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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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427 good part. Mr Johnson will take care of that.’ ‘Hallo!’ said Nicholas, starting. ‘I--’ ‘On Monday morning,’ repeated Mr Crummles, raising his voice, to drown the unfortunate Mr Johnson’s remonstrance; ‘that’ll do, ladies and gentlemen.’ The ladies and gentlemen required no second notice to quit; and, in a few minutes, the theatre was deserted, save by the Crummles family, Nicholas, and Smike. ‘Upon my word,’ said Nicholas, taking the manager aside, ‘I don’t think I can be ready by Monday.’ ‘Pooh, pooh,’ replied Mr Crummles. ‘But really I can’t,’ returned Nicholas; ‘my invention is not accustomed to these demands, or possibly I might produce--’ ‘Invention! what the devil’s that got to do with it!’ cried the manager hastily. ‘Everything, my dear sir.’ ‘Nothing, my dear sir,’ retorted the manager, with evident impatience. ‘Do you understand French?’ ‘Perfectly well.’ ‘Very good,’ said the manager, opening the table drawer, and giving a roll of paper from it to Nicholas. ‘There! Just turn that into English, and put your name on the title-page. Damn me,’ said Mr Crummles, angrily, ‘if I haven’t often said that I wouldn’t have a man or woman in my company that wasn’t master of the language, so that they might learn it from the original, and play it in English, and save all this trouble and expense.’ Nicholas smiled and pocketed the play. ‘What are you going to do about your lodgings?’ said Mr Crummles. |
