HILDEGARDE. Well, naturally! I take that for granted. I was expecting something rather more original.
TRANTO. You shall have it. I think that you and I are very largely responsible for the situation. I think our joint responsibility binds us inextricably together.
HILDEGARDE. Mr. Tranto!
TRANTO. Certainly. There's no doubt in my mind that your father was enormously influenced by Sampson Straight's article on the Honours scandal. In fact he told me so. And seeing that you wrote it and I published it—
HILDEGARDE ( alarmed ). You didn't tell him I'm Sampson Straight?
TRANTO. Can you imagine me doing such a thing?
HILDEGARDE. I hope not. Shall I tell you what I think of the situation?
TRANTO. I wish you would.
HILDEGARDE. I think such situations would never arise if parents weren't so painfully unromantic. I'm not speaking particularly of papa and mamma. I mean all parents. But take mamma. She's absolutely matter-of-fact. And papa's nearly as bad. Of course I know they're always calling each other by pet names; but that's mere camouflage for their matter-of-factness. Whereas if they both had in them a little of the real romance of life—everything would be different. At the same time I needn't say that in this affair that we're now in the middle of—there's no question of ratiocination.
TRANTO. Of what?