MAGGIE [perceiving that she has visitors]. Come in, John. Sit down, Lady Sybil, and make yourself comfortable. I’m afraid we’ve put you about.
[She is, after all, only a few years older than they and scarcely looks her age; yet it must have been in some such way as this that the little old woman who lived in a shoe addressed her numerous progeny.]
JOHN. I’m mortal sorry, Maggie.
SYBIL [who would be more courageous if she could hold his hand]. And I also.
MAGGIE [soothingly]. I’m sure you are. But as it can’t be helped I see no reason why we three shouldn’t talk the matter over in a practical way.
[SYBIL looks doubtful, but JOHN hangs on desperately to the word practical.]
JOHN. If you could understand, Maggie, what an inspiration she is to me and my work.
SYBIL. Indeed, Mrs. Shand, I think of nothing else.
MAGGIE. That’s fine. That’s as it should be.
SYBIL [talking too much]. Mrs. Shand, I think you are very kind to take it so reasonably.