thought it was a music-hall. Not that I know. I’ve never been there in my life.
Leila. Never been to the Coliseum?
Rupert. Why—should he have been to the Coliseum?
Leila, Oh—lI thought everybody had been.
Brandon, Well—I haven’t.
Granillo. Neither have I. Is that the place in the Haymarket?
Leila. My dear! You’re mixing it up with Capitol! What abysmal ignorance!
[Granillo is standing with his back to the mantelpiece, his coat open and the blue ticket protuberant in his pocket.
Sir Johnstone. You’d have been a sad dog as an ancient Roman, Granillo.
Rupert. Yes. He would. Indeed, in the days of the Cæsars, the results of confusing the Coliseum with the Capitol would have been, I should imagine, almost fatal. Certainly you’d have been taken up.
Leila. What was the Capitol, then? Wasn’t it where they all got up and held forth?
Rupert. The Capitol, I am told, was the Roman temple to Jupiter on the Tarpeian hill.
Leila. Oh, my dear !—weren’t they sweet!
Rupert. Wherein—exactly—were the Ancient Romans “sweet”?
Leila. My dear—such awful fools! Going in for Jupiter, and temples, and all that. Such a terrible lot of bother about nothing!
Sir Johnstone. Well, that’s one way of looking at it.
Leila. Well, anyway, you must———
Rupert (interrupting). But to return to the twentieth century for just one moment. . . . Do you mean to tell me, Granillo, that you have never been to the Coliseum?
Granillo. No. Of course I haven’t. Never. Why?
Rupert (looking at him). Is that so? Dear, dear. . . .
[ 32 ]
