"
"MARGY": "What does that matter?"
SIR WILLIAM: "He's not at all clever."
"MARGY": "How do you know?"
SIR WILLIAM: "What do you mean?"
"MARGY": "None of us are good judges of the people we dislike."
SIR WILLIAM (cautiously): "I would much like your advice on all
this affair and I want you to have a word with my girl Amy and
tell her just what you think on the matter."
"MARGY": "I have."
SIR WILLIAM: "What did she say to you?"
"MARGY": "Really, Sir William, would you have me betray
confidences?"
SIR WILLIAM: "Surely you can tell me what YOU said, anyway,
without betraying her."
"MARGY" (looking at him steadily): "Well, what do you suppose you
would say in the circumstances? If a well-brought-up girl told you
that she was in love with a man that her parents disliked, a man
who was unable to keep her and with no prospects..."
SIR WILLIAM (interrupting): "Never mind what I should say! What
did YOU say?"
"MARGY" (evasively): "The thing is unthinkable! Good girls like
yours could never go against their parents' wishes! Men who can't
keep their wives should not marry at all. ..."
SIR WILLIAM (with great violence, seizing my hands): "WHAT DID YOU
SAY?"
"MARGY" (with a sweet smile): "I'm afraid, Sir William, you are
changing your mind and, instead of leaning on my advice, you begin
to suspect it."
SIR WILLIAM (very loud and beside himself with rage): "WHAT DID
YOU SAY?"
"MARGY" (coolly, putting her hand on his): "I can't think why you
are so excited! If I told you that I had said, 'Give it all up, my
dear, and don't vex your aged father,' what would you say?"
SIR WILLIAM (getting up and flinging my hand away from him):
"Hoots! You're a liar!"
"MARGY": "No, I'm not, Sir William; but, when I see people
listening at doors, I give them a run for their money.
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