han ourselves--aren't we almost on the
other side of things? If we ever meet again, we shall look curiously at
each other, and wonder, was it all true? As it is, I am scarcely sure that
you are real. Everything is so still, so strange. Jack! He is up there, of
course, the dear boy, his big red face pressed on the pillow. Oh,
Geoffrey, when Jack brought you to me, and I was engaged--if you only
hadn't been so loyal!

SIR GEOFFREY. [_Grimly._] Do you know what you are saying?

LADY TORMINSTER. I am saying the things a woman says once in a lifetime,
and feels all her life. Oh, it was all so simple! You loved me--you ...
were blind because of Jack ... And I married Jack ... I mustn't complain
... I am one of the hundreds of women who marry--Jacks.

SIR GEOFFREY. A better, finer man never lived.

LADY TORMINSTER. I dare say--in fact, I am sure. But you should see us
when we are alone, sitting there night after night, with never a word to
say to each other! You tell me you're tired of polo, and golf, and bridge.
Well, how about me? And need you be scowling so fiercely, and begrudge me
my one little wail, you who are going away?

SIR GEOFFREY. [_Angrily._] Yes, I am going away, and I shall marry a
Chinese. I shall marry the first Chinese woman I meet.

LADY TORMINSTER. This is very sudden. Why?

SIR GEOFFREY. Because, at least, not knowing the language, she won't be
able to say unkind things about me to my friends.

LADY TORMINSTER. [_Her chin on her hand, looking squarely at him._]
Geoffrey, _is_ Jack a bore?

SIR GEOFFREY. He never bores me.

LADY TORMINSTER. That's because he shot your tiger, and you rubbed his
nose. Besides, you talk about horses, and so on. And yet I heard him, for
a solid hour, telling you about a rubber he lost at bridge through his
partner making diamonds trumps when he should have made spades.

SIR GEOFFREY. He's not clever, of course--and you are. But still! Is
cleverness everything?

LADY TORMINSTER. Haven't I told you he's the very best fellow in all the
world? And do you think I'm posing, pretending that I'm misunderstood, and
the rest? You know me better. I am indulging, for once, in the luxury of
absolute candour.

SIR GEOFFREY. You loved him--

LADY TORMINSTER. Of course I loved him--and I love him now.

SIR GEOFFREY. [_Triumphantly._] You see!

LADY TORMINSTER. If we women had had a hand in the making of the language,
how many words there would be to express our feelings tow