_Matter-of-Fact Person_ (_to her Irrelevant Friend_). Here's a
Millais, you see. _Ophelia_ drowning herself.
_The Irrelevant Friend_ (_who doesn't approve of suicide_). Yes,
dear, very peculiar--but I don't quite _like_ it, I must say. Do you
remember whether I told SARAH to put out the fiddle-pattern forks and
the best cruetstand before I came away? Dear Mr. HOMERTON is coming in
to supper to-night, and I want everything to be _nice_ for him.
_The Good Young Man_. There's _Ophelia again_, you see. (_Searches
for an appropriate remark._) She--ah--evidently understood the art of
natation.
_First Aunt_. She looks almost too _comfortable_ in the water, _I_
think. Her mouth's open, as if she was singing.
_Second Aunt_ (_extenuatingly_). Yes--but those wild roses are very
naturally done--and so are her teeth.
_A Discriminating Person_. I like it all but the _figure_.
_A Well-informed Person_. There's the "_Dream of Dante_," d'ye see?
No mistaking the figure of DANTE. Here he is, down below, _having_ his
dream--that's the dream in that cloud--and up above you get the dream
done life-size--queer sort of idea, isn't it?
_A Ponderous Person_ (_finding himself in front of "The Vale of
Rest"_). Ha!--what are those two Nuns up to?
_His Companion_. Digging their own graves, I think.
_The Pond. P._ (_with a supreme mental effort_). Oh, _Cremation_, eh?
[_Goes out, conceiving that he has sacrificed at the shrine of
Art sufficiently for one afternoon._
_Young Discount_ (_to Young TURNOVER--before "Claudio and
Isabella"_). Something out of SHAKSPEARE here, you see.
_Young Turnover_. Yairss. (_Giving Claudio a perfunctory attention_.)
Wants his hair raking, don't he? Not much in _my_ line, this sort of
subject.
_Young Disc._ Nor yet mine--takes too much time making it _out_,
y'know. _This_ ain't bad--"_Venetian Washerwomen_"--is that the way
they get up linen over there?
_Young Turn._ (_who has "done" Italy_) Pretty much. (_By way of excuse
for them_.) They're very _al fresco_ out in those parts, y' know.
Here's a Market-place in Italy, next to it. Yes, that's just like they
are. They bring out all those old umbrellas and stalls and baskets
twice a-week, and clear 'em all off again next day, so that you'd
hardly know they'd _been_ there!
_Young Disc._ (_intelligently_). I see. After Yarmouth style.
_Young Turn._ Well, _something_ that way--only rather different
_style_, y' know.