st doubles
over from pain.</i>

     Not you.

     <i>Betsy looks at him.</i>

     Stop whining and wipe your nose, it's awfully red. You look ridiculous.

     <i>He swings around,  moves  all the way up to  the footlights,  turns his
back to the audience and addresses the lot of them.</i>

     Well, hello there, ladies and gentlemen! Smug ladies and  kindly little
gentlemen!

     <i>A pause.</i>

     <b>DE MAISSE</b>
     I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'd better leave for a while, I think. This is
very stressful for me.

     <i>Chris falls down, raises himself on an elbow.</i>

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     Wobbly.

     <i>William rushes to him, knees.</i>

     I'm frightened a little, Wobbly. Anyway, please treat her gently.

     <b>WILLIAM</b>
     Whom?

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     Oh,  don't be so dim, Wobbly. This  isn't the time. She deserves to  be
treated gently. ....I  think. There's an art  to  being  a woman's  lover, I
suppose. You know it. I don't.

     <b>WILLIAM</b>
     What do you mean?

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     You  know what  I mean.  Caressing them,  kissing  them, being  gentle.
Gentle. I wanted to be gentle to her. She wouldn't let me. She was always so
shy, so  shy. You know? That's what's always been missing  in my scribbling.
No, I wouldn't touch her. Wouldn't force myself on her. Couldn't. She can be
so beautiful, so vulnerable.

     <b>WILLIAM</b>
     There were others.

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     No. I've never slept with a woman in my entire life. Except, of course,
in my imagination. Doesn't  matter.  I got stuck last night. I was writing a
new play,  and there  was this monologue. The guy  is standing on  a  cliff,
looking over the sea. The last two  lines are  supposed to rhyme. I couldn't
find  the  rhyme.  The word  is  fleece. He looks over  the  sea,  and says,
something, something, ivory fleece.

     <i>William thinks.</i>

     <b>WILLIAM</b>
     Peace.

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     Too trivial.

     <b>WILLIAM</b>
     Er.... Timepiece. Police. Cease.

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     Lease. Greece. Oh, you so hopeless, Wobbly.

     <b>WILLIAM</b>
     Caprice.

     <i>Chris struggles to rise to his feet.</i>

     <b>CHRIS</b>
     Exactly.
     <i>(giggles)</i>
     Caprice.

     <i>He falls face down and remains motionless. A pause.</i>

     <i>CURTAIN</i>
     <i>FINIS</i>