That is so, Sir Randle—if you and Lady Filson will have the patience——
[Sir Randle motions Philip to the settee on the right. Philip sits. Then Ottoline sits on the settee before the fireplace, and Sir Randle in the arm-chair by Philip. Lady Filson turns in her chair to listen.
Sir Randle.
[To Philip, majestically.] Before you embark upon your explanation, permit me to define my position—mine and Lady Filson's. [Philip nods.] I am going to make a confession to you; and I should like to feel that I am making it as one gentleman to another. [Philip nods again.] Mr. Mackworth, Lady Filson and I are ambitious people. Not for ourselves. For ourselves, all we desire is rest and retirement—[closing his eyes] if it were possible, obscurity. But where our children are concerned, it is different; and, to be frank—I must be frank—we had hoped that, in the event of Ottoline remarrying, she would contract such a marriage as is commonly described as brilliant.
Philip.
[Dryly.] Such a marriage as her marriage to Monsieur de Chaumié, for example.
Sir Randle.
[Closing his eyes.] De mortuis, Mr. Mackworth! I must decline——
Philip.
I merely wished, as a basis of argument, to get at your exact interpretation of brilliancy.