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Augustus Does His Bit

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le: Augustus Does His Bit

thor: George Bernard Shaw



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UGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT: A TRUE-TO-LIFE FARCE

EORGE BERNARD SHAW

wish to express my gratitude for certain good offices which Augustus secured for me in

nuary,1917. I had been invited to visit the theatre of war in Flanders by the Commander-in-Chiinvitation which was, under the circumstances, a summons to duty. Thus I had occasion to spen

me days in procuring the necessary passport and other official facilities for my journey. It happt then that the Stage Society gave a performance of this little play. It opened the heart of every

ficial to me. I have always been treated with distinguished consideration in my contracts withreaucracy during the war; but on this occasion I found myself persona grata in the highest degreere was only one word when the formalities were disposed of; and that was "We are up againgustus all day." The showing-up of Augustus scandalized one or two innocent and patriotic crio regarded the prowess of the British army as inextricably bound up with Highcastle prestige.

r Government departments knew better: their problem was how to win the war with Augustus



ir backs, well-meaning, brave, patriotic, but obstructively fussy, self-important, imbecile, andastrous.

ve for the satisfaction of being able to laugh at Augustus in the theatre, nothing, as far as I knowme of my dramatic reduction of him to absurdity. Generals, admirals, Prime Ministers andntrollers, not to mention Emperors, Kaisers and Tsars, were scrapped remorselessly at home aroad, for their sins or services, as the case might be. But Augustus stood like the Eddystone in rm, and stands so to this day. He gave us his word that he was indispensable and we took it.

gustus Does His Bit was performed for the first time at the Court Theatre in London by the Staciety on the 21st January, 1917, with Lalla Vandervelde as The Lady, F. B.J. Sharp as Lordgustus Highcastle, and Charles Rock as Horatio Floyd Beamish.

UGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT

e Mayor's parlor in the Town Hall of Little Pifflington. Lord Augustus Highcastle, a distinguismber of the governing class, in the uniform of a colonel, and very well preserved at forty-five

mfortably seated at a writing-table with his heels on it, reading The Morning Post. The door fam, a little to his left, at the other side of the room. The window is behind him. In the fireplace, ve. On the table a bell button and a telephone. Portraits of past Mayors, in robes and gold chaorn the walls. An elderly clerk with a short white beard and whiskers, and a very red nose, shu

UGUSTUS [hastily putting aside his paper and replacing his feet on the floor]. Hullo! Who are

HE CLERK. The staff [a slight impediment in his speech adds to the impression of incompetencoduced by his age and appearance].

UGUSTUS. You the staff! What do you mean, man?

HE CLERK. What I say. There ain't anybody else.

UGUSTUS. Tush! Where are the others?

HE CLERK. At the front.

UGUSTUS. Quite right. Most proper. Why aren't you at the front?

HE CLERK. Over age. Fifty-seven.

UGUSTUS. But you can still do your bit. Many an older man is in the G.R.'s, or volunteering fome defence.

HE CLERK. I have volunteered.

UGUSTUS. Then why are you not in uniform?



HE CLERK. They said they wouldn't have me if I was given away with a pound of tea. Told mehome and not be an old silly. [A sense of unbearable wrong, till now only smouldering in him

rsts into flame.] Young Bill Knight, that I took with me, got two and sevenpence. I got nothing.tice? This country is going to the dogs, if you ask me.

UGUSTUS [rising indignantly]. I do not ask you, sir; and I will not allow you to say such thingspresence. Our statesmen are the greatest known to history. Our generals are invincible. Our a

he admiration of the world. [Furiously.] How dare you tell me that the country is going to the d

HE CLERK. Why did they give young Bill Knight two and sevenpence, and not give me even mm fare? Do you call that being great statesmen? As good as robbing me, I call it.

UGUSTUS. That's enough. Leave the room. [He sits down and takes up his pen, settling himselfrk. The clerk shuffles to the door. Augustus adds, with cold politeness] Send me the Secretary

HE CLERK. I'M the Secretary. I can't leave the room and send myself to you at the same time, c

UGUSTUS, Don't be insolent. Where is the gentleman I have been corresponding with: Mr Horoyd Beamish?

HE CLERK [returning and bowing]. Here. Me.

