Fer. I give you my word.
Mr. W. And remember, I am only induced to make this temporary sacrifice of my own happiness in the interests of science.
Fer. And of your nephew?
Mr. W. Ferdinand, I promised your mother that I would always do what I could to further your interests. Let us go and find my wife.
(Exeunt Ferdinand and Mr. Watmuff, door R.)
Walter. That seems to be a very enterprising and pushing young gentleman, and one likely to make his way in the world. But what a shocking old villain my future father-in-law turns out to be! He really seems to relish the idea of performing this awful experiment on his unfortunate wife. She may be a trying woman, but she doesn't deserve to run such a risk as this. Now what am I to do? Clearly I can't be an accomplice in a thing of this sort. Freezing my mother-in-law! And equally clearly I must put a stop to it; but the difficulty is, how am I to do it without offending old Mr. Watmuff, who is my only friend in the house? (Notices that Swift has left his bottle on table.) Ah! an idea strikes me; if I could only have a moment with Mrs. Watmuff I might tell her, and so ingratiate myself with her.
(Enter Mrs. Watmuff, door L.)
Mrs. W. Still here, sir? Was not my mandate sufficiently clear to you?
Walter. My dear Mrs. Watmuff, I am indeed lucky thus to meet you at this moment, and we may both be thankful that I did not leave the house when you told me.
Mrs. W. How, sir? I do not comprehend you. You speak in parables.