ket and wiping her fingers upon it-- sarcastically._] Have
you come to tell me you've got some work to do at last? Break it
gently, Nicko; the shock might be too great for me.

JEYES.

Oh, _I'd_ find a billet soon enough, Lil, if only I'd an incentive to
hunt for it.

LILY.

Incentive! You _had_ an incentive twelve months ago, when I was
willing to engage myself to you absolutely if you could obtain a good
secretaryship or something of the sort.

JEYES.

I-- I've no fancy for a beggarly secretaryship.

LILY.

No; all _you've_ a fancy for, seemingly, is for living on your
unfortunate people. [_Throwing him his handkerchief and leaving him._]
How a man of your age can rest satisfied with being a burden to others
passes my dull comprehension!

JEYES.

I-- I _have_ been a bit slack, I own-- I _have_ been a bit leisurely;
but----

LILY.

[_Inspecting some of the flowers about the room._] Nicko, that
pendant, or whatever it is, you've given me-- I don't want to hurt
you, but I won't accept it. You take it away with you; do you hear?

JEYES.

[_Not heeding her, weakly._] Lil----

LILY.

I'm in earnest; you remove it from off my premises.

JEYES.

Lil-- [_she returns to him_] my eldest brother-- Robert-- [_looking up
at her_] Bob-- [_She nods inquiringly._] Bob's at me to go out to
Rhodesia, to manage a group of stock farms he's interested in near
Bulawayo.

LILY.

Oh, why don't you go?

JEYES.

[_Forlornly._] Rhodesia! Bulawayo! [_Looking up at her again with a
dismal smile._] Come with me?

LILY.

Don't be absurd.

JEYES.

[_Rising and putting his hands upon her shoulders._] No, you wouldn't
care a straw-- not a brass farthing-- if I _did_ go, would yer!

LILY.

[_Softening again._] Stuff! I should miss you horribly. [_Toying with
a button of his waistcoat._] Who'd bring me home from the theatre at
night then, and from rehearsals; who----?

JEYES.

Ah, _who_! [_His grip tightening on her._] _Who!_

LILY.

[_Wincing._] Ssss! You'll bruise my skin if you're not careful.

JEYES.

[_Taking her hand and crumpling it in his._] Well, it might be that
you'd miss me for a while-- the old dog that you're accustomed to find
lying on your door-mat; [_pressing her hand to his lips_] but you
don't _love_ me, Lil-- not even as much as you did a year ago. You
don't _love_ me!

LILY.

[_With a faint shrug of her shoulders._] Perhaps I don't, in the way
you mean; [_wistfully_] perhaps i