(_The_ POET _is sitting at a table, writing. Enter_ DICK PRATTLE.)
PRATTLE. Hullo, Harry.
DE REVES. Hullo, Dick. Good Lord, where are you from?
PRATTLE (_casually_). The ends of the Earth.
DE REVES. Well, I'm damned!
PRATTLE. Thought I'd drop in and see how you were getting on.
DE REVES. Well, that's splendid. What are you doing in London?
PRATTLE. Well, I wanted to see if I could get one or two decent
ties to wear,--you can get nothing out there,--then I thought
I'd have a look and see how London was getting on.
DE REVES. Splendid! How's everybody?
PRATTLE. All going strong.
DE REVES. That's good.
PRATTLE. (_seeing paper and ink_). But what are you doing?
DE REVES. Writing.
PRATTLE. Writing? I didn't know you wrote.
DE REVES. Yes, I've taken to it rather.
PRATTLE. I say--writing's no good. What do you write?
DE REVES. Oh, poetry.
PRATTLE. Poetry? Good Lord!
DE REVES. Yes, that sort of thing, you know.
PRATTLE. Good Lord! Do you make any money by it?
DE REVES. No. Hardly any.
PRATTLE. I say--why don't you chuck it?
DE REVES. Oh, I don't know. Some people seem to like my stuff,
rather. That's why I go on.
PRATTLE. I'd chuck it if there's no money in it.
DE REVES. Ah, but then it's hardly in your line, is it? You'd
hardly approve of poetry if there _was_ money in it.
PRATTLE. Oh, I don't say that. If I could make as much by poetry
as I can by betting I don't say I wouldn't try the poetry touch,
only--
DE REVES. Only what?
PRATTLE. Oh, I don't know. Only there seems more sense in
betting, somehow.
DE REVES. Well, yes. I suppose it's easier to tell what an
earthly horse is going to do, than to tell what Pegasus--
PRATTLE. What's Pegasus?
DE REVES. Oh, the winged horse of poets.
PRATTLE. I say! You don't believe in a winged horse, do you?
DE REVES. In our trade we believe in all fabulous things. They
all represent some large truth to turn us. An emblem like Pegasus
is as real a thing to a poet as a Derby winner would be to you.
PRATTLE. I say. (_Give me a cigarette. Thanks._) What? Then you'd
believe in nymphs and fauns, and Pan, and all those kind of
birds?
DE REVES. Yes. Yes. In all of them.
PRATTLE. Good Lord!
DE REVES. You believe in the Lord Mayor of London, don't you?