Miss B. Goodness me!
Welby. Are you ill, Miss Bodman?
Miss B. No, thank you! Just a momentary dizziness.
Ralph. How my appearance affects her! (Looks proud.)
Miss B. It’s gone now. Allow me Mr. Arthur Welby, novelist, to introduce Mr. Ralph Hyde-Arlington, poet. (They shake hands down C.)
Welby. Ah! this is a pleasure, Mr. Hyde-Arlington. My wife likes the “Dead Canary” very much.
Ralph. (Bowing.) Thank you! Thank you!
Welby. In fact it is her favorite poem. By the way, of course you’ve read my novel, “The Man from Mattoon.”
Ralph. (Confused.) No, I haven’t. I am reserving that pleasure. It is inexcusable of me to have put off so long, for it is a work of genius. (W. bows.) But you see I’m a poor man and poetry doesn’t pay. We’ve quite a family too—nine children now.
Miss B. (Exclaiming suddenly.) Oh, goodness—I beg pardon, gentlemen. (Goes up to her type-writing machine.)