wo eggs, sonny?

RIDGEON. Yes.

EMMY. Have you put on your clean vest?

RIDGEON. Yes.

EMMY. Thats my ducky diamond! Now keep yourself tidy and dont go messing
about and dirtying your hands: the people are coming to congratulate
you. [She goes out].

Sir Colenso Ridgeon is a man of fifty who has never shaken off his
youth. He has the off-handed manner and the little audacities of
address which a shy and sensitive man acquires in breaking himself in
to intercourse with all sorts and conditions of men. His face is a good
deal lined; his movements are slower than, for instance, Redpenny's; and
his flaxen hair has lost its lustre; but in figure and manner he is more
the young man than the titled physician. Even the lines in his face are
those of overwork and restless scepticism, perhaps partly of curiosity
and appetite, rather than of age. Just at present the announcement of
his knighthood in the morning papers makes him specially self-conscious,
and consequently specially off-hand with Redpenny.

RIDGEON. Have you seen the papers? Youll have to alter the name in the
letters if you havnt.

REDPENNY. Emmy has just told me. I'm awfully glad. I--

RIDGEON. Enough, young man, enough. You will soon get accustomed to it.

REDPENNY. They ought to have done it years ago.

RIDGEON. They would have; only they couldnt stand Emmy opening the door,
I daresay.

EMMY [at the door, announcing] Dr Shoemaker. [She withdraws].

A middle-aged gentleman, well dressed, comes in with a friendly but
propitiatory air, not quite sure of his reception. His combination
of soft manners and responsive kindliness, with a certain unseizable
reserve and a familiar yet foreign chiselling of feature, reveal the
Jew: in this instance the handsome gentlemanly Jew, gone a little
pigeon-breasted and stale after thirty, as handsome young Jews often do,
but still decidedly good-looking.

THE GENTLEMAN. Do you remember me? Schutzmacher. University College
school and Belsize Avenue. Loony Schutzmacher, you know.

RIDGEON. What! Loony! [He shakes hands cordially]. Why, man, I thought
you were dead long ago. Sit down. [Schutzmacher sits on the couch:
Ridgeon on the chair between it and the window]. Where have you been
these thirty years?

SCHUTZMACHER. In general practice, until a few months ago. I've retired.

RIDGEON. Well done, Loony! I wish I could afford to retire. Was your
practice in London?

SCHUTZMACHER. No.

RIDGEON. Fashionable coast