Look  alive  now,  look  alive!

(  Babette  enters. )

Bab.  Oh,  I  'ate  air.  I  ate  'air!  An'  she  'ave  spilt
de  table — Oh,  I  say — too  bad — too  bad — too  bad!  (pick-
ing up  the  things)  She  'ave  crack  'im — so  stoopid!  so
very  stoopid!      I  'ate  air!

(Bells  rings.)

Dat  is  Mistaire  'Ughie's  ring.      Oh,  he  will  catch  it  'ot
— so  'ot!  pretty  quick,  I  tell  'im!

(Goes  up  and  out  at  back.      Hall  door  heard  to  open
and  Hughie's  voice.)

Babette.     Hello,  Babette,  what's  all  the  bobbery?

Bab.     Oh,  mon  Dieu,  mon  Dieu,  mon  Dieu!

Hughie.  (enters)  Mon  Dieu-ing  ain't  enlightening,
Babette.  I  repeat,  what's  the  bobbery?  (he  looks
round  ot  the  disordered  room  )  Hello — been  havin'  a  bit
of  a  beano  here,  ain't  yon?

B.\B.    Beano!      Oh,  mon  Dieu!  dat  word  is  much  too


52  WHEN  WE  WERE  TWENTY-ONE.
little.  You  know  quite  soon — pretty  dam  quick.  Vas
Madame's  brougham  at  ze  door?

HuGHiE.     Yes.
Bab.  Good!  {she  goes  to  door)  Ze  carriage  is  wait-
ing,  Madame.
Kara.     Let  it  wait!

Bab.  (picks  up  some  broken  china)  Look,  she  crack
'im  in  her  rage.  I  sink  she  crack  you,  too,  pretty  dam
quiclt,  too.
HuGHiE.  Crack  me?  Really  that  seems  superfluous,
considering  she  broke  me  a  few  years  ago.  Again  I  en-
quire solicitously,  what  is  the  bobbery?

Bab.     {with  meaning)      I  think  you  know.
HuGHiE.     "Well,  if  you  put  it  like  that — I  think  I  do.
Bab.     She  sent  for  you,  eh?

HuGHiE.  To  be  sent  for  by  the  Firefly  is  a  distinc-
tion.
Bab.    This  time  it  is  an  extinction,  my  frien'.
HuGHiE.     Your  English  is  getting  quite  encyclopaedic.
