f spending the day. (MRS. KNOWLE comes
in) Well, Mary, I hear that we have no daughter now.

MRS. KNOWLE. Ah, there you are, Henry. Thank Heaven that _you_ are
back safely.

MR. KNOWLE. My dear, I always meant to come back safely. Didn't you
expect me?

MRS. KNOWLE. I had given up hope. Jane here will tell you what a
terrible morning I have had; prostrate on the sofa, mourning for my
loved ones. My only child torn from me, my husband--dead.

MR. KNOWLE (surprised). Oh, I was dead?

MRS. KNOWLE. I pictured the car smashed to atoms, and you lying in the
road, dead, with Peters by your side.

MR. KNOWLE. Ah! How was Peters?

MRS. KNOWLE (with a shrug). I didn't look. What is a chauffeur to one
who has lost her husband and her only child in the same morning?

MR. KNOWLE. Still, I think you might have looked.

JANE. Sandy's all right, Aunt Mary. You know she often goes out alone
all day like this.

MRS. KNOWLE. Ah, _is_ she alone? Jane, did you count the gardeners as
I asked you?

MR. KNOWLE. Count the gardeners?

MRS. KNOWLE. To make sure that none of them is missing too.

JANE. It's quite all right, Aunt Mary. Sandy will be back by tea-time.

MRS. KNOWLE (resigned). It all comes of christening her Melisande. You
know, Henry, I quite thought you said Millicent.

MR. KNOWLE. Well, talking about tea, my dear--at which happy meal our
long-lost daughter will be restored to us--we have a visitor coming, a
nice young fellow who takes an interest in prints.

MRS. KNOWLE. I've heard nothing of this, Henry.

MR. KNOWLE. No, my dear, that's why I'm telling you now.

MRS. KNOWLE. A young man?

MR. KNOWLE. Yes.

MRS. KNOWLE. Nice-looking?

MR. KNOWLE. Yes.

MRS. KNOWLE. Rich?

MR. KNOWLE. I forgot to ask him, Mary. However, we can remedy that
omission as soon as he arrives.

MRS. KNOWLE. It's a very unfortunate day for him to have chosen.
Here's Sandy lost, and I'm not fit to be seen, and--Jane, your hair
wants tidying----

MR. KNOWLE. He is not coming to see you or Sandy or Jane, my dear; he
is coming to see me. Fortunately, I am looking very beautiful this
afternoon.

MRS. KNOWLE. Jane, you had better be in the garden, dear, and see if
you can stop Sandy before she comes in, and just give her a warning. I
don't know _what_ she'll look like after roaming the fields all day,
and falling into pools----

MR. KNOWLE. A sweet disorder in the dress kindles in clothes a
wantonness.

MRS. KNOWLE. I will