Fashionable women who are
all in love with him. But he ran away from them to see me at the
National Gallery and persuade me to come with him for a drive
round Richmond Park in a taxi.
MRS HUSHABYE. My pettikins, you have been going it. It's
wonderful what you good girls can do without anyone saying a
word.
ELLIE. I am not in society, Hesione. If I didn't make
acquaintances in that way I shouldn't have any at all.
MRS HUSHABYE. Well, no harm if you know how to take care of
yourself. May I ask his name?
ELLIE [slowly and musically]. Marcus Darnley.
MRS HUSHABYE [echoing the music]. Marcus Darnley! What a splendid
name!
ELLIE. Oh, I'm so glad you think so. I think so too; but I was
afraid it was only a silly fancy of my own.
MRS HUSHABYE. Hm! Is he one of the Aberdeen Darnleys?
ELLIE. Nobody knows. Just fancy! He was found in an antique
chest--
MRS HUSHABYE. A what?
ELLIE. An antique chest, one summer morning in a rose garden,
after a night of the most terrible thunderstorm.
MRS HUSHABYE. What on earth was he doing in the chest? Did he get
into it because he was afraid of the lightning?
ELLIE. Oh, no, no: he was a baby. The name Marcus Darnley was
embroidered on his baby clothes. And five hundred pounds in gold.
MRS HUSHABYE [Looking hard at her].
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