(When the curtain rises Mrs. Slater is seen laying the table. She is a vigorous, plump,
red-faced, vulgar woman prepared to do any amount of straight talking to get her own way.
She is in black. She goes to the window, opens it and calls into the street)
Mrs. Slater : (sharply) Victoria, Victoria! D'ye hear? Come in, will you?
(Victoria a precocious girl often dressed in colours, enters.)
Mrs. Slater: I'm amazed at you, Victoria. I really am. Be off now, and change your dress
before your Aunt Elizabeth and your Uncle Ben come. It would never do for
them to find you in colours with grandfather lying dead, upstairs.
Victoria: What are they coming for? They haven't been here for ages.
Mrs. Slater: They're coming to talk over poor grandpa's affairs. Your father sent them a
telegram as soon as we found he was dead. (A noise is heard)
(Henry Slater, a stooping, heavy man with a drooping moustache, enters. He
is wearing a black tailcoat, grey trousers, a black tie and a bowler hat.)
Henry: I'm wondering if they'll come at all. When you and Elizabeth quarrelled, she said
she'd never set foot in your house again.
Mrs. Slater: She'll come fast enough after her share of what our father's left. You know how
hard she can be when she likes. Where she gets it from I can't tell