EUSTASIA. Shall Eustasia fill his pipe for him? (She takes it.)
NICHOLAS (taking it back). No, thank you. It is filled. (They are silent for a little, and at last he speaks uncomfortably) Er—Eustasia.
EUSTASIA. Yes, darling.
NICHOLAS. We’ve been here a week.
[122]EUSTASIA. Yes, darling. A wonderful, wonderful week. And now to-day we leave this dear house where we have been so happy together, and go out into the world together——
NICHOLAS (who has not been listening to her). A week. Except for the first day, we have had all our meals alone together.
EUSTASIA (sentimentally). Alone, Nicholas.
NICHOLAS. Four meals a day—that’s twenty-four meals.
EUSTASIA. Twenty-four!
NICHOLAS. And at every one of those meals you have asked me at least four times to have something more, when I had already said that I didn’t want anything more; or, in other words, you have forced me to say “No, thank you, Eustasia,” ninety-six times when there was absolutely no need for it.