LILY. [_sobbing._] Oh, no, no! It doesn't matter. We can make room for two lodgers quite well. I don't mind the work.
MRS. M. I suppose you and Charley have quarrelled?
LILY. Charley--wants--to go away--and leave me.
LILY. [_looking apprehensively round at the sleeping figure._] Hush! don't wake father!
MAGGIE. He won't wake till the tea-cups rattle. Charley wants to leave YOU!
LILY. We haven't--not exactly--but he's been so _funny_ ever since Mr. Tennant said he was going to Australia. He wants to go too.
MRS. M. What next? Charley ought to be ashamed of himself. Go to Australia indeed! He forgets he is married.
LILY. I don't want him to stay just because he's married, if he wants to leave me.
MAGGIE. You are quite _wrong,_ I'm sure, Lil. He doesn't want to leave you at all. He wants to leave his work.
MRS. M. Perhaps he does. So do other people very often. Suppose we all stopped work when we didn't like it? A pretty muddle the world would be in. Charley is forgetting there is such a thing as duty.
LILY. He's very unhappy--and I--I can't make him happy.
MRS. M. So he ought to be miserable with such ideas in his head. I never heard of such a thing! The sooner Mr. Tennant goes the better. He's been putting Charley up to this, I suppose?
MAGGIE. You don't know Mr. Tennant, mother. He's not that sort.
MRS. M. Then what made Charley think of it at all?
MAGGIE. It's just a feeling you get sometimes, mother. You can't help it. Office work is awf'lly monotonous.
MRS. M. Of course it is. So is all work. Do you expect work to be pleasant? Does anybody ever like work? The idea is absurd. Anyone would think work was to be pleasant. You don't come into the world to have pleasure. We've got to do our duty, and the more cheerfully we can do it, the better for ourselves and everybody else.
LILY. Don't say anything, please--not yet. Perhaps after tea we can all talk about it, and it may do him good.
_MAGGIE goes out. LILY starts to arrange the tea-cups. MR. MASSEY rouses. Re-enter MAGGIE with tea-pot._
MAGGIE. It's cosey. I'll bring yours to the sofa.
MASSEY. Where am I to put it?--on the floor?
MAGGIE. I'll bring up a table for you if you must have one. You wouldn't do for a Society gentleman. Can't you balance a cup on your knee?