What Every Woman Knows eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 109 pages of information about What Every Woman Knows.

What Every Woman Knows eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 109 pages of information about What Every Woman Knows.

Alick.  Best he shouldn’t know.  Men are nervous of remarkable women.

James.  She’s a long time in coming back.

David [not quite comfortable].  It’s a good sign.  H’sh.  What sort of a night is it, Maggie?

Maggie.  It’s a little blowy.

[She gets a large dustcloth which is lying folded on a shelf, and proceeds to spread it over the fine chair.  The men exchange self-conscious glances.]

David [stretching himself].  Yes—­well, well, oh yes.  It’s getting late.  What is it with you, father?

Alick.  I’m ten forty-two.

James.  I’m ten-forty.

David.  Ten forty-two.

[They wind up their watches.]

Maggie.  It’s high time we were bedded. [She puts her hands on their shoulders lovingly, which is the very thing they have been trying to avoid.] You’re very kind to me.

David.  Havers.

Alick.  Havers.

James [but this does not matter].  Havers.

Maggie [a little dolefully].  I’m a sort of sorry for the young man,
David.

David.  Not at all.  You’ll be the making of him. [She lifts the two volumes.] Are you taking the books to your bed, Maggie?

Maggie.  Yes.  I don’t want him to know things I don’t know myself.

[She departs with the books; and Alick and David, the villains, now want to get away from each other.]

Alick.  Yes—­yes.  Oh yes—­ay, man—­it is so—­umpha.  You’ll lift the big coals off, David.

[He wanders away to his spring mattress.  David removes the coals.]

James [who would like to sit down and have an argy-bargy].  It’s a most romantical affair. [But he gets no answer.] I wonder how it’ll turn out? [No answer.] She’s queer, Maggie.  I wonder how some clever writers has never noticed how queer women are.  It’s my belief you could write a whole book about them. [David remains obdurate.] It was very noble of her to tell him she’s twenty-six. [Muttering as he too wanders away.] But I thought she was twenty-seven.

[David turns out the light.]

ACT II

[Six years have elapsed and John Shand’s great hour has come.  Perhaps his great hour really lies ahead of him, perhaps he had it six years ago; it often passes us by in the night with such a faint call that we don’t even turn in our beds.  But according to the trumpets this is John’s great hour; it is the hour for which he has long been working with his coat off; and now the coat is on again (broadcloth but ill-fitting), for there is no more to do but await results.  He is standing for Parliament, and this is election night.

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Project Gutenberg
What Every Woman Knows from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.