LADY TWOMBLEY.

Pa?

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

I must speak to you.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

But Dora has just brought a Highland youth here.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

I can't help it.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

What's wrong, pa? How pale and waxy you look!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

[Handing her the letter.] An urgent letter from old Mr. Mason, my solicitor, about my affairs.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, Lor', pa--another!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

You have it upside down.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Everything connected with our affairs _will_ get that way.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Mason is imperative.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

He insists upon your considering your pecuniary position.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

What shall I do?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Accede to his request--consider it.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

But I am constantly considering it!

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Hush, pa!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

No man's pecuniary position has ever demanded or received more consideration than my own. Day and night my pecuniary position lashes my brain into the consistency of a whipped egg.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Pa, be calm!

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

Kate, my pecuniary position interposes between me and grave public questions. My very spectacles are toned by it. It is in every blue-book, in every page of Hansard, in the preamble of every Bill.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, dear pa!

Sir Julian Twombley.

It sits with me in committees, accompanies me into the lobbies; it receives deputations, replies to questions in the House; it forms part of the deliberations of the Cabinet. It warps my political sympathies; it distorts my judgment; it obscures my eloquence, and it lames my logic! [Taking the letter from LADY TWOMBLEY.] And Mason--asks--me--to consider it!

[Leans his head on his hands. She sits on the arm of his chair.]

LADY TWOMBLEY.

[Tearfully.] Julian, you--mustn't--give way. Suppose the members of the Opposition saw you like this.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

[With a groan.] Oh!

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Think of those persons who sit--where is it?--on the hatchway--or below the gangway, or some uncomfortable place. How rejoiced they'd be!

[Shaking him gently.] Have courage, Julian--perk up, pa dear.

SIR JULIAN TWOMBLEY.

I cannot go on, Kitty.

LADY TWOMBLEY.