Guardian: (Hastily.) Here, there is at least one
thing you will not fail in. Take the harp (hands
it to the 1st Wrenboy) and draw out of it sweet
sounds, (To Dowager Messengers.) He can play
a tune so sweet it has been known to send all the
hearers into a sound sleep. Here now, touch the
strings with all your skill.
(1st Wrenboy bangs harp, making a crash.)
2nd Dowager Messenger: (With hands to ears.)
Mercy! Our poor ears!
1st Dowager Messenger: That is the poorest
music we have ever heard.
2nd Dowager Messenger: That sound would send
no one into their sleep. It would be more likely
to send them into Bedlam.
1st Dowager Messenger: Whatever they knew
last year, they have forgotten it all now.
Guardian: (Weeping into his handkerchief.) I
don't know what has come upon them! At noon
they were the most charming lads in the whole
world. Their memory seems to have left
them!
2nd Dowager Messenger: It is as if another
memory had come to them. They did not learn
those wild tricks shut up in the garden.
Servant: (To Boys.) Can't ye behave nice and
not ugly? (To Guardian.) You would not believe
me a while ago. I said and I say still there is
enchantment on them, and spells.
Guardian: Oh, I would be sorry to think such
a thing. But they never went on this way in their
greenest youth.