[Captain lingers; sits down with a magazine in an arm chair near
table.]

LAURA. Aren't you coming in to supper?

CAPTAIN. No, thanks. I don't want anything.

LAURA. What, are you annoyed?

CAPTAIN. No, but I am not hungry.

LAURA. Come, or they will ask unnecessary questions--be good now.
You won't? Stay there then. [Goes.]

NURSE. Mr. Adolf! What is this all about?

CAPTAIN. I don't know what it is. Can you explain to me why you
women treat an old man as if he were a child?

NURSE. I don't understand it, but it must be because all you men,
great and small, are women's children, every man of you.

CAPTAIN. But no women are born of men. Yes, but I am Bertha's
father. Tell me, Margret, don't you believe it? Don't you?

NURSE. Lord, how silly you are. Of course you are your own child's
father. Come and eat now, and don't sit there and sulk. There,
there, come now.

CAPTAIN. Get out, woman. To hell with the hags. [Goes to private