(Exit TILLY.

Enter GRACE, R. 2 E.

SEL. (taking card). "Captain Cornelius Katskill." I am not
at home, I never shall be at home again; what does he want?

MRS. S. (aside to SELWYN). Oh, Sam, I forgot to tell
you after all. It's the young Irish officer we met at the
Claremonts' and who was so attentive to Grace, in fact,
I fully expect he has called to ask permission to consider
himself formally engaged to her.

SEL. Grace engaged! What nonsense; she _is_ engaged,
isn't she?

GRACE (indignantly). No, papa!

SEL. Yes, you are! Or you are going to be, which is just
the same, to my friend Fred Bellamy. I must repay him for
saving my life!

GRACE. "Pay," papa! You talk of me as though I were a cheque
instead of a child! I don't _love_ Mr. Bellamy!

SEL. Not love him! He saved your father's life, and you
dare to say you don't love him; this is the gratitude of girls!
(Crosses to L.)

GRACE. I can't--I can't; for I love somebody else.

SEL. Somebody else! You mustn't, can't, won't, don't,
or shan't love somebody else!

GRACE. Yes, I do!

MRS. S. Yes, she does, and you wouldn't be brute enough to
coerce her young affections, would you?

SEL. (savagely). Yes, I would! Young affections! Young
fiddlesticks! (Crosses, R.)

MRS. S. (going L., consoling GRACE). Never mind, my child,
your father is without poetry! and consequently without feeling!
Ugh! you brute.

(Exeunt GRACE and MRS. SELWYN, L. U. E.

SEL. I will never sacrifice my Frederick! Never! Never!
(Calling.) Dibbs!

Enter DIBBS, L. U. E.

DIBBS. Yessir!

SEL. Give the gentleman his card back, tell him to call again
next year, say that we have got the sweeps or the measles in
the house, at any rate get him to go! Where's my felt hat?

DIBBS. Billycock, sir? Yessir!

(Exit DIBBS, R. U. E.

SEL. (aside). Let me see, I must call on this bloodthirsty
poet to begin with--Dibbs! Where's that felt hat?

Enter DIBBS with felt hat and umbrella.

DIBBS. Here you are, sir! and here's a letter, sir, just
brought by a commissionaire--marked important, he says it's
from a young lady.

SEL. Give it to me! (Reading envelope.) "Fred Bellamy,
Esq." perhaps its from the girl to whom I gave his name last
night! Shall I open it? Yes! He saved my life, and from that
moment he gave me the right to---