leaves me to entertain them.
[Nurse Guinness returns with the tea-tray, which she places on the teak
table]. I have a second daughter who is, thank God, in a remote part of
the Empire with her numskull of a husband. As a child she thought the
figure-head of my ship, the Dauntless, the most beautiful thing
on earth. He resembled it. He had the same expression: wooden yet
enterprising. She married him, and will never set foot in this house
again.

NURSE GUINNESS [carrying the table, with the tea-things on it, to
Ellie's side]. Indeed you never were more mistaken. She is in England
this very moment. You have been told three times this week that she is
coming home for a year for her health. And very glad you should be to
see your own daughter again after all these years.

THE CAPTAIN. I am not glad. The natural term of the affection of the
human animal for its offspring is six years. My daughter Ariadne was
born when I was forty-six. I am now eighty-eight. If she comes, I am not
at home. If she wants anything, let her take it. If she asks for me, let
her be informed that I am extremely old, and have totally forgotten her.

NURSE GUINNESS. That's no talk to offer to a young lady. Here, ducky,
have some tea; and don't listen to him [she pours out a cup of tea].

THE CAPTAIN [rising wrathfully]. Now before high heaven they have given
this innocent child Indian tea: the stuff they tan their own leather
insides with. [He seizes the cup and the tea-pot and empties both into
the leathern bucket].

ELLIE [almost in tears]. Oh, please! I am so tired. I should have been
glad of anything.

NURSE GUINNESS. Oh, what a thing to do! The poor lamb is ready to drop.

THE CAPTAIN. You shall have some of my tea. Do not touch that fly-blown
cake: nobody eats it here except the dogs. [He disappears into the
pantry].

NURSE GUINNESS. There's a man for you! They say he sold himself to the
devil in Zanzibar before he was a captain; and the older he grows the
more I believe them.

A WOMAN'S VOICE [in the hall]. Is anyone at home? Hesione! Nurse! Papa!
Do come, somebody; and take in my luggage.

Thumping heard, as of an umbrella, on the wainscot.

NURSE GUINNESS. My gracious! It's Miss Addy, Lady Utterword, Mrs
Hushabye's sister: the one I told the captain about. [Calling]. Coming,
Miss, coming.

She carries the table back to its place by the door and is harrying out
when she is intercepted by Lady Utterword, who bursts in much fluste