.. D'you mind if I ask what your ailments are?
MRS. BRAMSON: ... Hadn't you better sit down?
DAN (_sitting_): Thank you.
MRS. BRAMSON: Well, I have the most terrible palpitations. I--
DAN: Palpitations! (_Whistling_.) But the way you get about!
MRS. BRAMSON: Oh?
DAN: It's a pretty bad thing to have, you know. D'you know that nine
women out of ten in your position'd be just sittin' down givin' way?
MRS. BRAMSON: Would they?
DAN: Yes, they would! I do know, as a matter of fact. I've known
people with palpitations. Somebody very close to me ... (_After a
pause, soberly_) They're dead now ...
MRS. BRAMSON (_startled_): Oh!
DAN: My mother, as a matter of fact ...
_With finely controlled emotion, practically indistinguishable from
the real thing_.
I can just remember her.
MRS. BRAMSON: Oh?
DAN: She died when I was six. I know that, because my dad died two
years before that.
MRS. BRAMSON (_vaguely_): Oh.
DAN (_studying her_): As a matter o' fact--
MRS. BRAMSON: Yes?
DAN: Oh, no, it's a daft thing--
MRS.
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