BODIE (hurriedly). Yes, I am, I am! But she’s never bad! they are all good, they are like angels.
CINDERELLA (despairing). Then they’re cheating you. Where’s my boots?
BODIE. Quiet! That’s all right.
(A pretty and not very competent PROBATIONER comes in at the window, carrying fishing rods, followed by DANNY with croquet mallets and balls.)
PROBATIONER (laden). I want to shake hands with you, Mr. Bodie, but you see how I am placed.
CINDERELLA. Do your pretty bow at any rate.
(The attractive girl does her pretty bow to MR. BODIE. It is one of the few things she does well, and will probably by and by bring her into some safe matrimonial harbour; but in her country’s great hour she is of less value to it than a ball of twine. She is of a nice nature and would like to be of use, but things slip through her hands as through her mind; she cannot even carry a few lengths of fishing rods without an appeal to heaven. She is counting the pieces now with puckered brow.)
DANNY (one of the few men in the world who can carry four croquet balls in two hands). You see, sir, there is a pond in the garden, and we have a fishing competition; and as there are not enough rods the men hides them so as to be sure of having a rod next day.
PROBATIONER. It is very unfair to the others, Danny.