] He pounds on manfully enough, but, if I may say so,
with a wooden leg. It is as good, I dare say, as the rest of them
could have done; but they start with such inherited advantages, Mrs.
Shand, that he had to do better.
MAGGIE. Yes, I can understand that.
VENABLES. I am sorry, Mrs. Shand, for he interested me. His career
has set me wondering whether if _I_ had begun as a railway porter I
might not still be calling out, 'By your leave.'
[MAGGIE thinks it probable but not important]
MAGGIE. Mr. Venables, now that I think of it, surely John wrote to me
that you were dissatisfied with his first speech, and that he was
writing another.
[The COMTESSE's eyes open very wide indeed.]
VENABLES. I have heard nothing of that, Mrs. Shand. [He shakes his
wise head.] And in any case, I am afraid--[He still hears the wooden
leg.]
MAGGIE. But you said yourself that his second thoughts were sometimes
such an improvement on the first.
[The COMTESSE comes to the help of the baggage.]
COMTESSE. I remember you saying that, Charles.
VENABLES. Yes, that has struck me. [Politely] Well, if he has
anything to show me--In the meantime--
[He regains the lawn, like one glad to escape attendance at JOHN'S
obsequies. The COMTESSE is brought back to speech by the sound of the
mower--nothing wooden in it.]
COMTESSE. What are you up to now, Miss Pin? You know as well as I do
that there is no such speech.
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