Chains: A Play in Four ActsSidgwick & Jackson, Limited, 1913 - 80 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
afraid awfully beastly Brisbane Canada CHAR CHARLEY comes Charley's Colonies Count your blessings course curtains daresay dear father FENWICK fire fool FOSTER Freddy front room girl give glass house go to Australia going to leave gone Good-bye grass widower heard impatiently jolly kisses last night laughing LESLIE LILY enters LILY goes lodger looking round luck MAGGIE goes marry Walter mean Miss Maggie Molesey's morning mother nant never nice old chap parlour Pause PERCY MASSEY piano pipe Postman's knock pretty pulls Re-enter rises safe shaking hands shout silly sing sitting sitting-room sleeping sorry sort stands stay suddenly suppose sure talk tell TENNANT goes thanks There's thing thought throw tired to-day to-night told turning UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN voice want to go wants to leave What's the matter Where's Charley Wilson window worry
Popular passages
Page 37 - O Woman ! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made, When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou ! — Scarce were the piteous accents said, When, with the Baron's casque, the maid To the nigh streamlet ran.
Page 59 - I! — so does everybody! CHARLEY. But they shouldn't — PERCY. You don't mean to suggest, I hope, that we ought to like our work, do you? MASSEY. Do you suppose I like plumbing? Do you think I ever did? No, but I stuck to it, and now look at me, got a nice little bit in the bank and bought my own house. [Looks proudly round.] Of course, I hated it, just as you do. ^ MAGGIE. Then why didn't you try something else, daddy? MASSEY. I like that! What could I do? I was taught plumbing. We don't have...
Page 64 - When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
Page 80 - Lil. [Fie kisses her.] LILY. Good-bye, dear. [He picks up his silk hat and gloves and puts the hat on as he reaches the door. LILY runs to the door.] Good-bye. CHARLEY [from outside].
Page 47 - ... beside LILY]. Oh, no! He's not coming. That's all. Lily and I are grass widows. It's a very nice feeling. MASSEY. It's all right about you, but Lil looks a bit off. You've got a cold. Your eyes are red. LILY. Yes, father. MRS. M. You've dropped some bread and butter on the carpet, Alfred. MASSEY [irritably]. Of course I have! I knew I should. MAGGIE [running to pick it up]. Percy hasn't come back with Sybil yet, dad. We expect they're sitting in the Park. MASSEY [his attention taken from his...
Page 20 - I was thinking this morning, dear, that perhaps we could take two boarders. It would help a little. That little room at the back, over the scullery, would do nicely with a single bed. CHARLEY. That's where I keep my cuttings and things.
Page 14 - I'm not, particularly. Lily Maggie! Maggie (walking up and down) That's funny now. I didn't mean to say that. It just came. (A pause.) How queer! (A pause.) Well, it's the truth, anyway. At least, it's not quite true. When I came here today I was awfully happy about it — I am fond of him at least - I — well — he's very nice you know. (Irritably.) What did you want to start this for, Lil?
Page 61 - ... sometimes? We're all so jolly frightened — we've got no spunk — that's where the others get the hold over us — we slog on day after day and when they cut our wages down we take it as meek as Moses. We're not men, we're machines. Next week I've got my choice — either to take less money to keep my job or to chuck it and try something else. You say — everybody says — keep the job. I expect I shall — I'ma coward like all of you — but what I want to know is, why can'ta man have a fit...
Page 7 - It's a bit risky, isn't it? TENNANT. Of course it's risky. But who wouldn't have a little risk instead of that beastly hole every day for years? Scratch, scratch, scratch, and nothing in the end, mind you? CHARLEY [ironically]. You might become a junior partner. TENNANT [ignoring the remark]. Suppose I stay there. They'll raise the screw every year till I get what they think is enough for me. Then you just stick. I suppose I should marry and have a little house somewhere, and grind on.
Page 38 - I'm going Miss Frost's way. SYBIL [much surprised]. Are you really? MAGGIE. How extraordinary! [Much kissing between SYBIL, LILY, and MAGGIE. SYBIL and PERCY go out.] LILY. She's so sweet, isn't she? And Percy's so awfully gone. MAGGIE [as they start clearing away the dishes]. Very. So he was over Daisy Mallock and Ruby Denis — and who's the other girl with the hair? LILY. The hair? What do you mean? MAGGIE. The one with the hair all over her eyes — nice hair, too.