The Winslow Boy

Scene: The drawing-room of a house in Courtfield Gardens, South Kensington, on a morning in July, at some period not long before the war of 1914-1918.

The furnishings betoken solid but not undecorative upper middle-class comfort.

On the rise of the curtain A BOY of about fourteen, dressed in the uniform of an Osborne naval cadet, is discovered. There is something rigid and tense in his attitude, and his face is blank and without expression.

There is the sound of someone in the hall. As the sound comes nearer, he looks despairingly round, as if contemplating flight. An elderly maid (VIOLET) comes in, and stops in astonishment at sight of him.

VIOLET. Master Ronnie!

Reassuringly.) No, of course you didn’t.

New Woman attitude.

I love John in every way that a woman can love a man, and far, far more than he loves me.

arthritis has been troubling me rather a lot, lately