On their way out, Joyce and Mother spot the menu for the Royal Wedding Dinner, which is posted in the lobby.

JOYCE   (reading out the menu) Melon surprise. Moules niçoise. Porc royale… It breaks your heart.

GILBERT   Listen, I’ve had just about enough. If you want roast pork we can have roast pork. We can have it next Sunday if you want it. And the Sunday after that. And the Monday. And the Tuesday. We can have pork till you’re blue in the face. You could be fed up of pork. Porc royale! (Tears down the menu and turns to Mother.) And you. You can have bacon, ham, sausage, pork pies. Tripe. Pig’s feet. Liver. Kidneys. You can pig yourself on pork if you want. Come on.

JOYCE   Take no notice, Mother. He’s just out to torment you.

GILBERT   I mean it. We could. We can.

JOYCE   How? How?
Gilbert is already starting to regret what he’s said.

GILBERT   Steal a pig.
A delivery boy struggles in with more decorations for the Royal Wedding Dinner.

JOYCE   What did you say?

GILBERT   Nothing, let’s go.

JOYCE   Steal a pig?
They make their way out against yet more decorations coming in.

INT. CHILVERS’ SITTING ROOM. AFTERNOON.

Joyce is taking another pupil, Mervin, through his faltering exercises. Mother is sitting cracking nuts, an activity Joyce finds distracting.

JOYCE   You’ve dropped a bit, Mother.
A banging starts elsewhere in the house and a pained expression crosses Joyce’s face. Life is not as she would like it to be.

INT. CHILVERS’ HALL. AFTERNOON.

Veronica is watching Gilbert redecorate the spare room, which he is having to make into his ‘surgery’. Putting down the hammer, he takes up his paintbrush again. Joyce lets Mervin out of the living room and he goes to the door.

JOYCE   Haven’t we forgotten something, Mervin?

MERVIN   Oh, sorry, miss.

JOYCE   Mrs.
Opening his hand, he gives Joyce her five shillings fee. She looks pained and humiliated. He then leaves.
Go on in and start your piece, Veronica.
Veronica sullenly complies, regarding Mother eating her nuts with distaste. As the familiar piece begins, Joyce finds herself looking in the mirror in the spare room.
Good job I put my foot down about children.
Gilbert is puzzled.

GILBERT   Why bring that up?

JOYCE   Well, we wouldn’t have had the room, would we?
The look on Gilbert’s face makes it plain he would have preferred children to the room.

(contemptuously) Steal a pig! It’s not as if there are pigs to steal. If there were pigs to steal butchers would be stealing them.
Gilbert says nothing.
It’s you all over. All talk. Promises. You were going to take this town, Gilbert.

GILBERT   Listen. This morning I went up to Sutcliffs’ farm.
Veronica stops playing. Gilbert looks up sharply. His manner gives Joyce cause for thought.