(Enter Mr. Reach Haslam cautiously, back.)
Mr. R. Haslam. (Mildly cheerful.) Well, where have you got to?
Flora. I think we're gradually working back again to the importance of marriage in the life of the husband.
Mr. R. Haslam. That's better! That's better! (Sits.)
Mrs. R. Haslam. Flora, you'll pardon me offering my opinion, as an experienced student of human nature, but when you say "the importance of marriage," I think you really mean your own individual importance. Personal vanity is very misleading.
Flora. Oh! It is.
Mrs. R. Haslam. Your attitude might be more defensible if you were a different kind of woman. I don't say it would be more defensible, but it might be.
Cedric. Oh, look here, mater——
Mrs. R. Haslam. Cedric, may I venture to converse in my own study?
Flora. (To Cedric.) Don't you understand that this is not your act? (Rising.) How a different kind of woman?