Lady Patricia: A comedy in three acts

by Rudolf Besier

Good evening, Mr. Baldwin.

Baldwin.

Them candles do burn oncommon quick.... You was sayin’, Mr. Ellis?

Ellis.

I said good evening.

Baldwin.

Whoa!... (Fixes the string.) Good evening to you.

Ellis.

(Clearing coffee-cups, &c., and setting the whisky-and-soda.) It beats me what the company are up to to-night. After dinner they all went for a stroll down to the pond. ’Er ladyship wanted to see—(imitates Patricia)—“the great moon-flower’s reflection among the lilies.” Then they seem to ’ave separated. The old people are behaving themselves quite rational—playing bézique in the drawing-room. The others are playing the tomfool or ’ide-and-seek or something o’ the sort.