Transcribed from “The Sleeping Car and Other Farces” 1911 Houghton Mifflin Company edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
THE REGISTER.
Farce.
I.
Scene: In an upper chamber of a boarding-house in Melanchthon Place, Boston, a mature, plain young lady, with every appearance of establishing herself in the room for the first time, moves about, bestowing little touches of decoration here and there, and talking with another young lady, whose voice comes through the open doorway of an inner room.
Miss Ethel Reed, from within: “What in the world are you doing, Nettie?”
Miss Henrietta Spaulding: “Oh, sticking up a household god or two. What are you doing?”
Miss Reed: “Despairing.”
Miss Spaulding: “Still?”
Miss Reed, tragically: “Still! How soon did you expect me to stop? I am here on the sofa, where I flung myself two hours ago, and I don’t think I shall ever get up. There is no reason why I ever should.”
Miss Spaulding, suggestively: “Dinner.”