THE GENTLEMAN (yawning and giving up the paper as a bad job).
Waiter!

WAITER. Sir? (coming down C.)

THE GENTLEMAN. Are you quite sure Mrs. Clandon is coming back before
lunch?

WAITER. Quite sure, sir. She expects you at a quarter to one, sir.
(The gentleman, soothed at once by the waiter's voice, looks at him with
a lazy smile. It is a quiet voice, with a gentle melody in it that
gives sympathetic interest to his most commonplace remark; and he speaks
with the sweetest propriety, neither dropping his aitches nor misplacing
them, nor committing any other vulgarism. He looks at his watch as he
continues) Not that yet, sir, is it? 12:43, sir. Only two minutes
more to wait, sir. Nice morning, sir?

THE GENTLEMAN. Yes: very fresh after London.

WAITER. Yes, sir: so all our visitors say, sir. Very nice family,
Mrs. Clandon's, sir.

THE GENTLEMAN. You like them, do you?

WAITER. Yes, sir. They have a free way with them that is very
taking, sir, very taking indeed, sir: especially the young lady and
gentleman.