DOI article:
Hobbes, John Oliver; Moore, George: The fool's hour: the first act of a comedy
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20196#0263
By John Oliver Hobbes and George Moore 257
beg you will not go so far as that. What notion would be more
upsettting ? Pray do not use such extreme terms !
Soame. Ha ! ha ! But teil me, Doldrummond, is it true that
your wife insists on his retiring at eleven and rising at eight ?
I hear that she allows him nothing stronger than ginger ale and
lemon ; that she selects his friends, makes his engagements, and
superintends his amusements ? Should he marry, I am told she
will even undertake the office of best man !
Lord Dol. Poor soul! she means well; and if devotion could
make the boy a saint he would have been in heaven before he was
out of his long clothes. As it is, I fear that nothing can save him.
Soame. Save him ? You speak as though you suspected that he
was not such a saint as his mother thinks him.
Lord Dol. I suspect nothing. I only know that my boy is
unhappy. You might speak to him, and draw him out if occasion
should offer—but do not say a word about this to Lady Dol-
drummond.
[Enter Lady Doldrummond.—She is a tall, slight, but not angular
woman. Her hair is brown, and brushed back from her temples
in the simplest possible fashion. Self-satisfaction (of a gentle
and ladylike sort) and eminent contentment with her lot are the
only wriüngs on her smooth, almost girlish countenance. She
has a prim tenderness and charm of manner which soften her
rather cutting voice.J
Lady Dol. What! Cyril not here ? How do you do, Sir
Digby ? I am looking for my tiresome boy. I promised to take
him to pay some calls this afternoon, and as he may have to talk I
must teil him what to say. He has no idea of making himself
pleasant to women, and is the shyest creature in the world!
Soame. You have always been so careful to shield him from all
responsibility,
beg you will not go so far as that. What notion would be more
upsettting ? Pray do not use such extreme terms !
Soame. Ha ! ha ! But teil me, Doldrummond, is it true that
your wife insists on his retiring at eleven and rising at eight ?
I hear that she allows him nothing stronger than ginger ale and
lemon ; that she selects his friends, makes his engagements, and
superintends his amusements ? Should he marry, I am told she
will even undertake the office of best man !
Lord Dol. Poor soul! she means well; and if devotion could
make the boy a saint he would have been in heaven before he was
out of his long clothes. As it is, I fear that nothing can save him.
Soame. Save him ? You speak as though you suspected that he
was not such a saint as his mother thinks him.
Lord Dol. I suspect nothing. I only know that my boy is
unhappy. You might speak to him, and draw him out if occasion
should offer—but do not say a word about this to Lady Dol-
drummond.
[Enter Lady Doldrummond.—She is a tall, slight, but not angular
woman. Her hair is brown, and brushed back from her temples
in the simplest possible fashion. Self-satisfaction (of a gentle
and ladylike sort) and eminent contentment with her lot are the
only wriüngs on her smooth, almost girlish countenance. She
has a prim tenderness and charm of manner which soften her
rather cutting voice.J
Lady Dol. What! Cyril not here ? How do you do, Sir
Digby ? I am looking for my tiresome boy. I promised to take
him to pay some calls this afternoon, and as he may have to talk I
must teil him what to say. He has no idea of making himself
pleasant to women, and is the shyest creature in the world!
Soame. You have always been so careful to shield him from all
responsibility,