HENRIETTE [laughing] I didn’t say ‘I am here’ in that voice. I simply answered ‘Yes.’

GEORGE. ‘Hullo, Madame George Dupont. Is George there?’ [Laughing] You were taken in! You can’t say you weren’t. [In the woman’s voice] ‘George is out. Who is it speaking to me?’ I could hardly keep it up. ‘Me, Gustave.’ You thought it was, too.

HENRIETTE. What is there astonishing in your friend Gustave telephoning?

GEORGE. And when I added [imitating Gustave’s voice] ‘How are you this morning, dearest?’ you gave a ’What?’ all flustered, like that: ‘What?’

HENRIETTE. Yes, but then I guessed it was you.

GEORGE. I went into fits. What a lark! [He sits down in front of her on the arm of the chair close to the fireplace and watches her happily].

HENRIETTE [sitting down and returning his glance] What a funny little fellow you are!

GEORGE. Me?

HENRIETTE [gaily] Do you think I don’t understand you, after knowing you for fifteen years and being married to you a twelvemonth?