_, highly conscientious, takes the orthodox view that his lawless
marriage must be nullified. His wife, though horrified at the resurrection
of her impossible first husband, permits herself to recognise the
humorously ironic side of things. _Mr. Pim_, fortunately located in the
immediate neighbourhood, is sent for that he may throw further light on the
painful subject of Tellworthy's revival. He now reports--what he had
vaguely imagined himself to have mentioned in the first instance--that
Tellworthy had met his death at Marseilles through swallowing a
herring-bone. The Second Act closes with a burst of jubilant hysterics on
the part of _Mrs. Marden_.

But the situation is only partially relieved. True, the old husband is dead
all right, but the _Mardens'_ marriage is still bigamous; they have been
living all this time in what would be regarded in the eyes of Heaven (and,
still worse, the county of Bucks) as sin. However, a trifling formality at
a registry-office can rectify this and nobody need be any the wiser. This
at least is _Marden's_ attitude, always free from any suspicion of
complexity. But his wife (if that is the word for her), being of a more
subtle nature, determines to make profit out of the situation. She points
out to him that she is at present the widow Tellworthy and that she must be
wooed all over again, and can only be won on her own terms. These include a
recognition of the niece's engagement (has not the young artist an equal
right with _Marden_ to a speedy marriage with the woman of his choice?) and
a concession to her taste in futuristic curtains.

[Illustration: A DROPPER OF UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES.

_Mr. Pim._ Mr. DION BOUCICAULT.

_Mrs Marden._ Miss IRENE VANBRUGH.]

At this juncture _Mr. Pim_ drifts in again to correct an error of memory.
The name of the gentleman who succumbed to the herring-bone was not
Tellworthy (he must have got that name into his head through hearing it
mentioned as that of _Mrs. Marden's_ first husband). It was really
Polwhistle--either Henry or Ernest Polwhistle; he was not quite sure which.
Everything is thus restored to the _status quo ante_, except that _Marden_,
in a spasm of generous reaction, feels himself morally bound to abide by
the new conditions that his wife had laid down.

_Mr. Pim_ only passes by once more to announce his settled conviction that
_Polwhistle's_ Christian name was Ernest and not Henry.

It will be seen that the play is original in desig