......... In Plain Clothes
The action passes in Geofrey March's House, Highgate-Spring-time.
ACT I. Thursday morning. The dining-room-after breakfast.
ACT II. Thursday, a fortnight later. The dining-room after lunch.
ACT III. The same day. The dining-room-after dinner.
ACT I
The MARCH'S dining-room opens through French windows on one of those
gardens which seem infinite, till they are seen to be coterminous
with the side walls of the house, and finite at the far end, because
only the thick screen of acacias and sumachs prevents another house
from being seen. The French and other windows form practically all
the outer wall of that dining-room, and between them and the screen
of trees lies the difference between the characters of Mr and Mrs
March, with dots and dashes of Mary and Johnny thrown in. For
instance, it has been formalised by MRS MARCH but the grass has not
been cut by MR MARCH, and daffodils have sprung up there, which MRS
MARCH desires for the dining-room, but of which MR MARCH says: "For
God's sake, Joan, let them grow." About half therefore are now in a
bowl on the breakfast table, and the other half still in the grass,
in the compromise essential to lasting domesticity.
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