The Skin Game | Page 4

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Charles ROLF ....................His Younger Son
FELLOWS .................Hillcrist's Butler ANNA ....................Chloe's
Maid THE JACKMANS ............Man and Wife
AN AUCTIONEER A SOLICITOR TWO STRANGERS

ACT I. HILLCRIST'S Study
ACT II. SCENE I. A month later. An Auction Room. SCENE II. The
same evening. CHLOE'S Boudoir.
ACT III
SCENE I. The following day. HILLCRIST'S Study. Morning. SCENE
II. The Same. Evening.

ACT I
HILLCRIST'S study. A pleasant room, with books in calf bindings, and
signs that the HILLCRIST'S have travelled, such as a large photograph
of the Taj Mahal, of Table Mountain, and the Pyramids of Egypt. A
large bureau [stage Right], devoted to the business of a country estate.
Two foxes' masks. Flowers in bowls. Deep armchairs. A large French
window open [at Back], with a lovely view of a slight rise of fields and
trees in August sunlight. A fine stone fireplace [stage Left]. A door
[Left]. A door opposite [Right]. General colour effect--stone, and
cigar-leaf brown, with spots of bright colour.
[HILLCRIST sits in a swivel chair at the bureau, busy with papers. He
has gout, and his left foot is encased accord: He is a thin, dried-up man
of about fifty-five, with a rather refined, rather kindly, and rather
cranky countenance. Close to him stands his very upstanding
nineteen-year-old daughter JILL, with clubbed hair round a pretty,
manly face.]
JILL. You know, Dodo, it's all pretty good rot in these days.
HILLCRIST. Cads are cads, Jill, even in these days.
JILL. What is a cad?
HILLCRIST. A self-assertive fellow, without a sense of other people.
JILL. Well, Old Hornblower I'll give you.
HILLCRIST. I wouldn't take him.
JILL. Well, you've got him. Now, Charlie--Chearlie--I say--the

importance of not being Charlie----
HILLCRIST. Good heavens! do you know their Christian names?
JILL. My dear father, they've been here seven years.
HILLCRIST. In old days we only knew their Christian names from
their tombstones.
JILL. Charlie Hornblower isn't really half a bad sport.
HILLCRIST. About a quarter of a bad sport I've always thought out
hunting.
JILL. [Pulling his hair] Now, his wife--Chloe---
HILLCRIST. [Whimsical] Gad! your mother'd have a fit if she knew
you called her Chloe.
JILL. It's a ripping name.
HILLCRIST. Chloe! H'm! I had a spaniel once----
JILL. Dodo, you're narrow. Buck up, old darling, it won't do. Chloe has
seen life, I'm pretty sure; THAT'S attractive, anyway. No, mother's not
in the room; don't turn your uneasy eyes.
HILLCRIST. Really, my dear, you are getting----
JILL. The limit. Now, Rolf----
HILLCRIST. What's Rolf? Another dog?
JILL. Rolf Hornblower's a topper; he really is a nice boy.
HILLCRIST. [With a sharp look] Oh! He's a nice boy?
JILL. Yes, darling. You know what a nice boy is, don't you?
HILLCRIST. Not in these days.
JILL. Well, I'll tell you. In the first place, he's not amorous.
HILLCRIST. What! Well, that's some comfort.
JILL. Just a jolly good companion.
HILLCRIST. To whom?
JILL. Well, to anyone--me.
HILLCRIST. Where?
JILL. Anywhere. You don't suppose I confine myself to the home
paddocks, do you? I'm naturally rangey, Father.
HILLCRIST. [Ironically] You don't say so!
JILL. In the second place, he doesn't like discipline.
HILLCRIST. Jupiter! He does seem attractive.
JILL. In the third place, he bars his father.
HILLCRIST. Is that essential to nice girls too?
JILL. [With a twirl of his hair] Fish not! Fourthly, he's got ideas.

HILLCRIST. I knew it!
JILL. For instance, he thinks--as I do----
HILLCRIST. Ah! Good ideas.
JILL. [Pulling gently] Careful! He thinks old people run the show too
much. He says they oughtn't to, because they're so damtouchy. Are you
damtouchy, darling?
HILLCRIST. Well, I'm----! I don't know about touchy.
JILL. He says there'll be no world fit to live in till we get rid of the old.
We must make them climb a tall tree, and shake them off it.
HILLCRIST. [Drily] Oh! he says that!
JILL. Otherwise, with the way they stand on each other's rights, they'll
spoil the garden for the young.
HILLCRIST. Does his father agree?
JILL. Oh! Rolf doesn't talk to him, his mouth's too large. Have you
ever seen it, Dodo?
HILLCRIST. Of course.
JILL. It's considerable, isn't it? Now yours is--reticent, darling.
[Rumpling his hair.]
HILLCRIST. It won't be in a minute. Do you realise that I've got gout?
JILL. Poor ducky! How long have we been here, Dodo?
HILLCRIST. Since Elizabeth, anyway.
JILL. [Looking at his foot] It has its drawbacks. D'you think
Hornblower had a father? I believe he was spontaneous. But, Dodo,
why all this--this attitude to the Hornblowers?
[She purses her lips and makes a gesture as of pushing persons away.]
HILLCRIST. Because they're pushing.
JILL. That's only because we are, as mother would say, and they're
not--yet. But why not let them be?
HILLCRIST. You can't.
JILL. Why?
HILLCRIST. It