(Tony and Jenny arrive at the Briggs home, in the midst of an argument.)

TONY BRIGGS
Are you sure you wouldn't like a sandwich or something?

JENNY GRAHAM
No, thanks.

TONY
Hmm. I've got a damn good mind to have a go at so-and-so's bacon ration. That would hit him where it hurts.

JENNY
Childish, don't you think?

TONY
Well, he sometimes treats me like a child, and therefore I sometimes find myself behaving like one. Is that so very unnatural?

JENNY
It's not intelligent. It's not you.

TONY
And the way he behaves?

JENNY
He was brought up in a slightly less enlightened age.

TONY
Good God! You call this an enlightened age?

JENNY
Well, let us say we are in the process of becoming enlightened.

TONY
What was it you said to me, the last time I asked you if you'd consider becoming my wife? "This is no age to bring kids into."

JENNY
It isn't, yet.

TONY
You're not, by any chance, waiting for an old-fashioned proposal, are you? Down on my knees, that sort of thing.

JENNY
I'm not that old-fashioned. You're the old-fashioned one.

TONY
Why? Because I want to marry you?

(He points toward the living room, where Sefton sits.)

TONY
He thinks it's just a matter of time, you know...sitting in there, counting up how many grandchildren he's going to have. He'd have the shock of his life, if he could hear this conversation.

JENNY
Maybe it is just a matter of time.

TONY
But there isn't any time. Time is something I find very precious these days.
(angrily)
Well, I think we'd just better pack it in, don't you?

JENNY
Is that what you want?

TONY
You know what I want! You just don't care enough!

JENNY
Always remember, it was you that said that...not me. I better go and say good night to him.

TONY
Yes, you better go and say good night to him.

 

(from "Giving and Taking" by John Finch)