I
was writing to you to break it off. [He also descends from the table
and makes slowly for the hearth]. You must think me an utter rotter.
MARGARET. Oh, has everybody been in prison for being drunk and
assaulting the police? How long were you in?
BOBBY. A fortnight.
MARGARET. Thats what I was in for.
BOBBY. What are you talking about? In where?
MARGARET. In quod.
BOBBY. But I'm serious: I'm not rotting. Really and truly--
MARGARET. What did you do to the copper?
BOBBY. Nothing, absolutely nothing. He exaggerated grossly. I only
laughed at him.
MARGARET. [jumping up, triumphant] Ive beaten you hollow. I
knocked out two of his teeth. Ive got one of them. He sold it to me
for ten shillings.
BOBBY. Now please do stop fooling, Meg. I tell you I'm not rotting.
[He sits down in the armchair, rather sulkily].
MARGARET. [taking up the copy of Lloyd's Weekly and going to him]
And I tell you I'm not either. Look! Heres a report of it. The
daily papers are no good; but the Sunday papers are splendid. [She
sits on the arm of the chair]. See! [Reading]: "Hardened at
Eighteen. A quietly dressed, respectable-looking girl who refuses her
name"--thats me.
BOBBY. [pausing a moment in his perusal] Do you mean to say that
you went on the loose out of pure devilment?
MARGARET. I did no harm. I went to see a lovely dance. I picked up
a nice man and went to have a dance myself.
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