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So.... The Clay family is still an absolute monarchy.
LEt.i.tIA
Nathaniel, dear, will you promise me--
NATHANIEL (_with a smile_)
I'll try.
LEt.i.tIA
Will you promise not to antagonize John?
NATHANIEL
Will John antagonize _me_? I came back to see my home--to see you, my dear aunt. But I am a grown man now.
LEt.i.tIA
Won't you try to be patient? It will be pleasanter for me. And I have waited so long to see you, Nathaniel. There are seventeen very, very long years for us to talk about. Let John have his way.
NATHANIEL
Well, I'll try for a few days. But I give you warning, my ideas have been settling during the past few years, too.
LEt.i.tIA
Remember, he is used to being obeyed just as your father was.
NATHANIEL
Yes, I remember that, dear Aunt; but John isn't my father. He is just a brother to whom fate gave a fifteen years' start by birth.
[_As a voice calls_, "Nathaniel, are you up there?" _Nathaniel looks at Let.i.tia._
NATHANIEL
His voice is just the same. (_Calling_) Yes, John, I am up here.
[_The antagonism between the two brothers is apparent immediately._
_John Clay enters. He is an austere, pompous man of fifty who has the softness of the t.i.the-collector and the hardness of the tax-collector. He speaks with an adamantine finality which is destined to rude shattering._
JOHN
How do you do, Nathaniel?
NATHANIEL
I am very well, I thank you, John. How are you?
[_They shake hands perfunctorily._
JOHN
You arrived ahead of time.
NATHANIEL
Yes.
JOHN
We haven't met for seventeen years.
NATHANIEL
No. I've been away, John.
JOHN
Where have you been?
NATHANIEL
I shall be here for two weeks, John, and if I should tell you all about myself today, I should have nothing to talk about tomorrow.
JOHN (_severely_)
You haven't changed, Nathaniel. You are still frivolous.
NATHANIEL
I shall be serious when I am your age, brother.
JOHN
I came out here to ask you to be very careful of your conversation before the children.
NATHANIEL
The children?
JOHN
Yes, my two grandchildren.--
NATHANIEL