UGUSTUS. You! Ridiculous. What right have you to call yourself by a pretentious name of thatt?

HE CLERK. You may drop the Horatio Floyd. Beamish is good enough for me.

UGUSTUS. Is there nobody else to take my instructions?

HE CLERK. It's me or nobody. And for two pins I'd chuck it. Don't you drive me too far. Old une me is up in the world now.

UGUSTUS. If we were not at war, I should discharge you on the spot for disrespectful behaviot England is in danger; and I cannot think of my personal dignity at such a moment. [Shouting a

m.] Don't you think of yours, either, worm that you are; or I'll have you arrested under the Defenthe Realm Act, double quick.

HE CLERK. What do I care about the realm? They done me out of two and seven--

UGUSTUS. Oh, damn your two and seven! Did you receive my letters?

HE CLERK. Yes.

UGUSTUS. I addressed a meeting here last night--went straight to the platform from the train. Iote to you that I should expect you to be present and report yourself. Why did you not do so?

HE CLERK. The police wouldn't let me on the platform.



UGUSTUS. Did you tell them who you were?

HE CLERK. They knew who I was. That's why they wouldn't let me up.

UGUSTUS. This is too silly for anything. This town wants waking up. I made the best recruitineech I ever made in my life; and not a man joined.

HE CLERK. What did you expect? You told them our gallant fellows is falling at the rate of ausand a day in the big push. Dying for Little Pifflington, you says. Come and take their places,

ys. That ain't the way to recruit.

UGUSTUS. But I expressly told them their widows would have pensions.

HE CLERK. I heard you. Would have been all right if it had been the widows you wanted to geund.

UGUSTUS [rising angrily]. This town is inhabited by dastards. I say it with a full sense of ponsibility, DASTARDS! They call themselves Englishmen; and they are afraid to fight.

HE CLERK. Afraid to fight! You should see them on a Saturday night.

UGUSTUS. Yes, they fight one another; but they won't fight the Germans.

HE CLERK. They got grudges again one another: how can they have grudges again the Huns thay never saw? They've no imagination: that's what it is. Bring the Huns here; and they'll quarrelm fast enough.

UGUSTUS [returning to his seat with a grunt of disgust]. Mf! They'll have them here if they're neful. [Seated.] Have you carried out my orders about the war saving?

HE CLERK. Yes.

UGUSTUS. The allowance of petrol has been reduced by three quarters?

HE CLERK. It has.

UGUSTUS. And you have told the motor-car people to come here and arrange to start munitionrk now that their motor business is stopped?

HE CLERK. It ain't stopped. They're busier than ever.

UGUSTUS. Busy at what?

HE CLERK. Making small cars.

UGUSTUS. NEW cars!



gusting drunkard.

HE CLERK. Well, what of it? We're at war now; and everything's changed. Besides, I should loy job here if I stood drinking at the bar. I'm a respectable man and must buy my drink and take ime with me. And they won't serve me with less than a quart. If you'd told me before the war thauld get through a quart of whisky in a day, I shouldn't have believed you. That's the good of wangs out powers in a man that he never suspected himself capable of. You said so yourself in y

eech last night.

UGUSTUS. I did not know that I was talking to an imbecile. You ought to be ashamed of yoursere must be an end of this drunken slacking. I'm going to establish a new order of things here. Iall come down every morning before breakfast until things are properly in train. Have a cup offfee and two rolls for me here every morning at half-past ten.

HE CLERK. You can't have no rolls. The only baker that baked rolls was a Hun; and he's beenerned.

UGUSTUS. Quite right, too. And was there no Englishman to take his place?

HE CLERK. There was. But he was caught spying; and they took him up to London and shot him

UGUSTUS. Shot an Englishman!

HE CLERK. Well, it stands to reason if the Germans wanted to spy they wouldn't employ a Gert everybody would suspect, don't it?

UGUSTUS [rising again]. Do you mean to say, you scoundrel, that an Englishman is capable of

ling his country to the enemy for gold?

HE CLERK. Not as a general thing I wouldn't say it; but there's men here would sell their ownthers for two coppers if they got the chance.

UGUSTUS. Beamish, it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest.

HE CLERK. It wasn't me that let Little Pifflington get foul. I don't belong to the governing classy tell you why you can't have no rolls.

