Page:The Return of the Soldier (Van Druten).djvu/74

 : I don’t want tea.

(rising) : Oh, but you must have tea. I wonder if this has got cold. (Feels the pot.) Do have a cup do let me give you some.



[He rises too.

(pouring out) : It used to be milk and three lumps.



(She passes the cup. He sits.) Anything to eat?

I miss your ducks’ eggs.

(pleased) : Oh the ducks’ eggs. No one ever had ducks’ eggs like father did. It was his way of feeding them. It didn’t pay, of course, but they were good. Do you know, Chris when you came down first to Monkey Island, you were so fine and good-looking I thought you must be someone royal  and then, when you kept on coming, I thought it must be the ducks’ eggs. They were good!

(They smile happily at each other.) But that wasn’t why I came.

They were nothing like as good as his ducks, but, then, I expect they paid. A nice couple they are, father