_
GILBEY. Well, this sort of talk is above me. Can you make anything
out of it, Knox?
KNOX. The long and short of it seems to be that he cant lawfully
marry my daughter, as he ought after going to prison with her.
DORA. I'm ready to marry Bobby, if that will be any satisfaction.
GILBEY. No you dont. Not if I know it.
MRS KNOX. He ought to, Mr Gilbey.
GILBEY. Well, if thats your religion, Amelia Knox, I want no more of
it. Would you invite them to your house if he married her?
MRS KNOX. He ought to marry her whether or no.
BOBBY. I feel I ought to, Mrs Knox.
GILBEY. Hold your tongue. Mind your own business.
BOBBY. [wildly] If I'm not let marry her, I'll do something
downright disgraceful. I'll enlist as a soldier.
JUGGINS. That is not a disgrace, sir.
BOBBY. Not for you, perhaps. But youre only a footman. I'm a
gentleman.
MRS GILBEY. Dont dare to speak disrespectfully to Mr Rudolph, Bobby.
For shame!
JUGGINS. [coming forward to the middle of the table] It is not
gentlemanly to regard the service of your country as disgraceful. It
is gentlemanly to marry the lady you make love to.
GILBEY. [aghast] My boy is to marry this woman and be a social
outcast!
JUGGINS. Your boy and Miss Delaney will be inexorably condemned by
respectable society to spend the rest of their days in precisely the
sort of company they seem to like best and be most at home in.
KNOX. And my daughter? Whos to marry my daughter?
JUGGINS.
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