Hippanthigh? How do you do? Pleased to see
you.
HIPPANTHIGH: I wished to speak with you, Mr. Sladder, if you will permit
me.
SLADDER: Certainly, Mr. Hippanthigh, certainly. Take a chair.
HIPPANTHIGH: Thank you, sir. I think I would sooner stand.
SLADDER: Please yourself. Please yourself.
HIPPANTHIGH: I wished to speak with you alone, sir.
SLADDER: Alone, eh? Alone? (_Aside to_ SPLURGE.) It's usual, eh? (_To_
HIPPANTHIGH.) Alone, of course, yes. You've come to call, haven't you.
(_Exit_ SPLURGE.) Can I offer you--er, er--calling's not much in my
line, you know--but what I mean is--will you have a bottle of champagne?
HIPPANTHIGH: Mr. Sladder, I've come to speak with you because I believe
it to be my duty to do so. I have hesitated to come, but when for
particular reasons it became most painful to me to do so, then I knew
that it was my clear duty, and I have come.
SLADDER: O, yes, what they call a duty call. O, yes, quite so. Yes,
exactly.
HIPPANTHIGH: Mr. Sladder, many of my parishioners are acquainted with
the thing that you sell as bread. (_From the moment of_ HIPPANTHIGH'S
_entry till now_ SLADDER, _over-cheerful and anxious, has been
struggling to do and say the right thing through all the complications
of a visit; but now that the note of Business has been sounded he
suddenly knows where he is and becomes alert and stern, and all there.
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