The Land of Promise: A Comedy in Four Acts

by W. Somerset Maugham

You see, she’s getting on. I’m the child of her old age—Benjamin, don’t you know. [He turns to Miss Pringle.] Benjamin and Sarah, you know.

Miss Pringle.

I understand perfectly, but it wasn’t Sarah.

Hornby.

Wasn’t it? When one of her old friends dies, mother goes to the funeral and says to herself: “Well, I’ve seen her out, anyhow.” Then she comes back and eats muffins for tea. She always eats muffins after she’s been to a funeral.

Norah.

The maid said you wanted to see about something.

Hornby.

That’s right, I was forgetting. [To Miss Pringle.] If Sarah wasn’t Benjamin’s mother, whose mother was she?

Miss Pringle.