UGUSTUS [intensely irritated]. Can you tell me where I can find an intelligent being to take myders?

HE CLERK. One of the street sweepers used to teach in the school until it was shut up for the seconomy. Will he do?

UGUSTUS. What! You mean to tell me that when the lives of the gallant fellows in our trenchesfate of the British Empire, depend on our keeping up the supply of shells, you are wasting mon

sweeping the streets?



HE CLERK. We have to. We dropped it for a while; but the infant death rate went up somethingghtful.

UGUSTUS. What matters the death rate of Little Pifflington in a moment like this? Think of our lant soldiers, not of your squalling infants.

HE CLERK. If you want soldiers you must have children. You can't buy em in boxes, like toydiers.

UGUSTUS. Beamish, the long and the short of it is, you are no patriot. Go downstairs to your od have that gas stove taken away and replaced by an ordinary grate. The Board of Trade has urme the necessity for economizing gas.

HE CLERK. Our orders from the Minister of Munitions is to use gas instead of coal, because itves material. Which is it to be?

UGUSTUS [bawling furiously at him]. Both! Don't criticize your orders: obey them. Yours not son why: yours but to do and die. That's war. [Cooling down.] Have you anything else to say?

HE CLERK. Yes: I want a rise.

UGUSTUS [reeling against the table in his horror]. A rise! Horatio Floyd Beamish, do you knot we are at war?

HE CLERK [feebly ironical]. I have noticed something about it in the papers. Heard you mentioce or twice, now I come to think of it.

UGUSTUS. Our gallant fellows are dying in the trenches; and you want a rise!

HE CLERK. What are they dying for? To keep me alive, ain't it? Well, what's the good of that iad of hunger by the time they come back?

UGUSTUS. Everybody else is making sacrifices without a thought of self; and you--

HE CLERK. Not half, they ain't. Where's the baker's sacrifice? Where's the coal merchant's?here's the butcher's? Charging me double: that's how they sacrifice themselves. Well, I want to

rifice myself that way too. Just double next Saturday: double and not a penny less; or no secreyou [he stiffens himself shakily, and makes resolutely for the door.]

UGUSTUS [looking after him contemptuously]. Go, miserable pro-German.

HE CLERK [rushing back and facing him]. Who are you calling a pro-German?

UGUSTUS. Another word, and I charge you under the Act with discouraging me. Go.

e clerk blenches and goes out, cowed.



e telephone rings.

UGUSTUS [taking up the telephone receiver. Hallo. Yes: who are you?...oh, Blueloo, is it?...Yre's nobody in the room: fire away. What?...A spy!...A woman!...Yes: brought it down with meu suppose I'm such a fool as to let it out of my hands? Why, it gives a list of all our anti-aircrafplacements from Ramsgate to Skegness. The Germans would give a million for it-- what?... Bw could she possibly know about it? I haven't mentioned it to a soul, except, of course, dear cy...Oh, Toto and Lady Popham and that lot: they don't count: they're all right. I mean that I hav

ntioned it to any Germans.... Pooh! Don't you be nervous, old chap. I know you think me a foolm not such a fool as all that. If she tries to get it out of me I'll have her in the Tower before you again. [The clerk returns.] Sh-sh! Somebody's just come in: ring off. Goodbye. [He hangs up theiver.]

HE CLERK. Are you engaged? [His manner is strangely softened.]

UGUSTUS. What business is that of yours? However, if you will take the trouble to read the sopers for this week, you will see that I am engaged to the Honorable Lucy Popham, youngest

ughter of--

HE CLERK. That ain't what I mean. Can you see a female?

UGUSTUS. Of course I can see a female as easily as a male. Do you suppose I'm blind?

HE CLERK. You don't seem to follow me, somehow. There's a female downstairs: what you ml a lady. She wants to know can you see her if I let her up.

UGUSTUS. Oh, you mean am I disengaged. Tell the lady I have just received news of the great

portance which will occupy my entire attention for the rest of the day, and that she must write fpointment.

HE CLERK. I'll ask her to explain her business to me. I ain't above talking to a handsome youngmale when I get the chance [going].

UGUSTUS. Stop. Does she seem to be a person of consequence?

HE CLERK. A regular marchioness, if you ask me.

