voice was the most gentle she had ever heard.
Jem: But, then, your grandmother———
Sir W. (to Lady Flo): I really think we had better leave, after all.
Lady Flo (affectionately): No! dearest Will! I really think we had better stay.
Sir W.: For my part———
Lady Flo: I tell you we must stay.
Sir W. Very well, Flo, as you wish. You always know best. (They exchange smiles.)
Lady Flo (to Jem): Kitty will take me to my room. So I leave my better half in your good company. (Exit with Kitty.)
Sir W.: I can't help regretting I came here, old fellow. It was your aunt's idea. I made objections. But she insisted that you'd both be glad enough to have a little interruption in your honeymoon.
Jem: She never said a truer word.
Sir W.: Then the honeymoon is not so great a success, after all?
Jem: To tell the truth, it's all a ghastly failure!
Sir W. Poor boy! Believe me, I'm awfully sorry for you. (Puts his hand on Jem's shoulder.)
Jem: I'm awfully glad you're sorry.
Sir W.: I pity you from my heart.
Jem: Thanks very much.
Sir W.: For my part, if I led a cat-and-dog life with your aunt, I should wish to blow my brains out.
Jem: So that's the advice you give me! (Moves towards door.)
Sir W.: Oh! no! All I want is five minutes' chat with you. Anything that affects Flo's niece naturally affects me.
Jem: Naturally. (Laughs.)
Sir W.: Now come! Tell me! How did your misunderstandings begin?
Jem: I really couldn't say.
Sir W.: And yet quarrels always have a beginning.
Jem: Of course, when women are so confoundedly selfish.
Sir W.: Kitty is selfish?
Jem: I don't want to make any complaints about her. Yet I must admit that she takes absolutely no interest in anything which interests me. You know my hobby—fishing———
Sir W.: And Kitty doesn't care for fishing?
Jem: Not she! Though, finding myself here, surrounded with trout streams, you may imagine how I was naturally anxious to spend my days. Kitty said fishing was a bore, and after having come out with me once or twice, she sternly refused to do so any more. And why? Simply because she wanted to tramp about with the shooters from Danby.
Sir W.: All this is but a trifling dissimilarity of taste, and insufficient to cause a real estrangement.
Jem: A trifling dissimilarity! Why, our tastes differ in every essential point! Kitty has got it into her head that a woman should take an interest in things "outside herself." A friend of her mother's, who used to conduct her to the British Museum, taught her to believe in Culture—with a capital "C." To hear her talk of Pompeiian marbles, Flaxman's designs, and all that sort of thing—why, it's sickening!
Sir W.:"It strikes me you are unreasonable."
Jem: "Oh, no! I'm not!"
Sir W.: It strikes me you are unreasonable.
Jem: Oh, no! I'm not! A woman who takes an interest in things outside herself becomes a nuisance.
