you again.

[PROBYN enters.]

PROBYN.

[To BROOKE.] Sir Julian is coming into the conservatory, sir.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Pa! [PROBYN goes out.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Oh, dear Sir Julian! [She runs out.]

VALENTINE WHITE.

Look sharp, Brooke. Let me out.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Val, I'll tell you what. Come upstairs and smoke a cigarette in my room,
and I'll bring the Mater and Imogen to you on the quiet when the people
are gone.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Why, Brooke, do you think that Aunt Kitty and Imogen want a roving
relative on the premises who isn't worth tuppence!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Bosh! Look out, here's pa! He seems awfully mumpish. Come on.

[He takes VALENTINE out. Directly they are gone LADY EUPHEMIA re-enters
with SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY, an aristocratic but rather weak-looking man of
about fifty-five, wearing his Ministerial uniform.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Are you pleased to get back, uncle?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

[Emphatically.] Yes.

[She places him in the arm-chair. He sinks into it with a sigh.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

How is your neuralgia?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Intense. It has been so ever since----

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

[Putting her smelling-bottle to his nose.] Ever since?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Ever since I took Office. Thank you.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Was it a very brilliant Drawing-Room?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

I think it must have been. I have been more than usually trodden upon.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Did you catch a glimpse of Aunt Kitty or of any of our people?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

I _heard_ Lady Twombley. What inexhaustible spirit she has! Euphemia, my
dear, I confide in you. But for Lady Twombley I could never endure the
badgering, the browbeating, the hackling, for which I seem especially
selected.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

It's _too_ unjust.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Oh, I know I am going to have a bad time in the House to-night!

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Don't dwell upon it, uncle.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Euphemia! [He jumps up almost fiercely.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Uncle Julian!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Certain members of the Opposition are going too far. They regard me as a
bull in the arena. They goad me, they pierce me with questions. And
then, the lack of journalistic sympathy! Look here!

[He stealthily produces a newspaper from his pocket.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

[Reproachfully.] Uncle Julian, you've bought a newspa