The Circle Part 29

PORTEOUS. Whose hash are you talking about?

C.-C. Mr. Edward Luton's, my dear Hughie. I told Arnold exactly what to do and he's done it. What makes a prison? Why, bars and bolts.

Remove them and a prisoner won't want to escape. Clever, I flatter myself.

PORTEOUS. You were always that, Clive, but at the moment you're obscure.

C.-C. I told Arnold to go to Elizabeth and tell her she could have her freedom. I told him to sacrifice himself all along the line. I know what women are. The moment every obstacle was removed to her marriage with Teddie Luton, half the allurement was gone.

LADY KITTY. Arnold did that?

C.-C. He followed my instructions to the letter. I've just seen him.

She's shaken. I'm willing to bet five hundred pounds to a penny that she won't bolt. A downy old bird, eh? Downy's the word. Downy.

[_He begins to laugh. They laugh, too. Presently they are all three in fits of laughter._

[The Curtain Falls]

THE END

Transcriber's Note

This transcription is based on scanned images posted by the Internet Archive from a copy in the University of California, Santa Barbara Library:

archive.org/details/circlecomedyinth00maug

The following changes were noted:

- In the original text, t.i.tles for each act (e.g., "THE FIRST ACT") were printed on otherwise blank pages. In addition, the a.s.sociated versos were blank, as were two of the pages facing these pages. These pages were not included or otherwise identified in the transcription, and thus in the html version of this transcription pp. 6-8, pp. 34-35, and pp. 64-66 are missing from the page count.

- p. 15: ...and a note was found on the pin-cus.h.i.+on.--Deleted hyphen in "pin-cus.h.i.+on" for consistency.

- p. 36: ...you'll discover that onlokers are expected...--Changed "onlokers" to "onlookers".

- p. 40: She's tinsel You think I'm...--Inserted a period after "tinsel".

- p. 44: [_Almost giving it up as a bad job._ Oh, my G.o.d!--Inserted a closing bracket after "_job._"

The html version of this etext attempts to reproduce the layout of the printed text. However, some concessions have been made. For example, stage directions printed flush right were indented the same amount from the left margin and coded as hanging paragraphs.