Mrs. Dot: A Farce

by W. Somerset Maugham

Lady Sellenger.

Don’t be so silly. Of course they’ve gone to Brighton. When people elope they always go to Brighton.

[Mrs. Dot slips out of the room.

Gerald.

And what’ll you do if we come up to them? You can’t force them to come back.

Lady Sellenger.

If a woman can’t force her daughter to marry any man she chooses, I don’t know what the English nation is coming to.

Gerald.

I won’t marry the girl against her will.

Lady Sellenger.