MRS GILBEY. [laughing heartily] Well, I never!
GILBEY. Dont be a fool, Maria. Look here, Knox: we cant let this go
on. People cant be allowed to behave like this.
KNOX. Just what I say.
_A concertina adds its music to the revelry._
MRS GILBEY. [excited] Thats the squiffer. Hes bought it for her.
GILBEY. Well, of all the scandalous-- [Redoubled laughter from
below].
KNOX. I'll put a stop to this. [He goes out to the landing and
shouts] Margaret! [Sudden dead silence]. Margaret, I say!
MARGARET'S VOICE. Yes, father. Shall we all come up? We're dying
to.
KNOX. Come up and be ashamed of yourselves, behaving like wild
Indians.
DORA'S VOICE [screaming] Oh! oh! oh! Dont Bobby. Now--oh! [In
headlong flight she dashes into and right across the room, breathless,
and slightly abashed by the company]. I beg your pardon, Mrs Gilbey,
for coming in like that; but whenever I go upstairs in front of Bobby,
he pretends it's a cat biting my ankles; and I just must scream.
_Bobby and Margaret enter rather more shyly, but evidently in high
spirits. Bobby places himself near his father, on the hearthrug, and
presently slips down into the arm-chair._
MARGARET. How do you do, Mrs. Gilbey? [She posts herself behind her
mother].
_Duvallet comes in behaving himself perfectly. Knox follows._
MARGARET. Oh--let me introduce. My friend Lieutenant Duvallet. Mrs
Gilbey. Mr Gilbey. [Duvallet bows and sits down on Mr Knox's left,
Juggins placing a chair for him].
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