GEORGE. Yes. (He goes to him and shakes hands.) I'm sorry to be leaving
just as you come.

DR. JONATHAN. I'll be here when you return.

GEORGE. I hope so (a pause). You won't find Foxon Falls a bad old town.

DR. JONATHAN. And it will be a better one when you come back.

GEORGE. Why do you say that?

DR. JONATHAN (smiling). It seems a safe conjecture.

(Dr. JONATHAN is looking at the heap of articles on the floor.)

GEORGE (grinning, and not quite at ease). You might imagine I was
embarking in the gent's furnishing business, instead of going to war.
(He picks up the life-preserving suit.) Some friend of mother's told her
about this, and she insisted upon sending for it. I don't want to hurt
her feelings, but I can't take it, of course.

(He rolls it up and thrusts it under the sofa, upper left.)

You won't give me away?

DR. JONATHAN. Never!

GEORGE. Dad ought to be here in a minute, he's in there with old Timothy
Farrell, the moulder foreman. It seems that things are in a mess at the