(PATTY comes in with the lamp.)
PATTY. Hurting your poor eyes reading without a lamp. Think shame, Miss Susan.
MISS SUSAN (with spirit). Patty, I will not be dictated to. (PATTY looks out at window.) Draw the curtains at once. I cannot allow you to stand gazing at the foolish creatures who crowd to a ball.
PATTY (closing curtains). I am not gazing at them, ma'am; I am gazing at my sweetheart.
MISS SUSAN. Your sweetheart? (Softly.) I did not know you had one.
PATTY. Nor have I, ma'am, as yet. But I looks out, and thinks I to myself, at any moment he may turn the corner. I ha' been looking out at windows waiting for him to oblige by turning the corner this fifteen years.
MISS SUSAN. Fifteen years, and still you are hopeful?
PATTY. There is not a more hopeful woman in all the king's dominions.
MISS SUSAN. You who are so much older than Miss Phoebe.
PATTY. Yes, ma'am, I ha' the advantage of her by ten years.