"And what's your heart's desire, Mr Landry?" "I'd rather like to dance with you." "Was that quite proper?" "No such word in my vocabulary." "I hold you in too much regard to see you throw your reputation away." "What could you possibly gain from this?" "He's the sort of man who wouldn't forbid me anything." "I can never see you again." "There are things that are dearer to you, I know." "I understand." "You're a good man, good men are few and far between." "Did you tell her that we'd kissed?" "I have no intention of having a baby." "The German Ambassador's been crowing." "The Germans have ears everywhere." "We can get ourselves visas and passage on a boat and get as far away from this as possible." "We couldn't do that." "Why not?" "Of course, it should really be pink champagne." "But as neither of us are drinkers..." "I chose to work on the ambulances as a matter of conscience." "You're not the man I thought you were." "Pritchard, are you quite well?" "No." "What's that?" "Orange juice." "We need to get you in practice." "Oranges are ten a penny, where we're going." "John!" "Is something amiss, your ladyship?" "Straight downstairs, both of you, as quickly as you can." "Mr Pritchard's unwell." "I had to fetch the salts for Mrs Thackeray in the night." "She reckons it was cooked meats." "It isn't food that made him ill." "It's drink." "She never said she was coming!" "Just shift!" "What the...?" "Agnes is home." "Oh, my God." "Hallam." "Can you get up?" "I'll explain in a moment." "This is at an end." "It was at an end last night." "Why, Hallam?" "Why do you say that?" "Because last night I realised that I can't trust you!" "You don't have to trust me, Hallam!" "We break rules together." "Not any more." "We had a matron did this at Barnardo's once." "She was heavier than him." "Agnes?" "When did you arrive?" "And what in the name of God is wrong with Pritchard?" "It's all under control, sir." "I thought he was teetotal!" "Well, he clearly isn't any more." "Holland." "We are to sign the Defence Pact with the Poles." "Appeasement is at an end." "Then war is inevitable, Foreign Secretary." "I fear that is the case." "Our country needs the best that we can give." "And we shall not fail it." "I will be with you directly." "Sir." "Is there really no stopping it?" "No turning back?" "I always said that conflict could only be postponed." "Then we shall face it together." "This isn't your responsibility, your ladyship!" "Where's Mrs Thackeray?" "Indisposed!" "Sir Hallam must have breakfast, and it would seem that Beryl is still asleep." "She was snoring when I left her!" "Go back upstairs, and if she isn't out of bed, pull the covers off her!" "Ah." "It would seem that Beryl requires no help with her waking arrangements." "Harry, take the car round as soon as possible, please." "Don't keep Sir Hallam waiting." "Your ladyship." "Beryl, it's perfectly obvious where you spent the night." "And I'm afraid I don't approve." "I'm very sorry, your ladyship, but if you don't approve, that's because you've made assumptions." "I'm obliged to make assumptions!" "I'm your mistress, I'm responsible for your moral welfare!" "Well you aren't going to be my mistress for much longer!" "When our special licence comes through," "I'm getting married to Harry and we're going to America!" "Ah." "And were you planning on giving formal notice at any point?" "I always work two weeks in hand." "I could forgo my wages if you want me to." "It's not a question of what I want." "This is my house and I am entitled to know what goes on under its roof!" "You don't know the half of what goes on under its roof!" "And I don't just mean below stairs, either." "I don't like the tone of that remark." "There's a lot you wouldn't like the tone of." "But it's not up to me to tell you." "You can't cut me off." "You can't shove me away just because your wife's come home!" "My wife?" "Or your sister?" "I'm not shoving you away." "I'm walking away from a lethal situation." "Persie, who have you been talking to?" "Who have you been passing information to?" "I haven't!" ""Admiral Acronym"... a nickname only used inside the Foreign Office." "Does that mean anything to you?" "Should it?" "I've drawn my own conclusions." "You wanted this." "Now you can leave for America." "I just want to know when." "Agnes?" "Blanche!" "When did you get back?" "This morning." "I couldn't stay away..." "the situation's so much worse." "Where are you?" "Where have you been?" "The children's refuge camp at Pakefield." "It's overflowing." "I've been trying to get to Pamela." "Are they going to requisition her asylum?" "They