_
BANNAL. [sulkily] Oh, very well. Sorry I spoke, I'm sure.
TROTTER. | Shaw-- |
| | [beginning again
VAUGHAN. | Shaw-- | simultaneously]
| |
GUNN. | Shaw-- |
_They are cut short by the entry of Fanny through the curtains. She
is almost in tears._
FANNY. [coming between Trotter and Gunn] I'm so sorry, gentlemen.
And it was such a success when I read it to the Cambridge Fabian
Society!
TROTTER. Miss O'Dowda: I was about to tell these gentlemen what I
guessed before the curtain rose: that you are the author of the play.
[General amazement and consternation].
FANNY. And you all think it beastly. You hate it. You think I'm a
conceited idiot, and that I shall never be able to write anything
decent.
_She is almost weeping. A wave of sympathy carries away the critics._
VAUGHAN. No, no. Why, I was just saying that it must have been
written by Pinero. Didnt I, Gunn?
FANNY. [enormously flattered] Really?
TROTTER. I thought Pinero was much too popular for the Cambridge
Fabian Society.
FANNY. Oh yes, of course; but still--Oh, did you really say that, Mr
Vaughan?
GUNN. I owe you an apology, Miss O'Dowda. I said it was by Barker.
FANNY. [radiant] Granville Barker! Oh, you couldnt really have
thought it so fine as that.
BANNAL. _I_ said Bernard Shaw.
FANNY. Oh, of course it would be a little like Bernard Shaw.
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