QUEX.

The ordeal?

d.u.c.h.eSS.

The prolonged discomfort, to which I have subjected myself, of watching your wooing of Miss Eden. I must go.

QUEX.

[_With ill-concealed relief._] Go! leave us?

d.u.c.h.eSS.

I recognise how fitting it is that you should bring your wild, irregular career to a close; but after to-morrow I shall cease to be a spectator of these preliminaries.

QUEX.

[_His eyes sparkling._] After to-morrow!

d.u.c.h.eSS.

Yes, I rejoin poor dear Strood on Friday. True, he has four nurses--he always had four nurses, if you remember?

QUEX.

[_Sympathetically._] Three or four.

d.u.c.h.eSS.

But then, nurses are but nurses. [_n.o.bly._] I must not forget that I am a wife, Harry.

QUEX.

No, no--you mustn't forget that.

d.u.c.h.eSS.

[_Gazing into his eyes._] And so, between you and me, [_placing her hands upon his shoulders_] it is over.

QUEX.

[_Promptly._] Over.

d.u.c.h.eSS.

Finally, irrevocably over.

QUEX.

[_Freeing himself._] Absolutely over. [_Taking her hand and bowing over it solemnly._] Done with.

[_He walks away._

d.u.c.h.eSS.

[_Moving slowly._] That is--almost over.

QUEX.

[_Turning sharply._] Almost?

d.u.c.h.eSS.

We have yet to say good-bye, you know.

QUEX.

[_Returning to her, apprehensively._] We--we have said good-bye.

d.u.c.h.eSS.

Ah, no, no!

QUEX.

[_Again bowing over her hand--with simulated feeling._] Good-bye.

d.u.c.h.eSS.

[_Looking round._] What! _here_?

QUEX.

[_Humouring her._] This romantic old garden! [_pointing to the statuary_] these silent witnesses--beholders, it is likely, of many similar scenes! the--the--setting sun! Could any situation be more appropriate?

d.u.c.h.eSS.

But we are liable to be interrupted at any moment. The joint romance of our lives, Harry, ought not to end with a curt word and formal hand-shake in an exposed spot of this kind. [_Sitting in the garden chair._] Oh, it cannot, must not, end so!

QUEX.

[_Eyeing her uneasily._] Frankly, I see nothing else for it.

d.u.c.h.eSS.

I can't credit it. Why, what was the second reason for my coming here?

QUEX.