already have." "I've hired a car, but some of the roads have been blocked off." "Do your utmost." "I want the family home." "I rather think Hallam had hoped I'd make a home elsewhere." "The family." "And that includes you." "I need us all to be together." "Hadleigh, I want a review of all surveillance information." "If the Germans have started calling Drax "Admiral Acronym", they've been talking in back rooms to someone with connections to this office." "I'm sorry, Sir Hallam, but we're about to go war!" "My department's stretched thinner than cat gut." "I need to see if we can trace that leak!" "Why now, sir?" "Why today?" "Because Britain is aligned with Poland." "Germany looks to Russia." "The clock is ticking, and I don't want the blood of my country on my hands." "Any particular names, sir?" "Persephone Anne Towyn." "Lady." "Start with the Ribbentrop files." "Autumn, '36." "Has her ladyship indicated how I might be disciplined?" "No." "But she will." "I should think Miss Whisset'll have an opinion and all." "Miss Whisset and I parted company somewhat earlier in the evening." "Because you had a drink?" "Or before you had a drink?" "In the days when I was in my current condition rather more often than I have been of late," "I used to find black coffee had but limited effect." "Was there anything that had... unlimited effect?" "Water." "We used to joke about it on the Aquitania." "Water, water, everywhere..." "I'm not joking, Mr Pritchard!" "And you wouldn't be either, if you were thinking clear!" "Perhaps I don't want to think clear!" "I thought you had everything so tidy in your mind!" "I thought it was neat, like you keep the cellar." "You showed me how to do things, Mr P. How to keep the mess at bay." "And off the drink." "You taught me self-respect." "And I want to say, "Look at you."" "I want to grab the mirror and put it to your face so you can see what I'm seeing now." "But I don't want to upset you." "I looked up to you, Mr Pritchard!" "I'm sorry, Persie." "I don't think you should go out." "Not until the situation's clearer." "I'll loop the loop if I stay indoors!" "Taking tea, and waiting for Armaggedon to arrive!" "Why didn't you stay in the country, playing croquet while London burns?" "Because Hallam needs me!" "How was he, whilst I was away?" "Preoccupied by the looming conflagration." "He saw all of this coming, he's like the Gypsy Petulengro of Whitehall." "I shouldn't have gone." "It did him good to miss you!" "You ought to grab your babies and go to Pa in Wales." "Oh Lord, Persie!" "I'd rather die than set foot in that mould-ridden castle!" "I thought I might head for Ireland." "Ireland?" "You don't know a soul in Ireland!" "There are racing stables everywhere." "If you fork out for my passage, I'll soon find work." "Persie." "That's the most foolhardy thing I've ever heard and we're not going to fund it." "Well, I can't fund it myself!" "I know you can't." "You're staying here." "So it would appear!" "Here, in perfect, untouchable Eaton Place, where nothing bad happens, and everyone is safe!" "Ugh." "Every time I let the iron warm this through" "I get a blast of her Mitsouko!" "Horrible, clinging scent." "I hope they don't have this in America," "I'll think of her blooming' ladyship every time I smell it." "Spanish Leather'll remind me of Sir Hallam." "I get punched in the nose with it every single morning." "It'd be Lady Agnes punching him in the nose if she knew he was at it with a fancy piece." "She should just get off her high horse." "She's got no right making assumptions about me!" "Bee." "She's not like us." "She's never widened her horizons, never had a look at how other people live." "To her, the rest of the world is all the same." "Do you think I'm daft, wanting her to respect me?" "I respect you." "Isn't that what counts?" "Put her out of your mind." "We're getting married." "We're getting out of here." "Oh, look at love's young dream!" "Fetch me the peppermint essence, Beryl, that luncheon meat's repeating on me something shocking." "Mickey and Minnie seem to have survived our absence." "I never missed feeding them, your ladyship." "I didn't like to think of Master Hector's face if he came home and found them floating on the top." "Was everything quite all right, whilst I was gone?" "Everything was... just as it usually is, your ladyship." "As long as there was no change to the usual routines." "I shouldn't like to think that the staff had been put out." "Oh, no." "Lady Persie kept some funny hours." "But Sir Hallam always came home." "Every night." "All I'm saying is, I reckon she's got wind of