The Animal Kingdom

Owen:
On ordinary terms, Tom doesn't seem to have got very far. He's wasted his life from the cradle.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Aaw, it must have been pathetic to see him wasting at three!

Rufus Collier:
I assure you his genius was shown even then. I send him to Harvard, he lasts two years there. I send him to Oxford, he commutes from Paris. I put him into a bank, he... The whole world is at the feet of that boy, the whole world. And all he's ever done is to run from it.

Daisy Sage:
You're a free man you know, Tommy, always have been with me, no questions asked, but oh, please, Mexico in June, together, because listen... No, don't look at me. Look in the other way. [Takes a deep breath] On the boat coming over, the sweetest small boy, about two, and I got crazy about him and I want one. I want one *badly*. So would you please be good enough to marry me?

Tom Collier:
[Is startled and stands straight up]

Daisy Sage:
Oh, you always said you wanted to and I wouldn't let you. Well, it isn't terribly serious, not a life sentence, you know, just for a little while if you like. Will be such a dirty trick on him if you didn't.

Daisy Sage:
Behold, the bridegroom cometh. And no oil for my lamp, as usual. A foolish virgin me. Oh, foolish anyway.

Tom Collier:
I thought for a long time we have been out of page so far as... so far as...

Daisy Sage:
Wanting each other goes?

Tom Collier:
Well, haven't we?

Daisy Sage:
Speak for yourself, Tom.

Tom Collier:
You too, Daisy. You first, I think.

Daisy Sage:
Well, it's true that side of it was never so much to us, not in comparison, not... well not after those first crazy months. But I... I thought that was natural. I was even glad. Glad that it was all our needs that held us together. So closely. Not a claim. Never a claim but so closely.

Grace:
Well, I guess I'd better be barging along, as they say. I, er, I am sure it's getting cold by the minute.

Tom Collier:
Yes, it's almost cold enough to... You know, I, I think we'd best bring in the brass monkeys tonight, don't you?

Tom Collier:
[Holding Cecilia's hands and admiring her] Oh, Cee darling, what a marvellous object you are.

[They kiss]

Tom Collier:
Oh, I feel good.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
So do I.

Tom Collier:
Do you?

Tom Collier:
[Ogling her from head to foot]

Tom Collier:
I love you, Cee.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Stop it, Tom. You're embarrassing me.

Tom Collier:
Why?

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
I feel quite naked.

Daisy Sage:
For all our big talk, we both still belong to the animal kingdom.

Owen:
There, there, now. Don't worry. Tom will be along any second.

Rufus Collier:
If what I think is true, I hope he never comes along.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
What?

Rufus Collier:
Well, I'll, I'll tell you what's in my mind. Heaven knows I don't want it there. That girl he's been living with for the last three years...

Owen:
Just a minute, sir.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
It's alright Owen.

Rufus Collier:
Good Jupiter, it's no secret, is it? Who is she, anyway? What is she?

Owen:
An extremely nice girl. Hard working. Talented. She, she draws for one of the fashion magazines and very successfully. She left three months ago for her magazine's Paris office for an indefinite stay.

Rufus Collier:
Faith is a beautiful thing.

Rufus Collier:
Love will conquer all, yes, yes, of course. But, but forgive me a few doubts.

Tom Collier:
Tell me, darling, did you really say you'd marry me?

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
I'm afraid I did.

Tom Collier:
Oh, heaven help us both. Just this one marriage please. You know I haven't been very good about marriage. I was exposed to a very bad case of it as a baby. We must make a grand go of it.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Oh, we shall. Never you fear.

Tom Collier:
Well, you-you just do everything I say and it'll be alright.

Tom Collier:
With pleasure, sir!

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Well, Cee, for a long time I've known, known intimately, a girl whose been very important to me.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Yes.

Tom Collier:
Daisy's done more for me than anyone in this world. She's the best friend I've got. I believe she always will be. I'd hate terribly to lose her. It's-it's been a queer sort of arrangement. Or, no arrangement at all, really. There's been no idea of marriage between us.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
I see.

Tom Collier:
Cee, we've, well we've been everything possible to each other, of course. But,

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Yes, Tom.

Tom Collier:
At the same time, as free as air. I mean, there's never been any feeling of conventional responsibility towards each other, involved in it.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
I can understand that.

Tom Collier:
Can you, Cee? Because, I never could.

Daisy Sage:
Goodbye, you, Tom Collier.

Tom Collier:
Goodbye? Until when?

Daisy Sage:
Doomsday, my darling.

Grace:
Oh, well. I suppose publishers have to hobnob with all sorts of queer people.

Grace:
I read the new book you published last week, Tom.

Tom Collier:
Oh, yes? What-what do you think of it?

Grace:
Superlative, my dear. I was simply ravished.

Tom Collier:
If you're ever hard up, though, you know were to come.

'Red' Regan - the majordomo:
That goes both ways.

Tom Collier:
Red, do you ever think about your future?

'Red' Regan - the majordomo:
I guess where I'll go, it'll be plenty hot.

Daisy Sage:
Job? Oh, the job! Oh, I gave that up last winter. A trifle, eh, shall we say, quixotic of me.

Daisy Sage:
Why do you suppose she asked us out here, anyway? Just to prove we don't belong?

Joe Fiske:
Oh, she isn't a bad sort. You know, I had quite a long talk with her tonight. She seems like a very nice, attractive woman.

Daisy Sage:
Hmm, so did Delilah.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Oh, sweet innocent... I should think you'd know by now, that she was just a promiscuous little - oh well.

Owen:
You're a strange girl, Cee. You're a pretty cruel one too.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Not at all. In fact, I don't see why Tom and she shouldn't be just as good friends as, well, as you and I are.

Owen:
Their history is a little different.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Why? Don't you like our history?

Owen:
What there is of it. A trifle uneventful, don't you think? Or, should we simply call it, lacking in excitement.

Owen:
Well, you know there's a thing called - legal ethics.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
There's a thing called - friendship.

Tom Collier:
Cee, your eyes are so bright.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Oh, eat you. You're seeing things.

Tom Collier:
Cee.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Yes, dear.

Tom Collier:
You know, a little love is no love.

Tom Collier:
I know, the Florentine! A private room at the Florentine.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
What's that?

Tom Collier:
Its a sort of hotel. Run by a woman called Flora Conover.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Sounds wicked.

Tom Collier:
It used to be the best place in London.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Place? What sort of place?

Tom Collier:
Twenty guineas.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Twenty guineas?

Tom Collier:
On the mantle piece.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
What are you talking about?

Tom Collier:
In advance, at that.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
Rather expensive, wasn't it?

Tom Collier:
Well, one went to Flora's to celebrate and the food was good, the waiter discreet, the wine excellent, the lady most artful.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
I don't care to hear about it, thank you.

Tom Collier:
Oh, Cee, my lovely Cee, where are you? What's become of you?

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
We shouldn't. You know we shouldn't.

Tom Collier:
But, eh, we seem to be.

Cecilia 'Cee' Henry Collier:
All at once, I feel terribly naughty, somehow.

Tom Collier:
Champagne, the friend of lovers.