Penelope: A Comedy in Three Acts

by W. Somerset Maugham

My dear Charles, I wish you wouldn’t be slangy. It’s gone out in our set.

Beadsworth.

[Shaking hands with Mrs. Golightly.] I’ve just had a telegram from Penelope asking me to come at once. [Turning to Peyton.] Will you let Mrs. O’Farrell know I’m here?

Golightly.

She’s out.

Peyton.

Mrs. O’Farrell said, would you make yourself comfortable, sir, and we’ve got the Law Times if you’d like to read it, and will you have a glass of port, sir?

[Beadsworth looks round at the others in bewilderment.

Golightly.

By all means have a glass of port, and I’ll swop it for my barley-water.