GEORGE. I don’t know, but I shall have one. Say what you like, I shall. What a glorious crowd there’ll be!
HENRIETTE. That’s all in the dim, distant future.
GEORGE. Ah, yes.
HENRIETTE. Yes, happily. [Getting up] Well, do you mind if I go and pay my visits now?
GEORGE. Run along, run along. I shall work hard while you are out. Look at all these papers! I shall be up to my eyes in them before you’re downstairs. Good-bye.
HENRIETTE. Good-bye. [She kisses him and goes out at the back by the right].
George lights a cigarette, looks at himself in the glass, and throws himself into the easy chair to the left, humming a tune. By way of being more comfortable, he moves away the writing chair and puts his feet on the desk, smoking and humming in perfect contentment. Madame Dupont comes in by the door on the left.
GEORGE [getting up] Hullo! Why, mother! We had no wire, so we didn’t expect you till to-morrow. Henriette has just gone out. I can call her back.
MME. DUPONT. No; I did not want Henriette to be here when I came.
GEORGE. What’s the matter?