tch the measles if you can,
Lexy: she'll nurse you; and what a piece of luck that will be for
you!--eh?

LEXY (smiling uneasily). It's so hard to understand you about Mrs.
Morell--

MORELL (tenderly). Ah, my boy, get married--get married to a good
woman; and then you'll understand. That's a foretaste of what will be
best in the Kingdom of Heaven we are trying to establish on earth. That
will cure you of dawdling. An honest man feels that he must pay Heaven
for every hour of happiness with a good spell of hard, unselfish work
to make others happy. We have no more right to consume happiness
without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. Get a
wife like my Candida; and you'll always be in arrear with your
repayment. (He pats Lexy affectionately on the back, and is leaving the
room when Lexy calls to him.)

LEXY. Oh, wait a bit: I forgot. (Morell halts and turns with the door
knob in his hand.) Your father-in-law is coming round to see you.
(Morell shuts the door again, with a complete change of manner.)

MORELL (surprised and not pleased). Mr. Burgess?

LEXY. Yes. I passed him in the park, arguing with somebody. He gave me
good day and asked me to let you know that he was coming.

MORELL (half incredulous). But he hasn't called here for--I may almost
say for years. Are you sure, Lexy? You're not joking, are you?

LEXY (earnestly). No, sir, really.

MORELL (thoughtfully). Hm! Time for him to take another look at Candida
before she grows out of his knowledge. (He resigns himself to the
inevitable, and goes out. Lexy looks after him with beaming, foolish
worship.)

LEXY. What a good man! What a thorough, loving soul he is! (He takes
Morell's place at the table, making himself very comfortable as he
takes out a cigaret.)

PROSERPINE (impatiently, pulling the letter she has been working at off
the typewriter and folding it.) Oh, a man ought to be able to be fond
of his wife without making a fool of himself about her.

LEXY (shocked). Oh, Miss Prossy!

PROSERPINE (rising busily and coming to the stationery case to get an
envelope, in which she encloses the letter as she speaks). Candida
here, and Candida there, and Candida everywhere! (She licks the
envelope.) It's enough to drive anyone out of their SENSES (thumping
the envelope to make it stick) to hear a perfectly commonplace woman
raved about in that absurd manner merely because she's got good hair,
and a tolerable figure.

LEXY (with rep