_Servant._ Mr. Edward Athelney, miss, is in the drawing room.
_Fred._ (_calmly_). Miss Van Brugh is not at home.
_Eve._ (_astonished_). Oh, Frederick, I am! [_Exit SERVANT._
_Fred._ Well, yes, of course in one sense you certainly are. But being engaged upon a good work, with which an interruption would seriously interfere, you may be said--metaphorically, of course, and for the purposes of this particular case--to be, to a certain extent, out.
_Eve._ (_puzzled_). I am quite sure I am at home, dear, in every possible sense of the word. You don’t dislike Edward, do you?
_Fred._ You know very well that I dislike no one.
_Eve._ I’m sure of that. You love all men.
_Fred._ No doubt, Eve, I love all men. But you will understand that I love some men less than others; and, although I love Edward Athelney very much indeed, I love him, perhaps, less than anybody else in the world.
_Eve._ But this is quite astonishing! Has Ted Athelney a fault? What is it? Come, sir, name one fault if you can. And mind, he’s my big brother, or as good, so be careful.
_Fred._ I don’t believe in your amateur brother. With every desire to confine himself to the duties of the character he undertakes, he is nevertheless apt to overlook the exact point where the brother ends and the lover begins.
_Fred._ The brother by birth keeps well within bounds, but the amateur treads so often on the border line that in time it becomes obliterated and the functions merge.
_Eve._ Ted Athelney a lover of mine! Oh, that’s too absurd. Ted Athelney--that great, clumsy, middle-aged, awkward, good-natured, apple-faced man, a lover of anybody’s, and least of all, of mine! Why he’s forty! Oh, it’s shocking--it’s horrible! I won’t hear any thing so dreadful of any one I love so much.
_Eve._ Oh, yes, I _love_ him--but I don’t LOVE him. (_Nestling against FRED._) Don’t _you_ understand the difference?
_Fred._ I don’t like his calling you Eve.
_Eve._ Why you wouldn’t have him--oh, you never _could_ want Ted Athelney to call me Miss Van Brugh?
_Eve._ Of course he does, dear. Kisses me? So does mamma!
_Fred._ No doubt, but there’s some difference.
_Fred._ This, if no other: that I object to the one, and don’t object to the other. (_Turns away._)