it." "Him, and carrying-on." "She looks like she's got the weight of the world on her." "We've all got the weight of the world on us, it'll be raining bombs by Friday teatime." "I shall need 40 pounds of flour, plain white, and another 25 of wholemeal." "Hitler's not planning to bomb the bakeries!" "You'll change your tune when we're all huddled in that refuge room, eating the sawdust out of Miss Buck's pincushion." "Letters for Johnny and Harry, from the table in the hall." "I am venturing out for some fresh air." "You can bring me back a tin of treacle while you're at it." "I thought I might boil up a fruit cake for the wedding." "Lyle's Black?" "Large." "And mind that mop-head when you're walking by, it's still wearing a dollop of your you-know-what." "Writing's on the wall, then." "In what way?" "Been sent for." "Armed Forces medical, this Saturday." "Same." "Only not till the ninth." "Are you going to be called up?" "No." "I'm not." "Because by this time next week, we are not going to be here!" "How are we for semolina, Mrs Thack?" "Order me five pounds." "And the same for pudding rice." "Trust me, we are going to get out in time." "How are we going to get out in time?" "We have to be married!" "You put in for visas for a married couple." "You said it yourself, you can't book our passage if the papers aren't straight!" "We've got money." "I'll grease palms if I have to!" "We shouldn't have to grease palms!" "I just wanted things to be perfect." "We can have perfect once we're on that boat." "I haven't been called up yet, no-one is going to shoot me for desertion." "You're wanted, Harry!" "Shift yourself!" "Don't you come out yelling at me like that!" "Well, some bugger's got to run this flaming house!" "What's the news?" "The stand-off with Hitler is absolute." "If he invades Poland, there's no turning back." "Cabinet sat till after two." "I thought you might sleep at the office." "They've brought in camp-beds for the secretaries." "People who missed the last train." "But most of us can walk home." "And you're here." "Night was when I missed you most." "The Kents' sheets smell of roses." "Ours smell of your cologne." "They smell of yours, I always think." "Mitsouko." "Even when I was gone?" "Especially when you were gone." "What's that?" "The Territorials are mobilised." "I saw them marching towards Green Park." "Is war just a matter of time now?" "Yes." "It's a matter of days." "Mr Pritchard?" "Is he still not back?" "Mr Pritchard!" "Mr Amanjit, is he still not back?" "Mr Pritchard!" "I hoped he would creep home in the small hours, whatever his condition was." "I want to say, at least he took his wallet, but I don't think that's the best state of affairs." "Come on." "Downstairs." "He'll be on a right bender." "Hello, darlings." "You must be exhausted." "Blanche... you did it!" "Pamela, darling." "I've brought my gas mask." "Good." "Pamela's ball." "Excuse me, sir!" "Where do I apply for a marriage licence?" "Would that be a Standard or a Special Licence, sir?" "Special." "Directly up the stairs, round the corner to the left." "Thank you." "Is this for marriage licences?" "Yes." "Blanche?" "May I come in?" "It's not locked." "I'm sorry." "I need to talk where we can't be overheard." "You can help me with this." "I have head lice." "Caught from the children at the Kinder camp." "And what did Persie say?" "Nothing of any use." "Do you think I'm wrong, or hysterical, to suspect him?" "I will think you wrong and hysterical, unless there's concrete evidence." "Present me with some facts." "He wears more cologne than he used to." "Well... the weather is warm." "He spends long days at Whitehall." "When I came home, he held me as though he'd never let me go." "It's been a calendar month since you flounced out." "He was overjoyed by your return." "I am being an utter fool." "These are dark times, Agnes." "People think dark thoughts." "Do you think dark thoughts?" "I try to fix my mind on some constructive purpose." "If I didn't, I'd feel as hysterical as you." "I've never had a constructive purpose." "You've brought up your madam of a sister, and built a family and a home." "And now it's all slipping through my fingers!" "When times change, we have to change with them." "You will find something you can do." "And however you find it, you will do it well." "I remain unconvinced by this!" "Incendiary bombs are light, they will be flung into high places." "We cannot direct the water with the pressure so low!" "We'll need to order two more lengths of this, and a pair of connectors, brass if possible." "That will do nothing to increase pressure!" "I