"Never. I have no vis comica; and as to tragedy, my person excludes me from that."
Rose was silent and uncomfortable; all people are when others allude to their own personal deficiencies.
"Will you play Sir Anthony, Sir Harry?"
"Two by cards ... I beg your pardon, Mrs. Vyner .... Sir Anthony Absolute? Yes, yes, you may put me down for that."
"And who is to be Captain Absolute? You, Mr. Ashley?"
"Perhaps Mr. Ashley would play Falkland," suggested Mrs. Broughton.
"No, no, Falkland is cut out for Mr. Maxwell—he is the most tragic amongst us."
Maxwell answered with a grim smile.
"At any rate," said Mrs. Langley Turner, "let me play Mrs. Malaprop. I quite long to be an allegory on the banks of the Nile."
"And Violet," said Mrs. Vyner, with the slightest possible accent of sarcasm, "can be Lydia Languish."