that way. [A pause] At the
present moment you owe, as I understand it, eleven hundred pounds.

BILL. About that.

SIR WILLIAM. Mere flea-bite. [A pause] I've a proposition to make.

BILL. Won't it do to-morrow, sir?

SIR WILLIAM. "To-morrow" appears to be your motto in life.

BILL. Thanks!

SIR WILLIAM. I'm anxious to change it to-day. [BILL looks at him in
silence] It's time you took your position seriously, instead of
hanging about town, racing, and playing polo, and what not.

BILL. Go ahead!

At something dangerous in his voice, SIR WILLIAM modifies his
attitude.

SIR, WILLIAM. The proposition's very simple. I can't suppose
anything so rational and to your advantage will appeal to you, but
[drily] I mention it. Marry a nice girl, settle down, and stand for
the division; you can have the Dower House and fifteen hundred a
year, and I'll pay your debts into the bargain. If you're elected
I'll make it two thousand. Plenty of time to work up the
constituency before we kick out these infernal Rads. Carpetbagger
against you; if you go hard at it in the summer, it'll be odd if you
don't manage to get in your three days a week, next season. You can
take Rocketer and that four-year-old--he's well up to your weight,
fully eight and a half inches of bone. You'll only want one other.
And if Miss--if your wife means to hunt----

BILL. You've chosen my wife, then?

SIR WILLIAM. [With a quick look] I imagine, you've some girl in
your mind.

BILL. Ah!

SIR WILLIAM: Used not to be unnatural at your age. I married your
mother at twenty-eight. Here you are, eldest son of a family that
stands for something. The more I see of the times the more I'm
convinced that everybody who is anybody has got to buckle to, and
save the landmarks left. Unless we're true to our caste, and
prepared to work for it, the landed classes are going to go under to
this infernal democratic spirit in the air. The outlook's very
serious. We're threatened in a hundred ways. If you mean business,
you'll want a wife. When I came into the property I should have been
lost without your mother.

BILL. I thought this was coming.

SIR WILLIAM. [With a certain geniality] My dear fellow, I don't
want to put a pistol to your head. You've had a slack rein so far.
I've never objected to your sowing a few wild oats-so long as you
--er--[Unseen by SIR WILLIAM, BILL makes a sudden movement] Short of
that--at a