KATY. Indeed yes, ma’am. Wasn’t Mr. Tilsbury after noticing last night how fast his cigar box had emptied?
MRS. TILSBURY. How dreadful; but now that she has gone, do serve the dinner and I will make it good to you.
(Kitchen bell rings.)
KATY. I can’t indeed, ma’am. There’s John now. The Union would never let him marry a girl that did extra work that wasn’t her own trade. (KATY goes out hurriedly and almost knocks into MR. TILSBURY who is coming in.)
MR. TILSBURY. What’s the trouble about, Josephine?
MRS. TILSBURY. Oh, George. What has made you so late? Helma wouldn’t wait any longer to cook the dinner because she has an engagement to speak at a Woman Suffrage meeting and Katy won’t do it because she doesn’t want to vote and she and Helma have quarrelled about Katy’s beau. Everybody is here waiting for dinner and I don’t know what I shall do. Why didn’t you come sooner?
MR. TILSBURY. I stopped in at the club for a minute and the fellows persuaded me to make a fourth at bridge. It seemed kind of mean not to when the three were just sitting there with nothing to do.
MRS. TILSBURY. Yes, but there were five of us waiting for you here at home and now there is no dinner. It’s all your fault, so it’s up to you to suggest something. I have done my best.
MR. TILSBURY. Well, I guess we had better adjourn to a restaurant. (Goes forward to greet the others.) How do you do, Mrs. Brown. Hello, Van Tousel; glad to see you Becker. It seems a domestic tragedy has just occurred. Mrs. Tilsbury tells me that the cause of Woman Suffrage is being fought out in our kitchen. It seems rather a small floor for the solution of a world problem, but the cook, who is a Norwegian and a suffragette, has hurried out to speak for the cause, and the waitress, who is an anti, refuses to come to the rescue. I think we had better let them fight it out and go to Sherry’s for dinner where cooks and waiters are all voters. (Goes out to dress.)