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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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66 LADY BRA Being the eldest son you were naturally christened after your father. JACK [Irritably.] Yes, but what was my father’s Christian name? LADY BRA [Meditatively.] I cannot at the present moment recall what the General’s Christian name was. But I have no doubt he had one. He was eccentric, I admit. But only in later years. And that was the result of the Indian climate, and marriage, and indigestion, and other things of that kind. JACK Algy! Can’t you recollect what our father’s Christian name was? ALG My dear boy, we were never even on speaking terms. He died before I was a year old. JACK His name would appear in the Army Lists of the period, I suppose, Aunt Augusta? LADY BRA The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his domestic life. But I have no doubt his name would appear in any military directory. JACK The Army Lists of the last forty years are here. These delightful records should have been my constant study. [Rushes to bookcase and tears the books out.] M. Generals... Mallam, Maxbohm, Magley, what ghastly names they have-Markby, Migsby, Mobbs, Moncrieff, Lieutenant 1840, Captain, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, General 1869, Christian names, Ernest, John. [Puts book very quietly down and speaks quite calmly.] I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn’t I? Well, it is Ernest after all. I mean it naturally is Ernest. LADY BRA Yes, I remember now that the General was called Ernest. I knew I had some particular reason for disliking the name. GWEN Ernest! My own Ernest! I felt from the first that you could have no other name! JACK Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me? GWEN I can. For I feel that you are sure to change. JACK My own one! |
