Vixen!
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
Bah!
MR. JOSEPH LEBANON.
Bah!
[LEBANON goes out. MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE throws herself on her knees beside MACPHAIL.]
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
How do you feel now?
MACPHAIL.
Well, its tingling.
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
Tingling! You bear it like a hero.
MACPHAIL.
I appreciate the compliment, but I"m thinking I"m only a bit singed.
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
Ah, but why, why do you indulge in these reckless sports?
MACPHAIL.
I was merely sitting in the drag looking at the sky.
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
Sitting in the drag looking at the sky! How foolhardy!
MACPHAIL.
Whereupon your brother, without a word of warning, blazed away at my knee.
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
Ah, don"t describe it! Suppose you had had your head on your knee!
LADY MACPHAIL.
[Outside.] Take me to Colin!
MACPHAIL.
My mother!
MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.
[To herself.] Drat your mother.
[She stands with her handkerchief to her eyes. LADY MACPHAIL enters with EGIDIA, the DOWAGER, LADY EUPHEMIA, and VALENTINE.]
EGIDIA.
Sir Colin!
DOWAGER.
[Sitting at writing-table.] I"ll telegraph to Sir George McHarness, the surgeon.
LADY MACPHAIL.
Now let the wail of the lament waken the echoes of black Ben-Muchty!
MACPHAIL.
[Rising from the chair.] It"s not at all necessary, mother.
EGIDIA.
He can stand!
DOWAGER.
[Writing.] "Bring--chloroform--and knives."
LADY MACPHAIL.
Ah, Colin, lad, why did we ever quit the gray sh.o.r.es of Loch-na-Doich?
MACPHAIL.
I"ll go upstairs and bathe my knee, mother.
[LADY MACPHAIL leads him.]
EGIDIA.
He can walk!