Lady Maisie. Mamma! A penny paper that says such rude things about the Royal Family!
Lady Cantire. It's always instructive to know what these creatures are saying about one, my dear, and it's astonishing how they manage to find out the things they do. Ah, here's Gravener coming back. He's got us a carriage, and we'd better get in.
[She and her daughter enter a first-class compartment; Undershell and Drysdale return.
Drysdale (to Undershell). Well, I don't see now where the insolence comes in. These people have invited you to stay with them——
Undershell. But why? Not because they appreciate my work—which they probably only half understand—but out of mere idle curiosity to see what manner of strange beast a Poet may be! And I don't know this Lady Culverin—never met her in my life! What the deuce does she mean by sending me an invitation? Why should these smart women suppose that they are entitled to send for a Man of Genius, as if he was their lackey? Answer me that!
Drysdale. Perhaps the delusion is encouraged by the fact that Genius occasionally condescends to answer the bell.
Undershell (reddening). Do you imagine I am going down to this place simply to please them?
Drysdale. I should think it a doubtful kindness, in your present frame of mind; and, as you are hardly going to please yourself, wouldn't it be more dignified, on the whole, not to go at all?
Undershell. You never did understand me! Sometimes I think I was born to be misunderstood! But you might do me the justice to believe that I am not going from merely snobbish motives. May I not feel that such a recognition as this is a tribute less to my poor self than to Literature, and that, as such, I have scarcely the right to decline it?
Drysdale. Ah, if you put it in that way, I am silenced, of course.