LORD DARLINGTON. I am not one of her admirers.
CECIL GRAHAM. I usen’t to be, but I am now. Why! she actually made me introduce her to poor dear Aunt Caroline. I believe she is going to lunch there.
LORD DARLINGTON. Excuse me, you fellows. I’m going away to-morrow. And I have to write a few letters. [_Goes to writing table and sits down_.]
CECIL GRAHAM. Hallo, Dumby! I thought you were asleep.
LORD AUGUSTUS. A very clever woman. Knows perfectly well what a demmed fool I am—knows it as well as I do myself.
[CECIL GRAHAM _comes towards him laughing_.]
Ah, you may laugh, my boy, but it is a great thing to come across a woman who thoroughly understands one.
DUMBY. It is an awfully dangerous thing. They always end by marrying one.
CECIL GRAHAM. But I thought, Tuppy, you were never going to see her again! Yes! you told me so yesterday evening at the club. You said you’d heard—
DUMBY. And her income, Tuppy? Has she explained that?
LORD AUGUSTUS. [_In a very serious voice_.] She’s going to explain that to-morrow.
DUMBY. Awfully commercial, women nowadays. Our grandmothers threw their caps over the mills, of course, but, by Jove, their granddaughters only throw their caps over mills that can raise the wind for them.
LORD AUGUSTUS. You want to make her out a wicked woman. She is not!
CECIL GRAHAM. Oh! Wicked women bother one. Good women bore one. That is the only difference between them.
LORD AUGUSTUS. [_Puffing a cigar_.] Mrs. Erlynne has a future before her.
DUMBY. Mrs. Erlynne has a past before her.
LORD AUGUSTUS. I prefer women with a past. They’re always so demmed amusing to talk to.
CECIL GRAHAM. Well, you’ll have lots of topics of conversation with _her_, Tuppy. [_Rising and going to him_.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. You’re getting annoying, dear-boy; you’re getting demmed annoying.
CECIL GRAHAM. [_Puts his hands on his shoulders_.] Now, Tuppy, you’ve lost your figure and you’ve lost your character. Don’t lose your temper; you have only got one.
LORD AUGUSTUS. My dear boy, if I wasn’t the most good-natured man in London—
CECIL GRAHAM. We’d treat you with more respect, wouldn’t we, Tuppy? [_Strolls away_.]
DUMBY. The youth of the present day are quite monstrous. They have absolutely no respect for dyed hair. [LORD AUGUSTUS _looks round angrily_.]