Part 22 (1/2)

SLADDER: We'll see Mr. Hippanthigh. (_Enter_ SPLURGE.) Splurge, run after Mr. Hippanthigh and bring him back. Say I've got something to say to him. He's gone that way. Quick!

SPLURGE: Yes, sir. [_Exit._

SLADDER: I've got something to say to _him_ this time.

ERMYNTRUDE: Father! What are you going to do?

SLADDER: I'm going to give him What For.

ERMYNTRUDE: But why, father?

SLADDER: Because he's been giving it to your poor old father.

ERMYNTRUDE: Father----

SLADDER: Well?

ERMYNTRUDE: Be kind to him, father.

SLADDER: O, _I'll_ be kind to him. I'll be _kind_ to him. Just you wait.

I'll be _kind_ to him!

ERMYNTRUDE: But you wouldn't send him away, father. Father, for my sake you wouldn't do that?

SLADDER: O, we haven't _come_ to that yet.

ERMYNTRUDE: But, but--you've sent for him.

SLADDER: O, I've sent for him to give him What For. We'll come to the rest later.

ERMYNTRUDE: But, when you do come to it, father.

SLADDER: Why, when we do come to it, if the young man's any good, I'll not stand in my daughter's way----

ERMYNTRUDE: O, thank you, father.

SLADDER: And if he's no good (_firmly_) I'll protect my child from him.

ERMYNTRUDE: But, father, I don't want to be protected.

SLADDER: If a man's a man, he must be some good at something. Well, this man's chosen the clergyman job. I've nothing against the job, it's well enough paid at the top, but is this young man ever going to get there?

Is he ever going to get off the bottom rung? How long has he been a curate?

ERMYNTRUDE: Eight years, father.

SLADDER: It's a long time.

ERMYNTRUDE: But, father, he would get a vicarage if it wasn't for the bishop. The bishop stands in his way. It isn't nice of him.

SLADDER: If I'd quarrelled with the head of my firm when I was his age, you wouldn't be getting proposals from a curate; no such luck. The dustman would have been more in your line.