- [Daphne arrives for rehearsal, bright and cheerful]
- Daphne Ray: Oh, George, darling, are you going upstairs?
- George: No.
- Daphne Ray: Well, on your way, would you mind shutting Dumpy in the dressing room. Thank you.
- [she hands him her dog]
- Daphne Ray: [she kisses the dog] Sweetie pie. Go with Uncle Georgie. And if you ask Uncle Georgie very nicely, he might give you a little drinkie-winkie.
- George: [mutters] Cor blimey.
- Jerry Winterton: Please may I be sickie-wickie?
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: I wonder if I might borrow your script for a moment.
- [Catherine hands Harry her script]
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: Thank you.
- [he leafs through the script, turning over page after page]
- Catherine Beckwith: Are you looking for something?
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: The plot, madam.
- Catherine Beckwith: Dress, Scenery or Lighting plot? I have them all handy.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: The plot, madam, of Tarnished Gold. Most plays have them. Yours seems to be the exception. Ah, I see the beginning of a plot on page 27 - and we're now on page 1.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: Are you presuming to criticize my methods of production?
- Jackson: I can't. I've never seen them.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: When he forced me to stage "Tarnished Gold," we had a little chat. I told him what I thought about it. He told me what he thought about it. Oddly enough, our views differ. However, he did agree that if I should find a major fault, I should do my best to rectify it.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: When Mr. Bellamy forced me to stage your travesty...
- Catherine Beckwith: Tragedy!
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: It may well prove so, madam.
- Catherine Beckwith: Mr. Blacker, I have reached the limit of myself. I shall telephone my nephew.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: Ask him if he knows anything for the two-thirty, will you dear?
- Sarah Stebbins: I do hope I'm not interrupting.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: Oh, not at all. This is strictly visitor's day.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: The audience, madam, will have left in a body after the first act. Forgive me, I shouldn't have said that. I'm overwrought. It's all gabble, gabble, gabble. Why do people have to write plays? Why do I have to direct them?
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: I would have expected better of you, Jacko. Are you a stage manager or a fifth columnist?
- Harry's Landlady: [after entering theater, stomping up on stage and removing the lampshade which Blacker had retrieved from his apartment house] I've told you about this before.
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: I can afford to ignore such vulgar interruptions. Strike my landlady off the "Free" list, and carry on.
- Catherine Beckwith: Well, that was a very kind thought of you. And did you find a major fault?
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: So far, madam, only one.
- Catherine Beckwith: Good. What?
- W.H. 'Harry' Derwent Blacker: The first 27 pages.