JACK HEMINGWAY. [Who is crossing over to right.]
Squabbling again?
LORETTA. [Indignantly and with dignity.] No, we’re
not.
NED. [Gruffly.] What do you want now?
JACK HEMINGWAY. [Enthusiastically.] Come on fishing.
NED. [Snappily.] No. It’s too warm.
JACK HEMINGWAY. [Resignedly, going out right.] You
needn’t take a fellow’s head off.
LORETTA. I thought you wanted to go fishing.
NED. Not with Jack.
LORETTA. [Accusingly, fanning herself vigorously.]
And you told me it wasn’t warm at all.
NED. [Speaking softly.] That isn’t what I
wanted to tell you, Loretta. [He takes her hand.]
Dear Loretta—
[Enter abruptly ALICE HEMINGWAY from right.]
[LORETTA sharply jerks her hand away, and looks put
out.]
[NED tries not to look awkward.]
ALICE HEMINGWAY. Goodness! I thought you’d
both gone fishing!
LORETTA. [Sweetly.] Is there anything you want,
Alice?
NED. [Trying to be courteous.] Anything I can do?
ALICE HEMINGWAY. [Speaking quickly, and trying to
withdraw.] No, no. I only came to see if the
mail had arrived.
[Speaking together.] No, it hasn’t arrived.
LORETTA. [Suddenly moving toward door to right.]
I am going to see.
[NED looks at her reproachfully.]
[LORETTA looks back tantalisingly from doorway and
disappears.]
[NED flings himself disgustedly into Morris chair.]
ALICE HEMINGWAY. [Moving over and standing in front
of him. Speaks accusingly.] What have you been
saying to her?
NED. [Disgruntled.] Nothing.
ALICE HEMINGWAY. [Threateningly.] Now listen to
me, Ned.
NED. [Earnestly.] On my word, Alice, I’ve
been saying nothing to her.
ALICE HEMINGWAY. [With sudden change of front.]
Then you ought to have been saying something to her.
NED. [Irritably. Getting chair for her, seating
her, and seating himself again.] Look here, Alice,
I know your game. You invited me down here to
make a fool of me.
ALICE HEMINGWAY. Nothing of the sort, sir.
I asked you down to meet a sweet and unsullied girl—the
sweetest, most innocent and ingenuous girl in the
world.
NED. [Dryly.] That’s what you said in your
letter.
ALICE HEMINGWAY. And that’s why you came.
Jack had been trying for a year to get you to come.
He did not know what kind of a letter to write.
NED. If you think I came because of a line in a letter
about a girl I’d never seen—
ALICE HEMINGWAY. [Mockingly.] The poor, jaded, world-worn
man, who is no longer interested in women . . . and
girls! The poor, tired pessimist who has lost
all faith in the goodness of women—
NED. For which you are responsible.
