Do you hear the rain, Mr. Caudle? I say, do you hear it? But I don't care--I'll go to mother's to-morrow; I will; and what's more, I'll walk every step of the way,--and you know that will give me my death. Don't call me a foolish woman, it's you that's the foolish man. You know I can't wear clogs; and with no umbrella, the wet's sure to give me a cold--it always does. But what do you care for that? Nothing at all. I may be laid up, for what you care, as I daresay I shall--and a pretty doctor's bill there'll be. I hope there will! I shouldn't wonder if I caught my death; yes: and that's what you lent the umbrella for. Of course!...
Men, indeed!--call themselves lords of the creation!--pretty lords, when they can't even take care of an umbrella!
I know that walk to-morrow will be the death of me. But that's what you want--then you may go to your club and do as you like--and then, nicely my poor dear children will be used--but then, sir, you'll be happy. Oh, don't tell me! I know you will. Else you'd never have lent the umbrella!...
The children, too! Dear things! They'll be sopping wet; for they shan't stop at home--they shan't lose their learning; it's all their father will leave 'em, I'm sure. But they shall go to school. Don't tell me I said they shouldn't: you are so aggravating, Caudle; you'd spoil the temper of an angel. They shall go to school; mark that. And if they get their deaths of cold, it's not my fault--I didn't lend the umbrella.
The peculiar character of Mrs. Caudle must be definitely conceived, and the interpreter must express her feelings and reveal with great emphasis the impressions produced upon her, for these are the very soul of the rendering. The sudden awakening of ideas in her mind, or the way she receives an impression, must be definitely shown, for such manifestations are the chief characteristics of a monologue. Such mental action is the one element that makes the delivery of a monologue differ from that of other forms of literature.
The fact that one end of the conversation is omitted, or only echoed, concentrates our attention upon the workings of Mrs. Caudle's mind. The interpreter must vividly portray the arrival of every idea, the horrors with which she contemplates every successive conjecture.