UGUSTUS. Hm! Beautiful, did you say?

HE CLERK. A human chrysanthemum, sir, believe me.

UGUSTUS. It will be extremely inconvenient for me to see her; but the country is in danger; anust not consider our own comfort. Think how our gallant fellows are suffering in the trenches! Sr up. [The clerk makes for the door, whistling the latest popular ballad]. Stop whistling instantl This is not a casino.

LERK. Ain't it? You just wait till you see her. [He goes out.]



gustus produces a mirror, a comb, and a pot of moustache pomade from the drawer of the writle, and sits down before the mirror to put some touches to his toilet.

e clerk returns, devotedly ushering a very attractive lady, brilliantly dressed. She has a daintyllet hanging from her wrist. Augustus hastily covers up his toilet apparatus with The Morning d rises in an attitude of pompous condescension.

HE CLERK [to Augustus]. Here she is. [To the lady.] May I offer you a chair, lady? [He places

air at the writing-table opposite Augustus, and steals out on tiptoe.]

UGUSTUS. Be seated, madam.

HE LADY [sitting down]. Are you Lord Augustus Highcastle?

UGUSTUS [sitting also]. Madam, I am.

AE LADY [with awe]. The great Lord Augustus?

UGUSTUS. I should not dream of describing myself so, Madam; but no doubt I have impresseduntrymen--and [bowing gallantly] may I say my countrywomen--as having some exceptional cltheir consideration.

HE LADY [emotionally]. What a beautiful voice you have!

UGUSTUS. What you hear, madam, is the voice of my country, which now takes a sweet and ne even in the harsh mouth of high officialism.

HE LADY. Please go on. You express yourself so wonderfully!

UGUSTUS. It would be strange indeed if, after sitting on thirty-seven Royal Commissions, moschairman, I had not mastered the art of public expression. Even the Radical papers have paid mhigh compliment of declaring that I am never more impressive than when I have nothing to say

HE LADY. I never read the Radical papers. All I can tell you is that what we women admire innot the politician, but the man of action, the heroic warrior, the beau sabreur.

UGUSTUS [gloomily]. Madam, I beg! Please! My military exploits are not a pleasant subject,happily.

HE LADY. Oh, I know I know. How shamefully you have been treated! what ingratitude! But thuntry is with you. The women are with you. Oh, do you think all our hearts did not throb and alrves thrill when we heard how, when you were ordered to occupy that terrible quarry in Hullud you swept into it at the head of your men like a sea-god riding on a tidal wave, you suddenlyang over the top shouting "To Berlin! Forward!"; dashed at the German army single-handed; are cut off and made prisoner by the Huns.

UGUSTUS. Yes, madam; and what was my reward? They said I had disobeyed orders, and sen



me. Have they forgotten Nelson in the Baltic? Has any British battle ever been won except by ld initiative? I say nothing of professional jealousy, it exists in the army as elsewhere; but it ister thought to me that the recognition denied me by my country--or rather by the Radical cabal binet which pursues my family with rancorous class hatred--that this recognition, I say, came the hands of an enemy--of a rank Prussian.

HE LADY. You don't say so!

UGUSTUS. How else should I be here instead of starving to death in Ruhleben? Yes, madam: tlonel of the Pomeranian regiment which captured me, after learning what I had done, andnversing for an hour with me on European politics and military strategy, declared that nothinguld induce him to deprive my country of my services, and set me free. I offered, of course, to

ocure the release in exchange of a German officer of equal quality; but he would not hear of it.s kind enough to say he could not believe that a German officer answering to that descriptionsted. [With emotion.] I had my first taste of the ingratitude of my own country as I made my wck to our lines. A shot from our front trench struck me in the head. I still carry the flattenedojectile as a trophy [he throws it on the table; the noise it makes testifies to its weight]. Had it

netrated to the brain I might never have sat on another Royal Commission. Fortunately we haveong heads, we Highcastles. Nothing has ever penetrated to our brains.

HE LADY. How thrilling! How simple! And how tragic! But you will forgive England? Rememgland! Forgive her.

