The Magistrate Part 55

[_Advancing with an attempt at dignity._] Agatha Posket.

AGATHA POSKET.

[_Rising, with her mouth full, and a piece of teacake in her hand._]

Sir!

[_CHARLOTTE takes the tray and everything on it from the table and goes towards the door._

MR. BULLAMY.

[_Going to the door._] There's going to be an explanation.

CHARLOTTE.

[_At the door._] There's going to be an explanation.

[_CHARLOTTE and MR. BULLAMY go out quietly._

MR. POSKET.

How dare you look me in the face, madam?

AGATHA POSKET.

How dare you look at anybody in any position, sir? You send your wife to prison for pus.h.i.+ng a mere policeman.

MR. POSKET.

I didn't know what I was doing.

AGATHA POSKET.

Not when you requested two ladies to raise their veils and show their faces in the dock? We shouldn't have been discovered but for that.

MR. POSKET.

It was my duty.

AGATHA POSKET.

Duty! You don't go to the police court again alone! I guess now, aeneas Posket, why you clung to a single life so long. _You liked it!_

MR. POSKET.

I wish I had.

AGATHA POSKET.

Why didn't you marry till you were fifty?

MR. POSKET.

Perhaps I hadn't met a widow, madam.

AGATHA POSKET.

Paltry excuse. You revelled in a dissolute bachelorhood!

MR. POSKET.

Hah! Whist every evening!

AGATHA POSKET.

You can't play whist _alone._ You're an expert at hiding too!

MR. POSKET.

If I were I should thrash your boy!

AGATHA POSKET.

When you wished to conceal yourself last night, you selected a table with a lady under it.

MR. POSKET.

Ah, did you pinch me, or did Charlotte?

AGATHA POSKET.

I did--Charlotte's a single girl.

MR. POSKET.

I fancy, madam, you found my conduct under that table perfectly respectful?

AGATHA POSKET.

I don't know--I was too agitated to notice.

MR. POSKET.

Evasion--you're like all the women.

AGATHA POSKET.

Profligate! You oughtn't to know that!

MR. POSKET.