The Cabinet Minister Part 56

Vixen!

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

Bah!

MR. JOSEPH LEBANON.

Bah!

[LEBANON goes out. MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE throws herself on her knees beside MACPHAIL.]

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

How do you feel now?

MACPHAIL.

Well, its tingling.

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

Tingling! You bear it like a hero.

MACPHAIL.

I appreciate the compliment, but I'm thinking I'm only a bit singed.

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

Ah, but why, why do you indulge in these reckless sports?

MACPHAIL.

I was merely sitting in the drag looking at the sky.

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

Sitting in the drag looking at the sky! How foolhardy!

MACPHAIL.

Whereupon your brother, without a word of warning, blazed away at my knee.

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

Ah, don't describe it! Suppose you had had your head on your knee!

LADY MACPHAIL.

[Outside.] Take me to Colin!

MACPHAIL.

My mother!

MRS. GAYl.u.s.tRE.

[To herself.] Drat your mother.

[She stands with her handkerchief to her eyes. LADY MACPHAIL enters with EGIDIA, the DOWAGER, LADY EUPHEMIA, and VALENTINE.]

EGIDIA.

Sir Colin!

DOWAGER.

[Sitting at writing-table.] I'll telegraph to Sir George McHarness, the surgeon.

LADY MACPHAIL.

Now let the wail of the lament waken the echoes of black Ben-Muchty!

MACPHAIL.

[Rising from the chair.] It's not at all necessary, mother.

EGIDIA.

He can stand!

DOWAGER.

[Writing.] "Bring--chloroform--and knives."

LADY MACPHAIL.

Ah, Colin, lad, why did we ever quit the gray sh.o.r.es of Loch-na-Doich?

MACPHAIL.

I'll go upstairs and bathe my knee, mother.

[LADY MACPHAIL leads him.]

EGIDIA.

He can walk!