More Portmanteau Plays Part 39

So.... The Clay family is still an absolute monarchy.

LEt.i.tIA

Nathaniel, dear, will you promise me--

NATHANIEL (_with a smile_)

I'll try.

LEt.i.tIA

Will you promise not to antagonize John?

NATHANIEL

Will John antagonize _me_? I came back to see my home--to see you, my dear aunt. But I am a grown man now.

LEt.i.tIA

Won't you try to be patient? It will be pleasanter for me. And I have waited so long to see you, Nathaniel. There are seventeen very, very long years for us to talk about. Let John have his way.

NATHANIEL

Well, I'll try for a few days. But I give you warning, my ideas have been settling during the past few years, too.

LEt.i.tIA

Remember, he is used to being obeyed just as your father was.

NATHANIEL

Yes, I remember that, dear Aunt; but John isn't my father. He is just a brother to whom fate gave a fifteen years' start by birth.

[_As a voice calls_, "Nathaniel, are you up there?" _Nathaniel looks at Let.i.tia._

NATHANIEL

His voice is just the same. (_Calling_) Yes, John, I am up here.

[_The antagonism between the two brothers is apparent immediately._

_John Clay enters. He is an austere, pompous man of fifty who has the softness of the t.i.the-collector and the hardness of the tax-collector. He speaks with an adamantine finality which is destined to rude shattering._

JOHN

How do you do, Nathaniel?

NATHANIEL

I am very well, I thank you, John. How are you?

[_They shake hands perfunctorily._

JOHN

You arrived ahead of time.

NATHANIEL

Yes.

JOHN

We haven't met for seventeen years.

NATHANIEL

No. I've been away, John.

JOHN

Where have you been?

NATHANIEL

I shall be here for two weeks, John, and if I should tell you all about myself today, I should have nothing to talk about tomorrow.

JOHN (_severely_)

You haven't changed, Nathaniel. You are still frivolous.

NATHANIEL

I shall be serious when I am your age, brother.

JOHN

I came out here to ask you to be very careful of your conversation before the children.

NATHANIEL

The children?

JOHN

Yes, my two grandchildren.--

NATHANIEL