Am back rereading the collected Dorothy Parker. Particularly liked this from a review of an A.A. Milne offering.
“The cabinet minister talks softly and embarrassingly to Sally – “Ah Selly, Selly, Selly” – but that is not enough. He must tap out to her, on the garden wall, his message, though she is right beside him. First he taps, and at the length it would take, the letter “I”. Then he goes on in to “l”, and, though surely everone in the audience has caught the idea, he carries through to “o”. “Oh, he’s not going on into “v””, I told myself. “Even Milne wouldn’t do that to you”. But he did. He tapped on through “v”, and then did an “e”. “If he does “y””, I thought, “I’m through.” And he did. So I shot myself. [….]
The play ends with him sitting at his desk, one hand tapping out “Good-bye, dear” – what a man; he must have had woodpecker blood in him! – while the other grasps the pen…”