UGUSTUS [with gloomy magnanimity]. It will make no difference whatever to my services to muntry. Though she slay me, yet will I, if not exactly trust in her, at least take my part in her vernment. I am ever at my country's call. Whether it be the embassy in a leading European cap

vernor-generalship in the tropics, or my humble mission here to make Little Pifflington do its balways ready for the sacrifice. Whilst England remains England, wherever there is a public jodone you will find a Highcastle sticking to it. And now, madam, enough of my tragic personaltory. You have called on business. What can I do for you?

HE LADY. You have relatives at the Foreign Office, have you not?

UGUSTUS [haughtily]. Madam, the Foreign Office is staffed by my relatives exclusively.

HE LADY. Has the Foreign Office warned you that you are being pursued by a female spy whoermined to obtain possession of a certain list of gun emplacements?

UGUSTUS [interrupting her somewhat loftily]. All that is perfectly well known to this departmdam.

HE LADY [surprised and rather indignant]. Is it? Who told you? Was it one of your Germanothers-in-law?

UGUSTUS [injured, remonstrating]. I have only three German brothers-in-law, madam. Really

m your tone, one would suppose that I had several. Pardon my sensitiveness on that subject; bu



orts are continually being circulated that I have been shot as a traitor in the courtyard of the Rtel simply because I have German brothers-in-law. [With feeling.] If you had a German brothe

w, madam, you would know that nothing else in the world produces so strong an anti-Germanling. Life affords no keener pleasure than finding a brother-in-law's name in the German casuat.

HE LADY. Nobody knows that better than I. Wait until you hear what I have come to tell you: yll understand me as no one else could. Listen. This spy, this woman--

UGUSTUS [all attention]. Yes?

HE LADY. She is a German. A Hun.

UGUSTUS. Yes, yes. She would be. Continue.

HE LADY. She is my sister-in-law.

UGUSTUS [deferentially]. I see you are well connected, madam. Proceed.

HE LADY. Need I add that she is my bitterest enemy?

UGUSTUS. May I--[he proffers his hand. They shake, fervently. >From this moment onwardgustus becomes more and more confidential, gallant, and charming.]

HE LADY. Quite so. Well, she is an intimate friend of your brother at the War Office, Hungerfoghcastle, Blueloo as you call him, I don't know why.

UGUSTUS [explaining]. He was originally called The Singing Oyster, because he sang drawinom ballads with such an extraordinary absence of expression. He was then called the Blue Poineason or two. Finally he became Blueloo.

HE LADY. Oh, indeed: I didn't know. Well, Blueloo is simply infatuated with my sister-in-lawhas rashly let out to her that this list is in your possession. He forgot himself because he was in

wering rage at its being entrusted to you: his language was terrible. He ordered all the guns to bfted at once.

UGUSTUS. What on earth did he do that for?

HE LADY. I can't imagine. But this I know. She made a bet with him that she would come downre and obtain possession of that list and get clean away into the street with it. He took the bet ondition that she brought it straight back to him at the War Office.

UGUSTUS. Good heavens! And you mean to tell me that Blueloo was such a dolt as to believe e could succeed? Does he take me for a fool?

HE LADY. Oh, impossible! He is jealous of your intellect. The bet is an insult to you: don't yout? After what you have done for our country--



UGUSTUS. Oh, never mind that. It is the idiocy of the thing I look at. He'll lose his bet; and serm right!

HE LADY. You feel sure you will be able to resist the siren? I warn you, she is very fascinatin

UGUSTUS. You need have no fear, madam. I hope she will come and try it on. Fascination is ame that two can play at. For centuries the younger sons of the Highcastles have had nothing to d

fascinate attractive females when they were not sitting on Royal Commissions or on duty at

ightsbridge barracks. By Gad, madam, if the siren comes here she will meet her match.

HE LADY. I feel that. But if she fails to seduce you--

UGUSTUS [blushing]. Madam!

HE LADY [continuing]--from your allegiance--

UGUSTUS. Oh, that!

HE LADY. --she will resort to fraud, to force, to anything. She will burgle your office: she wilve you attacked and garotted at night in the street.

UGUSTUS. Pooh! I'm not afraid.

HE LADY. Oh, your courage will only tempt you into danger. She may get the list after all. It ist the guns are moved. But she would win her bet.

UGUSTUS [cautiously]. You did not say that the guns were moved. You said that Blueloo had

dered them to be moved.

HE LADY. Well, that is the same thing, isn't it?

