[Any room in UNCLE JAMES'S house is furnished in heavy mid-Victorian
style; this particular morning-room is perhaps solider and more
respectable even than the others, from the heavy table in the middle
of it to the heavy engravings on the walls. There are two doors to
it. The one at the back opens into the hall, the one at the side
into the dining-room.]

[PHILIP comes from the hall and goes into the dining-room.
Apparently he finds nothing there, for he returns to the
morning-room, looks about him for a moment and then rings the bell.
It is ten o'clock, and he wants his breakfast. He picks up the
paper, and sits in a heavy armchair in front of the fire--a
pleasant-looking well-built person of twenty-three, with an air of
decisiveness about him. MARY, the parlour-maid, comes in.]

MARY. Did you ring, Master Philip?

PHILIP (absently). Yes; I want some breakfast, please, Mary.

MARY (coldly). Breakfast has been cleared away an hour ago.

PHILIP. Exactly. That's why I rang. You can boil me a couple of
eggs or something. And coffee, not tea.

MARY. I'm sure I don't know what Mrs. Higgins will say?

PHILIP (getting up). Who is Mrs. Higgins?

MARY. The cook. And she's not used to being put about like this.