Part 34 (1/2)

SHEBA.

You curl your lip better than I--I'll dilate my nostrils.

[_SALOME draws aside the curtain. TARVER and DARBEY enter. They are both very badly and shabbily dressed as Cavaliers._

TARVER.

[_A most miserable object, carrying a carriage umbrella._] Oh, don't reproach us, Miss Jedd. It isn't our fault that the Military were summoned to St. Marvells.

DARBEY.

You don't blame officers and gentlemen for responding to the sacred call of duty?

SHEBA.

We blame officers for subjecting two motherless girls to the shock of alighting at the Durnstone Athenaeum to find a notice on the front door: ”Ball knocked on the head--Vivat Regina.”

SALOME.

We blame gentlemen for inflicting upon us the unspeakable agony of being jeered at by boys.

TARVER.

I took the address of the boy who suggested that we should call again on the fifth of November. It is on the back of your admission card.

DARBEY.

Everything will be done. We shall both wait on the boy's mother for an explanation.

TARVER.

Oh, smile on us once again, Miss Jedd--a forced, hollow smile, if you will--only smile. Salome!

_GEORGIANA enters._

GEORGIANA.

Salome! Sheba!

SALOME _and_ SHEBA.

Aunt!

GEORGIANA.

You bad girls!

SALOME.

[_Weeping._] No, Aunt, no!