UGUSTUS. Not quite--at the War Office. No doubt those guns WILL be moved: possibly evenfore the end of the war.

HE LADY. Then you think they are there still! But if the German War Office gets the list--and sll copy it before she gives it back to Blueloo, you may depend on it--all is lost.

UGUSTUS [lazily]. Well, I should not go as far as that. [Lowering his voice.] Will you swear tt to repeat what I am going to say to you; for if the British public knew that I had said it, I shouonce hounded down as a pro-German.

HE LADY. I will be silent as the grave. I swear it.

UGUSTUS [again taking it easily]. Well, our people have for some reason made up their mindsGerman War Office is everything that our War Office is not--that it carries promptitude,

iciency, and organization to a pitch of completeness and perfection that must be, in my opinionstructive to the happiness of the staff. My own view--which you are pledged, remember, not to



ray--is that the German War Office is no better than any other War Office. I found that opiniony observation of the characters of my brothers-in-law: one of whom, by the way, is on the Germneral staff. I am not at all sure that this list of gun emplacements would receive the smallestention. You see, there are always so many more important things to be attended to. Family matd so on, you understand.

HE LADY. Still, if a question were asked in the House of Commons--

UGUSTUS. The great advantage of being at war, madam, is that nobody takes the slightest notiHouse of Commons. No doubt it is sometimes necessary for a Minister to soothe the moreditious members of that assembly by giving a pledge or two; but the War Office takes no noticech things.

HE LADY [staring at him]. Then you think this list of gun emplacements doesn't matter!!

UGUSTUS. By no means, madam. It matters very much indeed. If this spy were to obtain possethe list, Blueloo would tell the story at every dinner-table in London; and--

HE LADY. And you might lose your post. Of course.

UGUSTUS [amazed and indignant]. I lose my post! What are you dreaming about, madam? Howuld I possibly be spared? There are hardly Highcastles enough at present to fill half the postsated by this war. No: Blueloo would not go that far. He is at least a gentleman. But I should be

affed; and, frankly, I don't like being chaffed.

HE LADY. Of course not. Who does? It would never do. Oh never, never.

UGUSTUS. I'm glad you see it in that light. And now, as a measure of security, I shall put that ly pocket. [He begins searching vainly from drawer to drawer in the writing-table.] Where on eaWhat the dickens did I--? That's very odd: I--Where the deuce--? I thought I had put it in the--Ore it is! No: this is Lucy's last letter.

HE LADY [elegiacally]. Lucy's Last Letter! What a title for a picture play!

UGUSTUS [delighted]. Yes: it is, isn't it? Lucy appeals to the imagination like no other womanway [handing over the letter], I wonder could you read it for me? Lucy is a darling girl; but I

lly can't read her writing. In London I get the office typist to decipher it and make me a typed here there is nobody.

HE LADY [puzzling over it]. It is really almost illegible. I think the beginning is meant for "Des."

UGUSTUS [eagerly]. Yes: that is what she usually calls me. Please go on.

HE LADY [trying to decipher it]. "What a"--"what a"--oh yes: "what a forgetful old"--somethin

ou are!" I can't make out the word.



UGUSTUS [greatly interested]. Is it blighter? That is a favorite expression of hers.

HE LADY. I think so. At all events it begins with a B. [Reading.] "What a forgetful old"--[she ierrupted by a knock at the door.]

UGUSTUS [impatiently]. Come in. [The clerk enters, clean shaven and in khaki, with an officiaper and an envelope in his hand.] What is this ridiculous mummery sir?

HE CLERK [coming to the table and exhibiting his uniform to both]. They've passed me. Theruiting officer come for me. I've had my two and seven.

UGUSTUS [rising wrathfully]. I shall not permit it. What do they mean by taking my office staffod God! they will be taking our hunt servants next. [Confronting the clerk.] What did the manan? What did he say?

HE CLERK. He said that now you was on the job we'd want another million men, and he was gtake the old-age pensioners or anyone he could get.

UGUSTUS. And did you dare to knock at my door and interrupt my business with this lady to res man's ineptitudes?

HE CLERK. No. I come because the waiter from the hotel brought this paper. You left it on theffeeroom breakfast-table this morning.

HE LADY [intercepting it]. It is the list. Good heavens!

