Chapter V: Act II: Scene, the interior of a Duchess's drawing-room. Enter RENE

_through the window_.

RENE. "I have killed a man and am pursued. Save me!"

DUCHESS. (_Aside_.) "Perhaps he is an influential politician, and may get my son an office in the Street Department." To RENE.--"Sir, I will save you. Get behind the curtain." (_Enter mob of drunken soldiers_.)

FIRST SOLDIER. "Your Grace's son has just been killed. I see the murderer's legs behind the curtain."

DUCHESS. "You can't have him, for I have promised to save him. Get out, the whole lot of you. Come here, you murderous wretch. I've saved you this time, but I won't do it again. Here comes the officer to seize you." (_He is seized. Curtain_.)

FIRST CRITICAL PERSON. "How do you like it?"

SECOND CRITICAL PERSON. "I hardly think the unities are fixed up just the way they should be, but the scenery is fair, and WALLER isn't so bad."

COMIC PERSON. "Now here's another joke which you can't guess. Said a little four-year-old boy, 'My father and mother have a daughter who is not my sister.' Now what relation was she to the boy?"

ACCOMPANYING FRIEND. (_Looking in vain for a policeman, but finding None_.) "I don't know, I'm sure."

COMIC PERSON. "Give it up, do you? Why, she was his sister; the boy lied, you see. Ha! ha! ha!"