bells playing far away, and the lights come up on_.



ACT I

_The sitting-room of Forest Corner_, MRS. BRAMSON'S _bungalow in
a forest in Essex, A fine morning in October.

Centre back, a small hall; in its left side the front door of the house
(throughout the play, "left" and "right" refer to the audience's left
and right). Thick plush curtains can be drawn across the entrance to
the hall; they are open at the moment. Windows, one on each side of the
hall, with window-seats and net curtains beyond which can be glimpsed
the pine-trees of the forest. In the left wall, upstage, a door leading
to the kitchen. In the left wall, downstage, the fireplace; above it, a
cretonne-covered sofa, next to a very solid cupboard built into the
wall; below it a cane armchair. In the right wall, upstage, a door
leading to _MRS. BRAMSON'S _bedroom. In the right wall, downstage,
wide-open paned doors leading to the sun-room. Right downstage, next
the sun-room, a large dining-table with four straight chairs round it.
Between the bedroom and the sun-room, a desk with books on it, a
cupboard below it, and a hanging mirror on the wall above. Above the
bedroom, a corner medicine cupboard. Between the hall and the right
window, an occasional table.

The bungalow is tawdry but cheerful; it is built entirely of wood, with
an oil lamp fixed in the wall over the occasional table. The room is
comfortably furnished, though in fussy and eccentric Victorian taste;
stuffed birds, Highland cattle in oils, antimacassars, and wax fruit