LAURA. Are you living with Isabel?
WILLIAM. She comes in occasionally to see how I'm getting on.
LAURA. And how are you 'getting on'--without me?
WILLIAM. Oh, I manage--somehow.
LAURA. Are you living a proper life, William?
WILLIAM. Well, I'm _here_, my dear; what more do you want to know?
LAURA. There's a great deal I want to know. But I wish you'd come in and
shut the door, instead of standing out there in the passage.
JULIA. The door _is_ shut, Laura.
LAURA. Then I don't call it a door.
WILLIAM (_trying to make things pleasant_). When is a door not a
door? When it's a parent.
LAURA. William, I want to talk seriously. Do you know that when you died
you left a lot of debts I didn't know about?
WILLIAM. I didn't know about them either, my dear. But if you had, it
wouldn't have made any difference.
LAURA. Yes, it would! I gave you a very expensive funeral.
WILLIAM. That was to please yourself, my dear; it didn't concern me.
LAURA. Have you no self-respect? I've been at my own funeral to-day, let
me tell you!
WILLIAM. Have you, my dear? Rather trying, wasn't that?
LAURA. Yes, it was. They've gone and put me beside you; and now I begin to
wish they hadn't!
WILLIAM. Go and haunt them for it!
(_At this Julia deigns a slight chuckle._)
LAURA (_abruptly getting back to her own_). I had to go into a
smaller house, William. And people knew it was because you'd left me badly
off.
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