The Second Mrs. Tanqueray - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
Why have you come here?
PAULA.
Angry?
AUBREY.
Yes--no. But it's eleven o'clock.
PAULA.
[_Laughing._] I know.
AUBREY.
What on earth will Morse think?
PAULA.
Do you trouble yourself about what servants _think_?
AUBREY.
Of course.
PAULA.
Goose! They're only machines made to wait upon people--and to give evidence in the Divorce Court. [_Looking round._] Oh, indeed! A snug little dinner!
AUBREY.
Three men.
PAULA.
[_Suspiciously._] Men?
AUBREY.
Men.
PAULA.
[_Penitently._] Ah! [_Sitting at the table._] I'm so hungry.
AUBREY.
Let me get you some game pie, or some----
PAULA.
No, no, hungry for this. What beautiful fruit! I love fruit when it's expensive. [_He clears a s.p.a.ce on the table, places a plate before her, and helps her to fruit._] I haven't dined, Aubrey dear.
AUBREY.
My poor girl! Why?
PAULA.
In the first place, I forgot to order any dinner, and my cook, who has always loathed me, thought he'd pay me out before he departed.
AUBREY.
The beast!
PAULA.
That's precisely what I----
AUBREY.
No, Paula!
PAULA.
What I told my maid to call him. What next will you think of me?
AUBREY.
Forgive me. You must be starved.
PAULA.
[_Eating fruit._] _I_ didn't care. As there was nothing to eat, I sat in my best frock, with my toes on the dining-room fender, and dreamt, oh, such a lovely dinner-party.
AUBREY.
Dear lonely little woman!
PAULA.
It was perfect. I saw you at the end of a very long table, opposite me, and we exchanged sly glances now and again over the flowers. We were host and hostess, Aubrey, and had been married about five years.
AUBREY.
[_Kissing her hand._] Five years.
PAULA.
