doolittle?
MAYNARD: I suppose he took a pinch of snuff and blew his brains out.
CHLORINDA: Goodness no; guess again.
MAYNARD: No, I won't. I'm not at all interested in that addlepated, monkey-faced nincompoop. He's after my daughter, but he shall never marry her. Why, if wives could be supported for fifty cents a year, that empty-headed specimen of vacuous mentality couldn't even keep a cock-roach from starving.
CHLORINDA: Don't say dat, massa, for Charlie's uncle has jes' died an' left him fifty thousand dollars.
MAYNARD: (Very much astonished.) How much did you say?
CHLORINDA: Five hundred thousand dollars.
MAYNARD: Five hundred thousand dollars?