[Pg 1]

CHAINS

ACT I

SCENE: Sitting-room at 55 Acacia Avenue. The principal articlesof furniture are the centre table, set for dinner for three, and a sideboard on the right.There are folding doors at the back, leading to the front room, partly hidden by curtains;on the left a low French window leading into the garden. On the right is a fire burning;and above it a door into the kitchen.

The furniture of the room is a little mixed in style. A wickerarmchair is on one side of the fireplace, a folding carpet-chair on the other. The otherchairs, three at the table and two against the walls, are of bent wood. The sideboard ismahogany. The carpet-square over oilcloth is of an indeterminate pattern in subduedcolours, dull crimson predominating. Lace curtains at window. Family photographs, awedding group and a cricket group, and a big lithograph copy of a Marcus Stone picture,are on the walls. There is a brass alarm clock on the mantelpiece and one or twoornaments. A sewing-machine stands on a small table near the window; and on the edge ofthis table and on the small table on the other side of the window are pots of cuttings. Acouple of bookshelves hang over the machine. A small vase of flowers stands in the centreof the dinner table.

[Pg 2]

LILY WILSON, much worried, is layingthe centre table. She is a pretty, slight woman, obviously young, wearing a light cottonblouse, dark skirt and big pinafore. The front door is heard to close. CHARLEY WILSON enters. He is an ordinary specimen of the city clerk,dressed in correct frock-coat, dark trousers, carefully creased, much cuff and a highcollar.

LILY. Here you are, then. [She puts up her face and t