Sydney. I’m not actually engaged, if you mean that— [Watching their faces mischievously] but I’m going to be.
Miss Fairfield. Engaged at seventeen! Preposterous!
Sydney. [Instantly] Mother was married at seventeen.
Margaret. That was the war.
Sydney. I don’t see what that’s got to do with it.
Margaret. [Timidly] Sydney—at seventeen, one doesn’t know enough—
Sydney. One doesn’t know the same things, I dare say.
Margaret. One doesn’t know anything at all.
Sydney. Yes, but think of the hopeless sort of world you were seventeen in—even you. As for poor Auntie, as far as knowing things goes—
Margaret. Sydney, my dear, be good!