CHARLES STEWART PARNELL (_Dethroned "King" of Ireland_)
KATHARINE PARNELL (_His wife: divorced wife of Captain O'Shea_)
A MAN (_Ex-valet to Captain O'Shea_)
A SERVANT
The King-maker
_Brighton. October_ 1891.
_In a comfortably furnished sitting-room, with windows looking upon the
sea-parade, a Woman of distinguished beauty sits reading beside the fire,
so intently occupied that she pays no heed to the entry of the Servant,
who unobtrusively lights the gas, draws down the blinds, and closes the
curtains. Then taking up a tea-tray, served for two, she retires, and the
reader is left alone. But not for long. The slam of the street-door causes
an attention which the coming and going of the Servant has failed to
arouse; and now, as the door opens, the brightened interest of her face
tells that, without seeing, she knows who is there. Quietly, almost
furtively, she lets fall the paper she has been reading, and turns to her
husband eyes of serene welcome, meeting confidently the sharp
interrogation of his glance_.
PARNELL. What are you doing?
KATHARINE. I was reading.
PARNELL. Yes? What?
KATHARINE. Those papers you just brought in.
PARNELL. And I told you not to.
KATHARINE (_smiling_). I was wilful and disobeyed.
PARNELL (_picking up the paper, and looking at it with contemptuous
disgust_). Why did you?
KATHARINE. Isn't "wilful" a sufficient answer, my dear?
(_And with a covert look of amusement she watches him tear and throw the
paper into the fire_.
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