MACPHAIL.

I--I just wish you had been there.

IMOGEN.

Do you? Why?

MACPHAIL.

Because--because--because I'm thinking there was room for more people.

IMOGEN.

Oh, of course. [She goes to the window and looks out.] Lady Macphail is just driving away.

MACPHAIL.

No!

IMOGEN.

Yes, there she goes.

[MACPHAIL goes hastily to the window and looks out.]

MACPHAIL.

[To himself.] Oh! Mother!

[He goes out quickly unnoticed by IMOGEN.]

IMOGEN.

She has turned the corner, Sir Colin. Did you see her? Why, where is he?

[VALENTINE enters. She does not see him.]

VALENTINE WHITE.

Good-bye, Imogen. [She turns to him.]

IMOGEN.

Ah! [Falteringly.] Why will you go away, Val?

VALENTINE WHITE.

You know my craze. Everything in this country is so stuck-up.

IMOGEN.

Mamma's not--stuck-up, as you call it.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Her gowns frighten me. My first recollection of anything is Aunt Kitty in a print-skirt at a wash-tub.

IMOGEN.

Hush! don't, Val!

VALENTINE WHITE.

There now! you're horrified!

IMOGEN.

One doesn't wish everybody to know.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Then that's being stuck-up, Imogen.

IMOGEN.

Then we differ.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Of course. Everybody does differ from me in this stuck-up country. Wish me good-bye.

IMOGEN.

[Looking away.] I presume my brother Brooke is stuck-up also?

VALENTINE WHITE.

Well, he appears to have fallen into the starch after that wash of Aunt Kitty's.

IMOGEN.

Indeed. And papa?

VALENTINE WHITE.

Oh, of course, he's ironed out by the House of Commons.

IMOGEN.