LADY MARY. A hairpin! It must be one of ours. Give it me, father.
AGATHA. No, it"s mine.
LORD LOAM. I didn"t keep it.
LADY MARY (speaking for all three). Didn"t keep it? Found a hairpin on an island, and didn"t keep it?
LORD LOAM (humbly). My dears.
AGATHA (scarcely to be placated). Oh father, we have returned to nature more than you bargained for.
LADY MARY. For shame, Agatha. (She has something on her mind.) Father, there is something I want you to do at once--I mean to a.s.sert your position as the chief person on the island.
(They are all surprised.)
LORD LOAM. But who would presume to question it?
CATHERINE. She must mean Ernest.
LADY MARY. Must I?
AGATHA. It"s cruel to say anything against Ernest.
LORD LOAM (firmly). If any one presumes to challenge my position, I shall make short work of him.
AGATHA. Here comes Ernest; now see if you can say these horrid things to his face.
LORD LOAM. I shall teach him his place at once.
LADY MARY (anxiously). But how?
LORD LOAM (chuckling). I have just thought of an extremely amusing way of doing it. (As ERNEST approaches.) Ernest.
ERNEST (loftily). Excuse me, uncle, I"m thinking. I"m planning out the building of this hut.
LORD LOAM. I also have been thinking.
ERNEST. That don"t matter.
LORD LOAM. Eh?
ERNEST. Please, please, this is important.
LORD LOAM. I have been thinking that I ought to give you my boots.
ERNEST. What!
LADY MARY. Father.
LORD LOAM (genially). Take them, my boy. (With a rapidity we had not thought him capable of, ERNEST becomes the wearer of the boots.) And now I dare say you want to know why I give them to you, Ernest?
ERNEST (moving up and down in them deliciously). Not at all. The great thing is, "I"ve got "em, I"ve got "em."
LORD LOAM (majestically, but with a knowing look at his daughters). My reason is that, as head of our little party, you, Ernest, shall be our hunter, you shall clear the forests of those savage beasts that make them so dangerous. (Pleasantly.) And now you know, my dear nephew, why I have given you my boots.
ERNEST. This is my answer.
(He kicks off the boots.)
LADY MARY (still anxious). Father, a.s.sert yourself.
LORD LOAM. I shall now a.s.sert myself. (But how to do it? He has a happy thought.) Call Crichton.
LADY MARY. Oh father.
(CRICHTON comes in answer to a summons, and is followed by TREHERNE.)
ERNEST (wondering a little at LADY MARY"S grave face). Crichton, look here.
LORD LOAM (st.u.r.dily). Silence! Crichton, I want your advice as to what I ought to do with Mr. Ernest. He has defied me.
ERNEST. Pooh!
CRICHTON (after considering). May I speak openly, my lord?
LADY MARY (keeping her eyes fixed on him). That is what we desire.
CRICHTON (quite humbly). Then I may say, your lordship, that I have been considering Mr. Ernest"s case at odd moments ever since we were wrecked.
ERNEST. My case?
LORD LOAM (sternly). Hush.
CRICHTON. Since we landed on the island, my lord, it seems to me that Mr. Ernest"s epigrams have been particularly brilliant.
ERNEST (gratified). Thank you, Crichton.
CRICHTON. But I find--I seem to find it growing wild, my lord, in the woods, that sayings which would be justly admired in England are not much use on an island. I would therefore most respectfully propose that henceforth every time Mr. Ernest favours us with an epigram his head should be immersed in a bucket of cold spring water.
(There is a terrible silence.)
LORD LOAM (uneasily). Serve him right.
ERNEST. I should like to see you try to do it, uncle.
CRICHTON (ever ready to come to the succour of his lordship). My feeling, my lord, is that at the next offence I should convey him to a retired spot, where I shall carry out the undertaking in as respectful a manner as is consistent with a thorough immersion.
(Though his manner is most respectful, he is firm; he evidently means what he says.)