e charmed with the gaiety, the vivacity, the happy
air of Brussels.

VIVIE [springing up with an exclamation of loathing] Agh!

PRAED [rising] Whats the matter?

FRANK [rising] Hallo, Viv!

VIVIE [to Praed, with deep reproach] Can you find no better example of
your beauty and romance than Brussels to talk to me about?

PRAED [puzzled] Of course it's very different from Verona. I don't
suggest for a moment that--

VIVIE [bitterly] Probably the beauty and romance come to much the same
in both places.

PRAED [completely sobered and much concerned] My dear Miss Warren:
I--[looking enquiringly at Frank] Is anything the matter?

FRANK. She thinks your enthusiasm frivolous, Praddy. She's had ever such
a serious call.

VIVIE [sharply] Hold your tongue, Frank. Don't be silly.

FRANK [sitting down] Do you call this good manners, Praed?

PRAED [anxious and considerate] Shall I take him away, Miss Warren? I
feel sure we have disturbed you at your work.

VIVIE. Sit down: I'm not ready to go back to work yet. [Praed sits]. You
both think I have an attack of nerves. Not a bit of it. But there are
two subjects I want dropped, if you don't mind.

One of them [to Frank] is love's young dream in any shape or form: the
other [to Praed] is the romance and beauty of life, especially Ostend
and the gaiety of Brussels. You are welcome to any illusions you may
have left on these subjects: I have none. If we three are to remain
friends, I must be treated as a woman of business, permanently single
[to Frank] and permanently unromantic [to Praed].

FRANK. I also shall remain permanently single until you change your
mind. Praddy: change the subject. Be eloquent about something else.

PRAED [diffidently] I'm afraid theres nothing else in the world that I
_can_ talk about. The Gospel of Art is the only one I can preach. I know
Miss Warren is a great devotee of the Gospel of Getting On; but we
can't discuss that without hurting your feelings, Frank, since you are
determined not to get on.

FRANK. Oh, don't mind my feelings. Give me some improving advice by
all means: it does me ever so much good. Have another try to make a
successful man of me, Viv. Come: lets have it all: energy, thrift,
foresight, self-respect, character. Don't you hate people who have no
character, Viv?

VIVIE [wincing] Oh, stop, stop. Let us have no more of that horrible
cant. Mr Praed: if there are really only those two gospels in the world,
we had better al