Acrost on the other side o’ the stage from where they go off they’s a bungalow, and out of it comes Flora and another o’ the kings, a young fella with a tenor voice named Veto. They sing about what a fine mornin’ it is in Wop and she tells him he’d better fly his kite before Archibald catches him.
It seems like she’s married to Archibald’s son, Fred, but o’ course she likes Veto better or it wouldn’t be no op’ra. Her and Veto was raised in the same ward and they was oncet engaged to be married, but Archibald’s gang trimmed Veto’s in a big roughhouse one night and Flora was part o’ the spoils. When Archibald seen how good she could fix spaghett’ he was bound she’d stick in the family, so he give her the choice o’ bein’ killed or marryin’ his boy, so she took Fred but didn’t really mean it in earnest. So Veto hangs round the house a lot, because old Archibald’s blind and Fred’s generally always on the road with the Erie section gang.
But old Archibald’s eyes bein’ no good, his ears is so much the better, even if he don’t sometimes keep with the orchestra, so he comes back on the stage just after Veto’s went and he hears Flora tryin’ to snoop back in her bungalow.
“Who was you talkin’ to?” he says.
“Myself,” says Flora.
“Great stuff!” says Archibald. “Up and outdoors at five a.m. to talk to yourself! Feed that to the goldfish!”