The Drunken Feathers

Scene III

(MRS. FITZHERBERT's house is shown, first the exterior, then the drawing room. LADY LINDSAY has joined MRS. FITZHERBERT for tea.)

LADY LINDSAY

You haven't accepted the invitation, surely.

MRS. FITZHERBERT

I have, but only on the condition that you would accompany me.

(LADY LINDSAY sighs and laughs a little, pitying her friend.)

MRS. FITZHERBERT

You will come, Anne?

LADY LINDSAY

I will come... But I first want to establish you understand why the prince has invited you.

MRS. FITZHERBERT

He invited me because he felt obliged to, seeing as I am new to London and haven't many friends.

MRS. FITZHERBERT

He invited me because he felt obliged to, seeing as I am new to London and haven't many friends.

LADY LINDSAY

Maria, the prince asked you to come because he loves you!

MRS. FITZHERBERT

(Laughs in disbelief)

Loves me? You would honestly have me believe the Prince of Wales is in love with me, plain and ordinary as I am, and approaching 30? I would think princes prefered young virginal girls much more attractive than myself.

LADY LINDSAY

Not this one. Every one of His Royal Highness' mistresses has exceeded him by at least three years, and nearly all were married or had been.

MRS. FITZHERBERT

(Uneasy)

Has the prince had many mistresses?

LADY LINDSAY

(Amused, laughing)

More than he has hairs on his head! Each time it is the same: he meets a lady, usually in court or the theatre, declares himself totally in love with her, and declares that he will go to the ends of the Earth to have her. The more his or her circumstances prevent them from being together, the more fervent his desire grows. After at last being together for several weeks or months, he tires of her, abandons her to ruin, finds another girl, and the whole cycle repeats itself. I am glad you have sense enough to resist the prince's advances, for nothing good can come from them.

(MRS. FITZHERBERT looks pensively down into her lap as she thinks about her previous marriages. Cut to SCENE IV.)