DR. FREEMANTLE [to Newte]. Were you able to get hold of Vernon last night?
NEWTE. Waited up till he came in about two o’clock. Merely answered that he wasn’t in a talkative mood—brushed past me and locked himself in.
DR. FREEMANTLE. He wouldn’t say anything to me either. Rather a bad sign when he won’t talk.
NEWTE. What’s he likely to do?
DR. FREEMANTLE. Don’t know. Of course it will be all over the county.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. And dear Vernon is so sensitive.
DR. FREEMANTLE. It had to come—the misfortune is—
NEWTE. The misfortune is that people won’t keep to their own line of business. Why did he want to come fooling around her? She was doing well for herself. She could have married a man who would have thought more of her than all the damn fools in the county put together. Why couldn’t he have left her alone?
DR. FREEMANTLE [he is sitting at the head of the table, between Newte on his right and the Misses Wetherell on his left. He lays his hand on Newte’s sleeve—with a smile]. I’m sure you can forgive a man—with eyes and ears in his head—for having fallen in love with her.
NEWTE. Then why doesn’t he stand by her? What if her uncle is a butler? If he wasn’t a fool, he’d be thanking his stars that ’twas anything half as respectable.