NATHANIEL
What is useful work? An actor serves his purpose just as a plumber or lawyer serves his.... The only difference is that all of us are not plumbers or lawyers while all of us are actors. Yes, John, we're all playing something—you are playing at head of the family, I'm—
JOHN
Still I do not regard acting as a worth-while or lucrative profession.
NATHANIEL
You never know, John.... Five generations ago the Clays were respectable carpenters. They weren't wealthy and they gave no promise of becoming wealthy. Then suddenly our revered ancestor became a successful maker of cypress drain pipes—sewer pipes, I think we used to call them! The family fortunes were founded!! Our ancestor bought a high hat and the esteem of his neighbors. Cypress was in time replaced by pottery. Conduits for wires and terra cotta building materials were added to our achievements and then in your régime superfine sewers became a specialty.
JOHN
Every kind of concrete work!
NATHANIEL
I beg your pardon! Concrete sewers and other concrete things.—Such is the foundation of the family.