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— I… ladies I assure you, all I wish to carry back is this waiver with your nephew’s signature. Since your brothers were not, ahm, especially close, and the decedent died intestate, the cooperation of the survivors is…

— You make us sound like a shipwreck, Mister Cohen.

— Well now that you speak of it, Miss Bast…

— I think I know what he’s trying to say. He’s going to drag up those old stories about James and Thomas not getting on.

— I don’t think he could sit there and name two brothers who went out of their way for one another as often as James and Thomas did. Neither of them had a single job that the other didn’t claim to have got for him.

— The Russian Symphony…

— And Sousa’s Band? Of course there was a certain competitive spirit between the boys. No one denies that, Mister Cohen. We had a family orchestra, you know, and they practiced three and four hours a day. Every week Father gave a dime to the one who showed the most improvement. From the time they were six, until they left home…

— Yes, Julia played the… where are you going now, Mister Cohen? If you’ll just sit still for a minute, I’m sure we can find some black thread. I can sew that button back on while we’re chatting.

— While I wait to talk with your nephew Edward…

— Whatever that paper is you’ve brought there, I don’t think he’ll be in any hurry to sign it.

— Yes, I remember Father telling us to never sign anything we didn’t read carefully.

— But… ladies! I want him to read it, I urge him to read it. I urge you to read it! It’s only a few lines, the merest formality, a waiver to permit the appointment of the decedent’s daughter, one Stella, Mrs Angel, as administrator of her father’s estate, so that we may submit to the court…

— Mister Cohen, you distinctly said that you hoped to keep us all out of court. Didn’t you hear him say that, Anne?

— Yes, I certainly did. And I’m not at all sure what James will say about these goings on.

— James has a great instinct for justice, Mister Cohen, and in spite of his being a composer he knows more than a little about the law. If we’re all obliged to end up in court in order to settle what’s right and wrong here…

— Madam, Miss Bast, please I… I implore you, there is no such issue at stake, and there is no reason there ever should be. The law, Miss Bast, let me tell you, the law…

— Do be careful of that lamp, Mister Cohen.

— There’s no question of justice, or right and wrong. The law seeks order, Miss Bast. Order!

— Now Mister Cohen, if you’ll just sit still. I’ve found some black thread right here in the basket.

— And an agreement within a legal framework is made for the protection of all concerned. Now…

— Perhaps you would like to take off your jacket. I’m just afraid you will spill those papers.

— Yes. Thank you. No. Now…

— It’s carpet thread, and should hold quite well. It will probably outlast the suit itself.

— Let me assure you that signing this waiver will not in any way affect any claim your nephew may have upon the estate of the decedent. But because of his somewhat equivocal position…

— I got it for Father’s overcoat buttons. It always outlasted the coats themselves.

— I don’t know what you’re inferring, Mister Cohen, but…

— This is I understand it, Miss Bast, your nephew Edward’s position in the family. His mother, who was known as Nellie…

— She wasn’t simply known as Nellie. That was Nellie’s Christian name, even though a lot of people thought it was a nickname. But I see no reason to start prying…

— I think when James is done his memoirs, can you raise your arm a little Mister Cohen? A lot of prying people will have surprises, and after all the gossip that followed…

— Ladies, I am not here to pry! But in the legal disposition of your brother’s estate, his relationship to Nellie and your nephew Edward is extremely pertinent. Now as I understand it, your brother Thomas had one child, Stella, by his first wife, who then died…

— I wouldn’t really say who then died, Mister Cohen. Why, she was still alive when…

— Of course, forgive me. At any rate Thomas remarried, one Nellie, who in due course appears to have separated from him, in order to cohab… ahm, to…

— Yes, to marry James. Precisely. But I would hardly say in due course, Mister Cohen. I think we were all really quite surprised.

— I don’t know, Anne. Nellie was flighty.

— I remember James using that word, now that you say it. It was when Rachmaninoff was visiting, I remember because he’d just had his fingers insured. Hand me those scissors please, Mister Cohen?

— However, yes, thank you, here… now, however, in the absence of any record of legally contracted marriage between the said Nellie and James…

— My dear Mister Cohen…

— Or indeed any evidence of legal and binding divorce between the aforesaid Nellie and the decedent…

— It scarcely seems necessary…