DOCTORS OF PHILOSOPHY
MRS.
S.:
Think it was a bomb, the way you was going on. I suppose
it's a bed-jacket. Now take it easy, Mrs. D.
CATHERINE
(holds up nightdress):
It's a nightdress.
A
beautiful
transparent feminine honeymoon nightdress.
MRS.
S.:
That's torn it. Take a seat, Mrs. D.
LEONORA:
If
you don't like it, I'll keep it for myself and buy you
something else.
CATHERINE:
A
sexy little, seductive little ... Thank you, Leonora.
You always give me something suitable for bed. Well, I suppose
one spends a lot of one's life in bed, so it's quite a good idea.
Nobody ever gives me a book, for instance, because it wouldn't be
sensible. They know very well I haven't got time to read any book,
except classics prescribed for the fourth form, even
if
I had the
capacity to read one. I suppose you realise, Leonora, that
if
I had
cared to make a career of scholarship I would have been a far better
palaeographist than you are a classicist.
MRS.
S.:
Leonora,
if
you done this on purpose, you'll get a judg–
ment on you.
LEONORA: Catherine, I'm appalled. Tell me what book you would
like to have and give me back the nightdress. It's the sort of thing
I like to wear myself.
CATHERINE
(tossing the nightdress on top of the box of old clothes)
:
You may add it to your niece's trousseau, Mrs.
S.
MRS.
S.:
There's a way to give, Mrs. D., and a way not to give.
However, I make allowance for the conflict raging at present with–
in you between your Ph.D. that was and the nuptial significance
of the nightie in question.
LEONORA: This is a pathetic fuss, Catherine. I didn't realise you were
quite so touchy on the subject. You should have a holiday.
CATHERINE: I should never have got married, Leonora. You were
right. It was a mistake.
LEONORA: You could not have stood a celibate life. You would
always have been divided.
CATHERINE: I'll tell you where I made the mistake. Marriage - yes.
But I shouldn't have married into the academic world. Can you
imagine what it has felt like, as a scholar, to be the mere chattel of
another scholar for all these years?
