MRS. BROWN. Suppose she has made a mistake in the number and that we trace the wrong cab? I very often think that I can remember a telephone number, and that I won’t take the trouble to look it up in that difficult telephone directory. So I give the number to Central and some one I don’t know at all answers the call. I don’t let on to Central, however. I look up the right number and repeat it to her and scold her for having given me the wrong one in the first place, but it all takes a lot more time than if I had not depended upon my memory for numbers.
MRS. THOM. Miss Slavinsky’s profession as an usheress in a theatre trains her memory for numbers. She has to remember the number of the seats.
SOPHIE. Mr. Becker does not agree with you, Mrs. Thom.
MR. BECKER. Your memory is only too good, Miss Slavinsky.
MRS. THOM. Here we are talking when we are not yet sure whether Mildred is in the house or not. That may be another banner of the Daughters of the Danaïdes or that man may have sent it here to get it out of his way so that he might not be traced by its presence. The motto of the D. D.’s is, Savoir et faire,—“To know and to do.” Mrs. Tilsbury, will you ascertain if your step-daughter is in the house or not, so that we may act accordingly.
MRS. BROWN. (To the men.) Savoir et faire—what a difference that little word “et” makes?
MRS. TILSBURY. I will go and see. (Goes out.)
MRS. THOM. I hope that both of you gentlemen are supporters of the cause.
MR. VAN TOUSEL. (Blithely.) I am.
SOPHIE. Mr. Van Tousel is a hero, Mrs. Thom.