know what I'm about, Mr Amanjit!" "I was in the college fire brigade at Girton!" "An all-female enterprise, and very competent it was!" "Did somebody ring?" "Fill the bucket." "We require more water." "You're spilling it on the floor!" "Blanche!" "The British Museum on the telephone." "Something about embalming jars." "Tell them that from now on, the only embalming jars I'm interested in are those containing Hitler's vital organs!" "Oh!" "Can you get a move on, Eunice?" "This black-out performance starts at 8 o'clock, and we still haven't organised the drawing room!" "We'll have to do them hems with the pinking shears, we're nearly out of time." "I don't know why they're turning the lights out now!" "The war hasn't started yet!" "I reckon there's something they've not told us." "I don't fancy your chances of getting on a boat." "Air raids could start as soon as war is declared." "London is vulnerable to attack." "Sir." "I'll be working long hours, I need to know my family are looked after." "Especially in Pritchard's absence." "Everything is taken care of, sir." "John is being particularly diligent." "Petty cash is running low." "Take what remains to pay for sandbags, I'll speak to the bank about appropriate arrangements." "Very good, sir." "Clean this, make sure it is in order and then replace it in the safe." "You know the drill." "Sir." "I see we're prepared for all eventualities." "This is not the time for levity." "I am at your service, sir." "I was being serious." "Can I do anything to help?" "Ask Agnes." "Or Aunt Blanche." "I tried." "They can't make a single sensible suggestion." "I find that hard to credit." "You speak as though they're quite your favourite people all of a sudden." "Persie, I'm too busy to play games." "He'll be underneath the arches somewhere." "Drink's a curse for Mr Pritchard." "Always was." "But, Miss Buck, he didn't drink!" "He warned me off drink..." "Is it any wonder?" "It was the end of him at Cunard." "But he made out he had troubles with his mastoid..." "Why do you think he kept his eye on you?" "He kept his eye on everything." "And now he's gone, I don't know what to do." "I wish you'd come home." "It's not that simple, Johnny!" "The Matron said you're going to be discharged." "There's a war kicking off now." "Lady Agnes might make other plans." "The Army might make other plans for me." "Someone's got to look after 165, Miss Buck." "You find Mr Pritchard... and bring him home." "This is it now, Hallam." "Off with the motley." "Away with the dinner jacket and the tie and tails." "I've been appointed Rear Admiral by my brother." "Back in the Senior Service?" "Desk job." "View of Horse Guards Parade." "Is that what you want?" "What I want is of no consequence whatever." "I have a duty to fulfil." "If they want a figurehead, they can lash me to the mast." "If they want a plaster saint, I will climb on a plinth and I will not move a muscle." "I'm told you asked for the Acronym leak to be examined." "I thought it wise to try to snare the little bird, sir." "The fact is, old chap, there are little birds all over London, each more diminutive and shrieking than the last." "The Acronym leak isn't massive in the scheme of things." "It is to me, sir." "I have to get my house in order, to clear up every mess I've made, be it personal or professional... and make sure I haven't done more damage than I knew." "I have duties too, sir." "I advise you to attend to those which are most pressing... namely, Whitehall and the war." "Leave all else alone." "There are vexations you don't need to have." "Sir." "They've already stopped the television sets, in case people use them to signal to the enemy and now they're going to close the cinemas." "That means we'll never get the Wizard Of Oz!" "Outside!" "Or you will miss something you will never see again." "* .." "That you dare to dream, really do come true" "* Some day I'll wish upon a star" "* And wake up where the clouds are far behind me" "* Where troubles melt like lemon drops" "* Away above the chimney tops" "* That's where you'll find me... *" "They really mean it, don't they?" "I am afraid they do." "* .." "Bluebirds fly" "* Birds fly over the rainbow" "* Why then, oh, why can't I?" "*" "I know where you're going." "And I know what's in those sandwiches." "Nasty, tough bits of brisket." "Here." "Some coconut sponge in it." "Mr Pritchard's favourite." "Thanks, Mrs Thack." "* .." "little bluebirds fly" "* Beyond the rainbow... *" "* Why, oh, why can't I?" "*" "Get out of it!" "Mr Pritchard!" "Mr Pritchard!" "Mr Pritchard!" "I can't believe you're doing that!" "As