[Puts his head out.] Just when I am making such wonderful progress with the powder. [Comes down and leans on a table.] Have you hit upon some way of giving it to Aline? I thought if you were to put it in her arrowroot——?
Hilda.
No, thanks. I won't have that now. I have just recollected that it is a rule of mine never to injure anybody I have once been formally introduced to. Strangers don't count. No, poor Mrs. Herdal mustn't take that powder!
Dr. Herdal.
[Disappointed.] Then is nothing to come of making rainbow powders, after all, Hilda?
Hilda.
[Looks hard at him.] People say you are afraid to take your own physic. Is that true?
Dr. Herdal.
Yes, I am. [After a pause—with candour.] I find it invariably disagrees with me.
Hilda.