RUTH. He's not there.
COKESON. [Uneasy] Are you related to the party?
RUTH. No, sir.
COKESON. [In real embarrassment] I don't know what to say. It's no affair of the office.
RUTH. But what am I to do?
COKESON. Dear me! I can't tell you that.
SWEEDLE comes back. He crosses to the outer office and passes through into it, with a quizzical look at Cokeson, carefully leaving the door an inch or two open.
COKESON. [Fortified by this look] This won't do, you know, this won't do at all. Suppose one of the partners came in!
An incoherent knocking and chuckling is heard from the outer
door of the outer office.
SWEEDLE. [Putting his head in] There's some children outside here.