egularly as old Jack. And don't you think this
is fine? Here we are, we two, meeting just as we shall meet on the other
side of the Never-Never Land. It's a chance for a man to speak to a woman,
and tell her things.

LADY TORMINSTER. What things!

SIR GEOFFREY. That's just it--what things? What have I to say, after all?
I am going to-morrow because I am a fantastic, capricious ass. Also
because I'm lonely.

LADY TORMINSTER. How will China help you?

SIR GEOFFREY. They colour it green on the map--and there _is_ such a lot
of it!

LADY TORMINSTER. You should get married.

SIR GEOFFREY. [_With a sudden burst of passion._] _You_ say that--you!

[_He starts back, ashamed, and hangs his head._ LADY TORMINSTER
_throws a quick glance at him, then looks ahead of her, puffing
quietly at her cigarette._

LADY TORMINSTER. [_Quietly._] So that is why you are going?

SIR GEOFFREY. [_With a great sigh of relief._] Now, that really is fine of
you! Every other woman in the world would have seized that chance for a
melodramatic exit. "Good-night, Sir Geoffrey; I must go to my husband."
"Good-night, Lady Torminster." A clasp of the hand--a hot tear--mine--on
your wrist. But you sit there. Splendid!

LADY TORMINSTER. I ask you again--is that truly why you are going?

SIR GEOFFREY. Well, yes, that's the fact. I apologise humbly--it's so
conventional. Isn't it?

LADY TORMINSTER. I suppose it's difficult for human beings to invent new
situations.

SIR GEOFFREY. You've known it, of course, all the time; you've known it
ever since Jack brought me to you, the day after you were engaged. And
that's nine years ago. It's the usual kind of fatality.

LADY TORMINSTER. These things happen.

SIR GEOFFREY. Yes. Well, I thought I was cured. I've been here five days,
and I find I am not. So I go. That's best, isn't it?

LADY TORMINSTER. Yes.

SIR GEOFFREY. It's so infernally stupid. You're a beautiful woman, of
course; but there are heaps of beautiful women. You've qualities--well, so
have other women, too. I'm only forty-one--and, as you say, why don't I
marry? Simply because of you. Because you've an uncomfortable knack of
intruding between me and the other lady.

LADY TORMINSTER. That is a great misfortune.

SIR GEOFFREY. It's most annoying. So I shall try China. I shall come back
in two years--I shall be forty-three then--I shall come back, sound as a
bell; and I shall marry some healthy, pink-cheeked young woman