Sladder: The wife of the head of my firm believed in spirit rapping. Did I go and tell her what an old fool she was? No, I brought her messages from another world as regular as a postman.
[Steps are heard outside the window.
Sladder: Run along, my dear, now.
Ermyntrude: Very well, father.
Sladder: The man that's going to look after my daughter must be able to look after himself. Otherwise I will, till a better man comes.
[Exit Ermyntrude. Hippanthigh and Splurge appear at the window. Hippanthigh enters and Splurge moves away.
Hippanthigh: You sent for me, Mr. Sladder?
Sladder: Y-e-s—y-e-s. Take a chair. Now, Mr. Hippanthigh, I haven't often been told off the way you told me off.
Hippanthigh: I felt it to be my duty, Mr. Sladder.
Sladder: Yes, quite so. Exactly. Well, it seems I'm a thoroughly bad old man, only fit to rob the poor, an out-and-out old ruffian.