THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER
who used to be a clerk along with my husband is in Mr. Baldry’s regiment. So, you see . . .
[Her voice dies away.
Kitty : Oh! And what regiment is that?
Margaret (in dumb agony): I . . . I don’t know . . . I never thought to ask.
Kitty : Well, your friend’s name, then? Something? You can’t expect us to swallow a story like this uncorroborated.
Margaret : But he’s ill! He’s ill, don’t you understand? And I came to tell you . . .
Kitty : Jenny, do you see what this is? I know exactly what she’s doing! She’s read in the Harrow Observer or somewhere that Chris is at the Front, and come to tell us this story in the hope of getting money out of us. I’ve read of these cases in the papers. (Rising, to Margaret) Mrs. Grey, how dare you? And the transparency of it! Don’t you realise that if anything had happened to my husband I should have been informed by the War Office? It’s outrageous! Please go, and you may think yourself very lucky that I don’t hand you over to the police.
Jenny : Kitty!
Margaret (rising, angry): It’s you who are being . . . (She breaks off.) Oh, you don’t understand.
Jenny (gently) : Kitty, there’s some mistake—
18
