VALENTINE WHITE.

Well?

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

I think it will pretty considerably wound your susceptibilities to hear that my sister Imogen is being presented by the Mater this afternoon.

VALENTINE WHITE.

[In horror.] Presented!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Presented at Court--Drawing-Room, you know.

VALENTINE WHITE.

How dare they! poor little child!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Haw, haw! If you'll wait a few minutes you'll see an imposing display of trains and feathers. Some of them are coming on here after the ceremony to drink tea, I believe.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Trains and feathers! Good gracious, Brooke, Imogen must have grown up!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Here's her portrait--what?

VALENTINE WHITE.

[Staring at the portrait.] I am right, Brooke--she _has_ grown up!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Haw!

VALENTINE WHITE.

Eight years ago she was a romp, with a frock that always had a tear in it, and a head like a cornfield in the wind. Just look at this! While I've been away they've given her a new frock and brushed her hair. What an awful change!

[PROBYN appears at the conservatory entrance.]

PROBYN.

Lady Euphemia Vibart.

[LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART, a handsome, distinguished-looking, and elegantly dressed girl of about twenty, enters. She scarcely notices VALENTINE, who bows formally.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

No one has returned yet, Brooke?

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Effie, don't you recollect Mr. White?

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Oh! how do you do? [She shakes hands with him in an affected manner.] We are distantly related, I remember.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Lady Euphemia, I join you in remembering the relationship--and the distance.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Oh, I don't mean that, Mr. White. At any rate, we were excellent friends many years ago when our cousin Imogen used to give us tea in her school-room. She will be _too_ rejoiced at your return.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

[At the window.] Hullo, I think pa has come home.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Good-by, Lady Euphemia.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

I say, Effie, Mr. White won't stay.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

[Indifferently.] What a pity!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

He has turned against civilization, you know, and has become a sort of pleasant cannibal.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

A cannibal! That is _too_ interesting. Pray remain, Mr. White. My brother, Lord Drumdurris, is on duty at the Palace to-day and is coming on here. We all knew each other as children. He will be _too_ delighted.

VALENTINE WHITE.

I recollect Lord Vibart, as he then was, very well. He once burnt me with a red-hot poker.