MRS BUILDER. [Arranging the flowers] Aren't you going to the office
this morning?
BUILDER. Well, no, I was going to take a couple of days off. If you
feel at the top of your form, take a rest--then you go on feeling at the
top. [He looks at her, as if calculating] What do you say to looking up
Athene?
MRS BUILDER. [Palpably astonished] Athene? But you said you'd done
with her?
BUILDER. [Smiling] Six weeks ago; but, dash it, one can't have done with
one's own daughter. That's the weakness of an Englishman; he can't keep
up his resentments. In a town like this it doesn't do to have her living
by herself. One of these days it'll get out we've had a row. That
wouldn't do me any good.
MRS BUILDER. I see.
BUILDER. Besides, I miss her. Maud's so self-absorbed. It makes a big
hole in the family, Julia. You've got her address, haven't you?
MRS BUILDER. Yes. [Very still] But do you think it's dignified, John?
BUILDER. [Genially] Oh, hang dignity! I rather pride myself on knowing
when to stand on my dignity and when to sit on it. If she's still crazy
about Art, she can live at home, and go out to study.
MRS BUILDER. Her craze was for liberty.
BUILDER.
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