Penelope: A Comedy in Three Acts

by W. Somerset Maugham

Penelope.

[Apparently much astonished, quite good-humouredly.] Darling, you’re not going to make a scene for a few little things I’ve bought myself. I was positively in rags, and I thought you liked me to dress neatly.

Dickie.

Hang it all, I’m a poor man, and you’ve spent more than a hundred and fifty pounds in this one month.

Penelope.

[Calmly.] Does it come to as much as that? It’s lucky you’ve got such a good patient in Mrs. Mack, isn’t it?

[He gives her a suspicious look, but to get away from Mrs. Mack breaks out angrily.

Dickie.

Senseless extravagance I call it. Now look here, here’s thirty-five pounds for a dress in blue cloth—absurd price to pay—on 9th of October.

Penelope.