EGLANTINE (_sits at table, reading_). Oh, what dull trash! (_Throws magazine down._) Ah, me! I can take no interest even in Trollope. Life is a blank. (_Comes forward._) Did ever any girl suffer as I do? Nothing to do, nobody to see,--only father to talk to, and he deaf as a post! (_Sits and looks at vase of flowers._) Well, I'll not stand _this_. These flowers have been here four days. Disgraceful! (_Rings._) Jane! (_Rings again. Enter JANE with a letter, in flat._) Jane, how _can_ you be so neglectful? Look at these old dead flowers. Throw them away, and get me fresh at once.
JANE. Yes, miss. Your pa is not here, miss?
EGLANTINE (_jumps up_). No. Is it a caller?
EGLANTINE. Only a letter! oh, dear! Never any visitors; nothing but letters now, and none of them for me. I shall die, or go mad. (_Sits._)
JANE. Yes, miss: your pa is a very sot man, and won't never see no company, since he grew hard of hearing, three years ago. (_Takes the flowers from vase._)
EGLANTINE. O Jane! how can I bear it? Life is so dull, so dull! (_Sobs._)
JANE (_wiping lamp-glass_). Yes, miss. And think of me, miss: took into service for my voice, and obligated to holler at your pa all day long. Holler? Yes; yell and scream, I calls it.
EGLANTINE. Has nothing been heard from that aurist papa wrote to a month ago!
JANE. No, miss; not a word. Dear, dear! I shall be a dummy in six months, I'm sure. I hain't no more voice now than a frog.
EGLANTINE. Ha, ha! It's very sad, Jane. Ha, ha, ha!
JANE. Don't laugh at the misfortunate, Miss Eglantine: 'tain't lucky.
EGLANTINE. Forgive me, Jane: I didn't mean to. I believe I'm hysterical; and no wonder,--shut up by myself like this, at nineteen.
JANE. No wonder you finds it a bit dull, miss. I don't wonder at it,--not a mite.
EGLANTINE. And papa seems resolved to keep me unmarried. Half a dozen proposals already! and he's refused them all.
JANE. Yes, miss; so he have. He says regular, "Not the son-in-law for me." What kind does he expect, I wonder? A angel?
EGLANTINE. I'm afraid so, Jane. And it's got so bad that nobody now has the courage to offer, a refusal is so certain. (_Sobs._) Or else I'm sure that gentleman who danced the whole evening with me a month ago at Lady Thornton's--