AGATHA POSKET.
Ahem! Colonel, the fact is my poor sister has been travelling all day and is a little exhausted.
LUKYN.
[_Horrified._] You don"t mean to say you"re going to give me the inestimable pleasure. [_CHARLOTTE looks across at him, nodding and smiling._] I am delighted.
[_CHARLOTTE sits hungrily at table; LUKYN fetches a bottle of champagne from the sideboard._
AGATHA POSKET.
[_To CHARLOTTE._] Charlotte, I am surprised.
CHARLOTTE.
[_To AGATHA POSKET._] Nonsense, the best people come here. Some of them have left their names on the mirrors.
VALE.
[_Behind the curtain._] This is much too bad of Lukyn. What are they doing now? [_LUKYN draws the cork._] Confound it, they"re having my supper!
[_LUKYN pours out wine._
CHARLOTTE.
Why doesn"t he give me something to eat?
[_There is a clatter of knives and forks heard from the other room, then a burst of laughter from CIS._
AGATHA POSKET.
[_Starting._] Charley, hark! How strange!
CHARLOTTE.
Very. This bread is beautiful.
[_CIS is heard singing the chorus of a comic song boisterously._
AGATHA POSKET.
Don"t you recognise that voice?
CHARLOTTE.
[_Munching._] The only voice I recognise is the voice of hunger.
AGATHA POSKET.
I am overwrought, I suppose.
[_LUKYN, with his head drooping, fetches the dish of oysters from the sideboard._
VALE.
[_Behind the curtains._] He has taken the oysters. I"ve seen him do it.
LUKYN.
The oysters.
[_LUKYN sinks into his chair at the table and leans his head upon his hand; the two women look at each other._
CHARLOTTE.
[_To AGATHA POSKET._] Anything wrong?
AGATHA POSKET.
Sunstroke--bad case!
CHARLOTTE.
Oh--poor fellow. [_She gently lifts the corner of the dish, sniffs, then replaces cover._] No plates.
AGATHA POSKET.
Ask for them.
CHARLOTTE.
You ask.
AGATHA POSKET.
You"re hungry.
CHARLOTTE.
You"re married. Comes better from you.
VALE.
[_Behind curtains._] This silence is terrible.
AGATHA POSKET.
[_To LUKYN._] Ahem! Ahem!