in the direction
of poetic dandyism in the arrangement of his hair as any man who is not
a professional artist can afford to in England. He is obviously very
much in love with the lady, and is, in fact, yielding to an
irresistible impulse to throw his arms around her.

THE LADY. Don't--oh don't be horrid. Please, Mr. Lunn [she rises from
the lounge and retreats behind it]! Promise me you won't be horrid.

GREGORY LUNN. I'm not being horrid, Mrs. Juno. I'm not going to be
horrid. I love you: that's all. I'm extraordinarily happy.

MRS. JUNO. You will really be good?

GREGORY. I'll be whatever you wish me to be. I tell you I love you. I
love loving you. I don't want to be tired and sorry, as I should be if
I were to be horrid. I don't want you to be tired and sorry. Do come
and sit down again.

MRS. JUNO [coming back to her seat]. You're sure you don't want
anything you oughtn't to?

GREGORY. Quite sure. I only want you [she recoils]. Don't be alarmed. I
like wanting you. As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living.
Satisfaction is death.

MRS. JUNO. Yes; but the impulse to commit suicide is sometimes
irresistible.

GREGORY. Not with you.

MRS. JUNO. What!

GREGORY. Oh, it sounds uncomplimentary; but it isn't really. Do you
know why half the couples who find themselves situated as we are now
behave horridly?

MRS. JUNO. Because they can't help it if they let things go too far.

GREGORY. Not a bit of it. It's because they have nothing else to do,
and no other way of entertaining each other. You don't know what it is
to be alone with a woman who has little beauty and less conversation.
What is a man to do? She can't talk interestingly; and if he talks that
way himself she doesn't understand him. He can't look at her: if he
does, he only finds out that she isn't beautiful. Before the end of
five minutes they are both hideously bored. There's only one thing that
can save the situation; and that's what you call being horrid. With a
beautiful, witty, kind woman, there's no time for such follies. It's so
delightful to look at her, to listen to her voice, to hear all she has
to say, that nothing else happens. That is why the woman who is
supposed to have a thousand lovers seldom has one; whilst the stupid,
graceless animals of women have dozens.

MRS. JUNO. I wonder! It's quite true that when one feels in danger one
talks like mad to stave it off, even when one doesn't quite want to
stave it off.