HE CLERK [proffering the envelope]. He says he thinks this is the envelope belonging to it.

HE LADY [snatching the envelope also]. Yes! Addressed to you, Lord Augustus! [Augustus comck to the table to look at it.] Oh, how imprudent! Everybody would guess its importance with yme on it. Fortunately I have some letters of my own here [opening her wallet.] Why not hide it e of my envelopes? then no one will dream that the enclosure is of any political value. [Takingetter, she crosses the room towards the window, whispering to Augustus as she passes him.] Gof that man.

UGUSTUS [haughtily approaching the clerk, who humorously makes a paralytic attempt to stan

ention]. Have you any further business here, pray?

HE CLERK. Am I to give the waiter anything; or will you do it yourself?

UGUSTUS. Which waiter is it? The English one?

HE CLERK. No: the one that calls hisself a Swiss. Shouldn't wonder if he'd made a copy of thaper.

UGUSTUS. Keep your impertinent surmises to yourself, sir. Remember that you are in the armyw; and let me have no more of your civilian insubordination. Attention! Left turn! Quick march



HE CLERK [stolidly]. I dunno what you mean.

UGUSTUS. Go to the guard-room and report yourself for disobeying orders. Now do you knowat I mean?

HE CLERK. Now look here. I ain't going to argue with you--

UGUSTUS. Nor I with you. Out with you.

seizes the clerk: and rushes him through the door. The moment the lady is left alone, she snatceet of official paper from the stationery rack: folds it so that it resembles the list; compares thesee that they look exactly alike: whips the list into her wallet: and substitutes the facsimile foren she listens for the return of Augustus. A crash is heard, as of the clerk falling downstairs.

gustus returns and is about to close the door when the voice of the clerk is heard from below.

HE CLERK. I'll have the law of you for this, I will.

UGUSTUS [shouting down to him]. There's no more law for you, you scoundrel. You're a soldiw. [He shuts the door and comes to the lady.] Thank heaven, the war has given us the upper hanse fellows at last. Excuse my violence; but discipline is absolutely necessary in dealing with t

wer middle classes.

HE LADY. Serve the insolent creature right! Look I have found you a beautiful envelope for theunmistakable lady's envelope. [She puts the sham list into her envelope and hands it to him.]

UGUSTUS. Excellent. Really very clever of you. [Slyly.] Come: would you like to have a peep

list [beginning to take the blank paper from the envelope]?

HE LADY [on the brink of detection]. No no. Oh, please, no.

UGUSTUS. Why? It won't bite you [drawing it out further.]

HE LADY [snatching at his hand]. Stop. Remember: if there should be an inquiry, you must be swear that you never showed that list to a mortal soul.

UGUSTUS. Oh, that is a mere form. If you are really curious--

HE LADY. I am not. I couldn't bear to look at it. One of my dearest friends was blown to pieceaircraft gun; and since then I have never been able to think of one without horror.

UGUSTUS. You mean it was a real gun, and actually went off. How sad! how sad! [He pushes am list back into the envelope, and pockets it.]

HE LADY. Ah! [Great sigh of relief]. And now, Lord Augustus, I have taken up too much of youuable time. Goodbye.



UGUSTUS. What! Must you go?

HE LADY. You are so busy.

UGUSTUS. Yes; but not before lunch, you know. I never can do much before lunch. And I'm nood at all in the afternoon. From five to six is my real working time. Must you really go?

HE LADY. I must, really. I have done my business very satisfactorily. Thank you ever so much offers her hand].

UGUSTUS [shaking it affectionately as he leads her to the door, but fast pressing the bell buttonth his left hand]. Goodbye. Goodbye. So sorry to lose you. Kind of you to come; but there wasl danger. You see, my dear little lady, all this talk about war saving, and secrecy, and keepingnds down at night, and so forth, is all very well; but unless it's carried out with intelligence,ieve me, you may waste a pound to save a penny; you may let out all sorts of secrets to the ene

u may guide the Zeppelins right on to your own chimneys. That's where the ability of the goverss comes in. Shall the fellow call a taxi for you?

HE LADY. No, thanks: I prefer walking. Goodbye. Again, many, many thanks.

e goes out. Augustus returns to the writing-table smiling, and takes another look at himself in thrror. The clerk returns, with his head bandaged, carrying a poker.