if everything was ordinary." "There were cameras lined up down Whitehall yesterday." "Can't have Sir Hallam on the newsreel getting out of a mucky car." "I wonder sometimes if you'll be able to leave service." "It's too ingrained in you." "You still put the job first." "I just want everything on an even keel until we're out of this house." "Once I've got his nibs to work this morning," "I'm off queuing down the Registry again." "I'm not putting the job first," "I'm putting us first." "Do you know what?" "What?" "I'm going to do the same." "Johnny wants you downstairs." "He says not to put your black on, you've got to go to the shops." "I'm going to the shops." "I'm going to buy my wedding dress." "Yes, but he's banging on about a dozen tins of salmon. £5." "Five?" "As a matter of fact, I think I'll make it guineas." "The best establishments always deal in guineas." "Ja, wer ist das?" "Friedrich?" "Persie?" "Why are you calling me?" "Old times' sake." "No." "This is a new chapter." "We are in separate countries." "On separate sides." "Actually, that's a matter for discussion." "No." "No, it isn't." "Can I help you, your ladyship?" "Not at all." "I've come to see if I can help you." "I'm packing the silver ready for the bank." "It's in hand." "This must be the laundry." "Let me unpack it, put things away." "There's no need." "Please." "I need to be of use." "Your ladyship." "I went to visit Miss Buck the other day." "Oh, is she well?" "Very well." "At least, well enough." "Something the matter with Sir Hallam's shirts, your ladyship?" "Good afternoon, sir." "Who are you?" "I don't believe we've met." "I'm Miss Pamela Holland." "Pamela, you're not a maid." "And I'm Caspar Landry." "She's just thinking ahead." "Like the poster says, "Train While There's Time!"" "Am I right in thinking this is Assam?" "Yes, it is." "When I first came to England, I thought tea was just tea." "I thought I'd pass as British just because I knew you put the milk in last." "But now I can tell by just the smell of it whether it's Lapsang or Broken Orange Pekoe." "Whether it's from Kenya or India, even Ceylon." "The entire Empire runs like a river through these drawing rooms." "Do you take sugar?" "I'll take it from you, sweetie." "I shall miss it when I'm gone." "Gone?" "Back to the States." "I've more to go home for than I have to keep me here." "Pamela, darling." "I've just remembered that Mickey and Minnie haven't been given any crumbs today." "Would you go and feed them a tiny piece of bread?" "Quickly?" "No." "Not quickly." "They have very small stomachs and they mustn't get a shock." "I shouldn't have called." "You have much to concern you." "No, it's all right." "These are testing times." "Yes." "But if a servant had answered the door and you'd sent up your card on a salver..." "Like a gentleman." "I would have said that I wasn't at home." "Like a lady." "Agnes." "Nobody's going to send us to hell." "Open your present." "Nylons." "Landry Caresse." "Fully fashioned." "144 pairs." "You're going to need it." "It will be a long war." "Is it going to last forever?" "Your nylons are always so astonishingly durable." "Very few things last forever." "And when they do, it's because they're meant to be." "If you run out, write me." "Or just write me." "Where?" "Care of the Ritz." "I can't." "I need to be the best person I can be." "For a little while." "I said it once before." "You're good as well as beautiful." "One of those things, I can't change." "The other, I never shall." "The dossier you asked for, sir." "About the Admiral Acronym leak." "Thank you, Hadleigh." "Your instincts were correct, sir." "Lady Persephone?" "She's been in contact with London-based agents of the Reich." "They were known to be staying at a hotel, and she was seen arriving at their quarters." "It's all in there." "There's no suggestion of any wrongdoing on your part, sir." "Your conduct has been impeccable." "Your records were checked, too." "Lady Persephone will be off your hands by Sunday." "Off my hands?" "The Emergency Powers Act contains a special sub-clause," "Defence Regulation 18B." "It enables the Government to intern anyone whose conduct endangers national safety." "You'll arrest her?" "And imprison her." "And what must I do, in the meantime?" "Say nothing, sir." "Nothing at all." "Strain getting to you, Agnes?" "You look frightfully pale." "War." "Perfectly vile to the complexion." "I'll be rather entertained when there's a run on rouge." "I might stage a one-woman run on lipstick." "You'll have to ask Caspar Landry to send you some from New York." "No." "American lipsticks are