'It was awfully good of you to give me supper, Mr Prosser,' he said.
'I've enjoyed it tremendously.'
'Come again,' said Mr Prosser. 'I'm afraid you're disappointed about
the play?'
Owen forced a smile.
'Oh, no, that's all right,' he said. 'It can't be helped.'
Mr Prosser half turned, then thrust his head through the window again.
'I knew there was something I had forgotten to say,' he said. 'I ought
to have told you that the play was produced in America before it came
to London. It ran two seasons in New York and one in Chicago, and there
are three companies playing it still on the road. Here's my card. Come
round and see me tomorrow. I can't tell you the actual figures
off-hand, but you'll be all right. You'll have pots o' money.'
OUT OF SCHOOL
Mark you, I am not defending James Datchett. I hold no brief for James.
On the contrary, I am very decidedly of the opinion that he should not
have done it. I merely say that there were extenuating circumstances.
Just that. Ext. circ. Nothing more.
Let us review the matter calmly and judicially, not condemning James
off-hand, but rather probing the whole affair to its core, to see if we
can confirm my view that it is possible to find excuses for him.
We will begin at the time when the subject of the Colonies first showed
a tendency to creep menacingly into the daily chit-chat of his Uncle
Frederick.
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