HE CLERK. What did you ring for? [Augustus hastily drops the mirror]. Don't you come nigh msplit your head with this poker, thick as it is.

UGUSTUS. It does not seem to me an exceptionally thick poker. I rang for you to show the lady

HE CLERK. She's gone. She run out like a rabbit. I ask myself why was she in such a hurry?

HE LADY'S VOICE [from the street]. Lord Augustus. Lord Augustus.

HE CLERK. She's calling you.

UGUSTUS [running to the window and throwing it up]. What is it? Won't you come up?

HE LADY. Is the clerk there?

UGUSTUS. Yes. Do you want him?

HE LADY. Yes.

UGUSTUS. The lady wants you at the window.

HE CLERK [rushing to the window and putting down the poker]. Yes, ma'am? Here I am, ma'amhat is it, ma'am?



HE LADY. I want you to witness that I got clean away into the street. I am coming up now.

e two men stare at one another.

HE CLERK. Wants me to witness that she got clean away into the street!

UGUSTUS. What on earth does she mean?

e lady returns.

HE LADY. May I use your telephone?

UGUSTUS. Certainly. Certainly. [Taking the receiver down.] What number shall I get you?

HE LADY. The War Office, please.

UGUSTUS. The War Office!?

HE LADY. If you will be so good.

UGUSTUS. But--Oh, very well. [Into the receiver.] Hallo. This is the Town Hall Recruiting Ofve me Colonel Bogey, sharp.

pause.

HE CLERK [breaking the painful silence]. I don't think I'm awake. This is a dream of a movieture, this is.

UGUSTUS [his ear at the receiver]. Shut up, will you? [Into the telephone.] What?...[To the ladhom do you want to get on to?

HE LADY. Blueloo.

UGUSTUS [into the telephone]. Put me through to Lord Hungerford Highcastle...I'm his brotherot...That you, Blueloo? Lady here at Little Pifflington wants to speak to you. Hold the line. [Toy.] Now, madam [he hands her the receiver].

HE LADY [sitting down in Augustus's chair to speak into the telephone]. Is that Blueloo?...Do yognize my voice?...I've won our bet....

UGUSTUS. Your bet!

HE LADY [into the telephone]. Yes: I have the list in my wallet ....

UGUSTUS. Nothing of the kind, madam. I have it here in my pocket. [He takes the envelope fropocket: draws out the paper: and unfolds it.]

HE LADY [continuing]. Yes: I got clean into the street with it. I have a witness. I could have go



ondon with it. Augustus won't deny it....

UGUSTUS [contemplating the blank paper]. There's nothing written on this. Where is the list ouns?

HE LADY [continuing]. Oh, it was quite easy. I said I was my sister-in-law and that I was a He lapped it up like a kitten ....

UGUSTUS. You don't mean to say that--

HE LADY [continuing]. I got hold of the list for a moment and changed it for a piece of paper os stationery rack: it was quite easy [she laughs: and it is clear that Blueloo is laughing too].

UGUSTUS. What!

HE CLERK [laughing slowly and laboriously, with intense enjoyment]. Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha!Augustus rushes at him; he snatches up the poker and stands on guard.] No you don't.

HE LADY [still at the telephone, waving her disengaged hand behind her impatiently at them toaking a noise]. Sh-sh-sh- sh-sh!!! [Augustus, with a shrug, goes up the middle of the room. Thesumes her conversation with the telephone.] What?...Oh yes: I'm coming up by the 1.35: why nve tea with me at Rumpelmeister's?...Rum-pel-meister's. You know: they call it Robinson's

ow...Right. Ta ta. [She hangs up the receiver, and is passing round the table on her way towardoor when she is confronted by Augustus.]

UGUSTUS. Madam, I consider your conduct most unpatriotic. You make bets and abuse thenfidence of the hardworked officials who are doing their bit for their country whilst our gallan

llows are perishing in the trenches--

HE LADY. Oh, the gallant fellows are not all in the trenches, Augustus. Some of them have comome for a few days' hard-earned leave; and I am sure you won't grudge them a little fun at your pense.

HE CLERK. Hear! hear!

UGUSTUS [amiably]. Ah, well! For my country's sake--!

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