always indelible." "I just tried Dorothy Gray's Daredevil Red, but my lips looked bloody." "I lost count of all the handkerchiefs I ruined." "Night was when I missed you most." "The Kents' sheets smell of roses." "Ours smell of your cologne." "Did you, Persie?" "Tell me!" "Did you, Persie?" "You tell me!" "You tell me!" "I think you ought to be asking, "Did he?"" "Go to your bedroom now, Pamela." "Go on." "You too, Persie." "You've said enough." "No, she hasn't said enough!" "She can never say enough!" "When did it start?" "Munich, to my mind." "Though he may take a different view." "Ask him!" "He might tell you everything." "And if he doesn't, that will tell you something." "See if he tells you about the abortion!" "Agnes!" "If you've nothing to occupy you, you might bring a tray of tea to my bedroom!" "I can't breathe." "I can't breathe, Blanche." "I..." "I don't care if they sack me!" "I'm not taking tea to that evil trollop's room!" "And you're not making it either!" "Her own sister's husband!" "She should be tarred and feathered." "What about Sir Hallam?" "None of you are criticising him." "Wait till he orders refreshments." "Don't ask about the licence, or the tickets for the boat." "I've no news to tell you." "Well, we have." "Sir." "Pritchard?" "No." "Stay where you are." "I'm afraid my behaviour has caused some inconvenience." "Now is not the time for me to comment." "Is everything as it ought to be, sir?" "Because I couldn't help but notice as you approached the strap on your attache case is not secure." "No." "And it would appear to be too late to do anything about it." "It is a desperate matter when the clock can't be turned back." "Yes." "It is." "If you will excuse me, there are things to be restored." "I walked out." "Cleared my desk." "It was the only decent thing to do." "She's been peddling petty secrets for three months." "Things she overheard at dinner, things she might have pilfered from my bag." "They tell me now they've had her card marked for months, she'd never fully severed her link to Ribbentrop." "I'm surprised she still gives Ribbentrop the time of day." "They'll come at some point in the next 24 hours." "Where will they take her?" "Holloway Prison." "Good." "I know, Hallam." "Agnes!" "Agnes!" "Agnes, you have to help me." "Please!" "I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "Don't you remember, Agnes, when we were growing up, and we'd make up a game." "It would go on and on, until we'd exhausted its every corner and still couldn't let it go." "Do you remember?" "And we'd look at each other and we'd say..." ""Shall we go back to the beginning?"" "Please, Agnes!" "Please." "Please can we go back to the beginning?" "We can't." "Because it's not a game." "I'll have to formally resign from Whitehall." "My marriage to Agnes is in ruins." "Then we can run away together." "Persie." "You can't run anywhere." "Operator speaking." "I've been waiting for a connection to Berlin." "The person you requested will not accept your call." "Next, please." "Next." "Breathe." "Breathe." "Breathe." "Next, please." "Horace Peters." "Fail." "Grade C3." "James Colclough." "Pass." "Grade A3." "John Proude." "Pass." "Grade A1." "Can you cut another inch off?" "It'll go all frayed again." "I need the pinking shears." "I think they're in the drawing room from when we did the blackouts." "Guess what I got?" "!" "Get away!" "Get away!" "You're not allowed to see her!" "Don't be daft!" "It's silly superstition!" "I'm not looking." "I'm not looking." "Can I just show her?" "Excuse me!" "She's in her wedding dress, seeing her's bad luck!" "Is it the tickets or the licence?" "It's the tickets and the licence!" "Bridegroom, make yourself useful." "Go up to the drawing room and fetch the pinking shears!" "Excuse me, Lady Persephone." "I was sent up for the pinking shears." "This lighter's empty." "Why hasn't it been refilled?" "I'll tell Beryl, your ladyship." "Do you tell Beryl everything?" "Will you go downstairs and tell her you saw me in tears, and desperate for a cigarette?" "No... your ladyship." "I have matches on me, if you want a light." "Would you mind awfully?" "Not at all." "You've no idea how unendurable it is, sitting here entirely on one's own." "Your ladyship?" "As I said, it's unendurable." "Did I ever mean anything to you, Harry?" "Oh, honestly." "I might as well go up and get it myself!" "What about your dress?" "Well, he's seen it now!" "Come on, it's OK." "Come on." "Come on." "Shhh." "Harry...?" "No, no!" "Oh, God!" "Oh." "Look at me, look at me." "What do I do?" "What do I do?" "Call the police, if they haven't