[Footnote 47: Clayton Hamilton, _Seen on the Stage_, New York, 1920, p. 238; p. 239.]
_A Night at an Inn_ is one of Dunsany's contributions to the revival of romance in our generation. In an article published ten years ago, called _Romance and the Modern Stage_, he wrote: "Romance is so inseparable from life that all we need, to obtain romantic drama, is for the dramatist to find any age or any country where life is not too thickly veiled and cloaked with puzzles and conventions, in fact to find a people that is not in the agonies of self-consciousness. For myself, I think it is simpler to imagine such a people, as it saves the trouble of reading to find a romantic age, or the trouble of making a journey to lands where there is no press.... The kind of drama that we most need to-day seems to me to be the kind that will build new worlds for the fancy; for the spirit, as much as the body, needs sometimes a change of scene."
A. E. SCOTT-FORTESQUE (The Toff), _a dilapidated gentleman._ WILLIAM JONES (Bill) } ALBERT THOMAS } _merchant sailors._ JACOB SMITH (Sniggers) } First Priest of Klesh. Second Priest of Klesh. Third Priest of Klesh. Klesh.
_The curtain rises on a room in an inn. SNIGGERS and BILL are talking, THE TOFF is reading a paper. ALBERT sits a little apart._
SNIGGERS. And how much longer will he keep us here?
BILL. And a pretty penny it cost us when he rented the pub.
SNIGGERS. 'Ow long did 'e rent the pub for?
BILL. 'Ow long did you rent the pub for, Toffy? [_THE TOFF continues to read a sporting paper; he takes no notice of what is said._]
SNIGGERS. Those clever ones are the beggars to make a muddle. Their plans are clever enough, but they don't work, and then they make a mess of things much worse than you or me.
BILL. He's keeping us here because here those niggers can't find us. The three heathen priests what was looking for us so. But we want to go and sell our ruby soon.
ALBERT. Because I gave those black devils the slip in Hull.
ALBERT. The slip, all three of them. The fellows with the gold spots on their foreheads. I had the ruby then and I give them the slip in Hull.
ALBERT. I had the ruby and they were following me....
BILL. Who told them you had the ruby? You didn't show it.