MRS. SWEET. Now, then, are you ready?
SWEET. (putting on his hat and taking his whip) Good bye, Short, take care of yourself. We shall find you at home I suppose when we come back.
SHORT. Oh, yes, no fear of that. A safe ride to you. Good bye. (Exit SWEET and MRS. SWEET, L. C.) Ha! ha! ha! there he goes! poor tame snake! A model of a husband!
Re-enter, MRS. SHORT door, L. 1 E., without her habit, as at first.
MRS. SHORT. (aside, looking after MR. and MRS. SWEET) There they go. How I should like to be with them!
SHORT. I wish them joy. Ha! ha! Sweet will make more than one wry face when he comes to sit down to dinner. (seeing his wife) Why, Loo, I am afraid you don’t stay at home with a good grace.
MRS. SHORT. Oh don’t say so, I am sure I am always delighted to be with you—besides, it is no less a duty than (in a lower tone) a pleasure to me.
SHORT. (eating heartily all the while he is talking) Now, I ask you if we are not ten times better off comfortably at home here with a good luncheon before us, than if we were jolting about on the backs of those brutes, exposed all the while to the danger—why, my dear, you are in a brown study.
MRS. SHORT. (recollecting herself) Eh! yes, certainly—what did you say?
SHORT. Who is it they are going with?