already been sent for." "Lady Persie..." "Harry?" "I can't help Lady Persie, but I can help Beryl." "Better late than never, I suppose." "Excellent!" "Straighten that collar, please, Johnny." "And Eunice, put your apron on." "We have work to do." "Yes, Mr P." "Is there a war yet?" "Almost." "I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street." "This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note... stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us." "I have to tell you now... that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently, this country is at war with Germany." "So few people came." "It's standing-room only, usually, when one so young dies." "I've just found a pair of my earrings, and one coral dress clip." "Persie must have lost the other one." "Everything she ever had was snatched or hand-me-down." "Filched, or half of what by rights she should have had." "I'm not going to encourage you in this." "I loved her." "But never enough." "Nobody ever could love her enough." "We should have done this when she died." "What?" "Opened the window to let her wretched soul out." "Nanny will take the children to stay with my father at St Cadog." "Pamela can go with them." "That's very kind of you." "I've arranged for Miss Buck to go as a companion." "She's being discharged from her sanatorium, but can only do light work." "She can sit and sew with Pamela in the afternoons." "What about you, Agnes?" "I'll settle them in, and then I'll come back here." "I'm glad." "I won't be doing it for you." "Do you want a divorce?" "I think this whole thing's been quite sordid enough." "Do YOU want a divorce?" "Don't ever ask me what I want." "It doesn't matter." "Everything that brought us to this room now was because of what you wanted." "It was in spite of what I wanted!" "I don't disbelieve that." "But there were things I could have done and didn't, in spite of what my heart was telling me to do." "Then this marriage isn't equal." "What marriage is?" "Everything you ask of me, I will do." "Everything you need from me, I promise I will give you." "Can we go back to the beginning?" "No ring." "I'll wear it, if you like." "But it'll only be for show." "* Times are hard and getting harder" "* Still we have fun" "* There's nothing surer" "* The rich get rich And the poor get poorer" "* In the meantime, in between time" "* Ain't we got fun?" "* Come on!" "* Every morning, every evening" "* Ain't we got fun?" "* Not much money, oh, but, honey" "* Ain't we got fun?" "* The rent's unpaid, dear" "* We haven't a sou" "* But smiles were made, dear" "* For me and for you... *" "Everybody, ignore it!" "We are on holiday till half-past!" "* Times are hard... *" "I don't believe I've ever seen you answer your own door." "You'll be seeing stranger things than this, I don't doubt." "Our chauffeur married our housemaid today." "Agnes insisted that we should allow a party." "I'm assured the normal scheme of things will resume this evening." "There is now no normal scheme of things." "For as long as this war lasts, we are all each other's servants." "Have courage." "I've made such a godawful mess of everything." "I don't know what I'm going to do." "I do, old chap." "So I'll go in as an equerry, based at Buckingham Palace." "I've been vetted and I am not considered wanting." "It borders on the miraculous... with relatives like me." "You will stay, won't you?" "For Agnes' sake, if not for mine." "I was actually rather planning to." "I've joined the Fire Brigade." "* La-da-dah, di" "* Di-di, di-di... *" "I love that song." "I love it!" "We could dance, if you wanted." "There's no-one here." "If we did, I'd miss you when you go." "I'll miss you anyway." "Will you?" "Will you write?" "I'm stopping here." "I won't have much to tell you." "That's why I want you to." "You can be my bit of home." "What's this?" "Something I owe you, sir." "Something I shouldn't have taken." "I thought you were using it to travel to America." "Beryl wasn't well enough to sail." "We missed our passage." "I see." "Lady Agnes wrote to Mr Landry, asked him to help us, but I've been passed fit for the forces now, so we don't know what we're going to do." "We won't speak of this again." "Sir." "Do you like Mummy's outfit, Hector?" "It's a St John's Ambulance uniform." "And while you're in the country, Mummy is going to be helping people who've been hurt." "We would appear to have an air-raid warning, your ladyship, Dr Mottershead." "I advise you to take cover, if you would be so kind." "Yes, of course, Pritchard." "The refuge is prepared." "This way, if you please."