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plant an acacia?
MARY
An acacia, what's that, John?
JOHN
O, it's one of those trees that they have.
MARY
But why, John?
JOHN
Well, you see the house is called The Acacias, and it seems rather silly
not to have at least one.
MARY
O, I don't think that matters. Lots of places are called lots of things.
Everyone does.
JOHN
Yes, but it might help the postman.
MARY
O, no, it wouldn't, dear. He wouldn't know an acacia if he saw it any
more than I should.
JOHN

Quite right, Mary, you're always right. What a clever head you've got!
MARY
Have I, John? We'll plant an acacia if you like. I'll ask about it at the
grocer's.
JOHN You can't get one there.
MARY
No, but he's sure to know where it can be got.
JOHN
Where do they grow, Mary?
MARY
I don't know, John; but I am sure they do, somewhere.
JOHN
Somehow I wish sometimes, I almost wish I could have gone abroad
for a week or so to places like where acacias grow naturally.
MARY
O, would you really, John?
JOHN
No, not really. But I just think of it sometimes.
MARY
Where would you have gone?
JOHN
O, I don't know. The East or some such place. I've often heard people
speak of it, and somehow it seemed so. . .
MARY
The East, John? Not the East. I don't think the East somehow is quite
respectable.
JOHN
O well, it's all right, I never went, and never shall go now. It doesn't
matter.
MARY [the photographs catching her eye]
O, John, I meant to tell you. Such a dreadful thing happened.
JOHN
What, Mary?
MARY
Well, Liza was dusting the photographs, and when she came to Jane's
she says she hadn't really begun to dust it, only looked at it, and it fell
down, and that bit of glass is broken right out of it.

JOHN
Ask her not to look at it so hard another time.
MARY
O, what do you mean, John?
JOHN
Well, that's how she broke it; she said so, and as I know you believe in
Liza . . .
MARY
Well, I can't think she'd tell a lie, John.
JOHN
No, of course not. But she mustn't look so hard another time.
MARY
And it's poor little Jane's photograph. She will feel it so.
JOHN
O, that's all right, we'll get it mended.
MARY
Still, it's a dreadful thing to have happened.
JOHN
We'll get it mended, and if Jane is unhappy about it she can have
Alice's frame. Alice is too young to notice it.
MARY
She isn't, John. She'd notice it quick.
JOHN
Well, George, then.
MARY [looking at photo thoughtfully]
Well, perhaps George might give up his frame.
JOHN
Yes, tell Liza to change it. Why not make her do it now?
MARY
Not to-day, John. Not on a Sunday. She shall do it to-morrow by the
time you get back from the office.
JOHN
All right. It might have been worse.
MARY
It's bad enough. I wish it hadn't happened.
JOHN
It might have been worse. It might have been Aunt Martha.

MARY
I'd sooner it had been her than poor little Jane.
JOHN
If it had been Aunt Martha's photograph she'd have walked in next day
and seen it for certain; I know Aunt Martha. Then there'd have been
trouble.
MARY
But, John, how could she have known?
JOHN
I don't know, but she would have; it's a kind of devilish sense she has.
MARY
John!
JOHN
What's the matter?
MARY
John! What a dreadful word you used. And on a Sunday too! Really!
JOHN
O, I'm sorry. It slipped out somehow. I'm very sorry.
[Enter LIZA.]
LIZA
There's a gentleman to see you, sir, which isn't, properly speaking, a
gentleman at all. Not what I should call one, that is, like.
MARY
Not a gentleman! Good gracious, Liza! Whatever do you mean?
LIZA
He's black.
MARY
Black?
JOHN [reassuring]
O . . . yes, that would be Ali. A queer old customer, Mary; perfectly
harmless. Our firm gets hundreds of carpets through him; and then one
day . . .
MARY
But what is he doing here, John?
JOHN
Well, one day he turned up in London; broke, he said; and wanted the
firm to give him a little cash. Well, old Briggs was for giving him ten

shillings. But I said "here's a man that's helped us in making thousands
of pounds. Let's give him fifty."
MARY
Fifty pounds!
JOHN
Yes, it seems a lot; but it seemed only fair. Ten shillings would have
been an insult to the old fellow, and he'd have taken it as such. You
don't know what he'd have done.
MARY
Well, he doesn't want more?
JOHN