)
FIDDLER (playing a few notes). Do you know this?
DAUGHTER. Yes, I think so. (She plays. At the end of it the TALKER
finds himself bowing to the applause.)
TALKER. And now, Madame, you have had a sample of all our poor
talents, save and except that paltry talent of mine which in other
company concludes such a performance. I pray you tell me what you
think of the entertainment.
MOTHER. I have enjoyed it immensely, good Master Johannes. And if
you did wish to exercise that talent of yours, of which so far we
have only heard--
TALKER. Nay, nay, Madame, I beg you.
MOTHER. Then, Sir, I offer you my grateful thanks for your
entertainment.
DAUGHTER. And I too.
TALKER. Ladies, you are too kind--er--(he hesitates)--er--
MOTHER. Yes?
TALKER, The fact is, Madame, that now we approach or, so to speak,
draw nigh or adjacent--in other words, Madame, we are perilously
approximate--
FIDDLER. Tell her straight out.
MOTHER. Tell her what?
FIDDLER. What we've come for.
SINGER. Master Johannes, Madam, is so accustomed when he goes round
with the hat to disguise under it flow of words the fact that money
is as necessary to an artist as applause, that he has lost the
habit of saying anything in less than ten sentences.
TALKER (mournfully). And yet I am a taciturn man.
MOWER.
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