ANNA
My portion comes to me from my grandmother.

SCOLLARD
May I ask, Mrs. Crilly, is Miss Crilly’s portion safe?

MRS. CRILLY
It is safe, Mr. Scollard.

SCOLLARD
I have been definitely appointed Master of the Union, and I
may say that Anna and myself are anxious to marry.

MRS. CRILLY
It needn’t be soon, Mr. Scollard.

SCOLLARD
After Easter, Mrs. Crilly.

MRS. CRILLY
But that’s very soon.

SCOLLARD I am anxious to settle down, Mrs. Crilly.  I’m on my way to a meeting of the Board of Guardians, but before I go I’d like to have some more information about your loss.

MRS. CRILLY
Anna’s portion is not touched, but we could hardly
afford to let the money go from us now.

SCOLLARD
Is that so, Mrs. Crilly?

MRS. CRILLY
Three hundred pounds is a very severe loss.

SCOLLARD Very severe, indeed.  Still, you understand, Mrs. Crilly, the difficulties of taking such a step as marriage without adequate provision.

CRILLY
Damn it all, man, Marianne and myself married without
anything at all.

MRS. CRILLY
(bitterly) Anna won’t be such a fool as her mother.

CRILLY
Well, Scollard has his position, and we helped him to it.

SCOLLARD
I acknowledge that.

ANNA
Isn’t my portion eighty pounds, mother?

MRS. CRILLY
Yes, Anna.  But I’d like to tell Mr. Scollard that it
would come as a strain on us to let the money go at once.

SCOLLARD
I daresay, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA
But, mother, wouldn’t the money be safer with us?

MRS. CRILLY
Well, I leave the whole thing in the hands of Mr.
Scollard.

SCOLLARD
Anna and myself have been talking things over, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA
And we don’t want to begin life in a poor way.

SCOLLARD
We see the advantage of being always solvent, Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA
James has ambitions, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t
venture for the post of Secretary of the County Council when old
Mr. Dobbs retires.

SCOLLARD
In a few years, Mrs. Crilly, when I had more official
experience and some reputation.

ANNA
Then he would have seven or eight hundred a year.

SCOLLARD
As I said, a man like myself would want to be in a
perfectly solvent position.

ANNA
Besides, James has no money of his own.

SCOLLARD
I never had the chance of putting money by—­Family calls,
Mrs. Crilly.

ANNA
And we don’t want to begin life in a poor way.

MRS. CRILLY
You won’t want the whole of the money.  I’ll give you
forty pounds now.

CRILLY
And forty when the first child is born.

ANNA
Oh, father, how can you say such a thing?

SCOLLARD I need only say this.  Anna and myself were talking over affairs, and we came to the conclusion it would be best not to start with less than eighty pounds. (He rises) I have to go down to the Board Room now, for there is a meeting of the Guardians. (He goes towards door)