Читать книгу Three Plays онлайн

32 страница из 62

NANCY (getting up). All right, darling. I’m going. I know you like being alone for interviews.

BROXOPP (going to the door with her). But you must come in, Nancy, at the end. That went well last time. (Quoting) “Ah,” said Mr.Broxopp, as a middle-aged but still beautiful woman glided into the room, “here is my wife. My wife,” he went on, with a tender glance at the still beautiful woman, “to whom I owe all my success.” As he said these words——

ssss1NANCY. Oh, I expect this one won’t write that sort of rubbish.

BROXOPP (indignantly). Rubbish? I don’t call that rubbish.

NANCY. Well, then, nonsense, darling. Only—I rather like nonsense.

(NANCY goes out. Left alone, the GREAT BROXOPP gets ready. He spreads out his tie, fingers his buttonhole, and sees that a volume of Shakespeare is well displayed on a chair. Then he sits down at his desk and is discovered by MISS JOHNS hard at it.)

BENHAM (announcing). Miss Johns.

(BENHAM goes out, leaving MISS JOHNS behind; a nervous young woman of about thirty, with pince-nez. But BROXOPP is being too quick for her. He has whisked the receiver off, and is busy saying, “Quite so,” and “Certainly, half a million bottles,” to the confusion of the girl at the Exchange.)