"Miss Middleton, I could sit down to be instructed, old as I am. When women beat us, I verily believe we are the most beaten dogs in existence. You like the theatre?"
"Ours?"
"Acting, then."
"Good acting, of course."
"May I venture to say you would act admirably?"
"The venture is bold, for I have never tried."
"Let me see; there is Miss Dale and Mr. Whitford; you and I; sufficient for a two-act piece. THE IRISHMAN IN SPAIN would do." He bent to touch the grass as she stepped on it. "The lawn is wet."
She signified that she had no dread of wet, and said: "English women afraid of the weather might as well be shut up."
De Craye proceeded: "Patrick O'Neill passes over from Hibernia to Iberia, a disinherited son of a father in the claws of the lawyers, with a letter of introduction to Don Beltran d'Arragon, a Grandee of the First Class, who has a daughter Dona Seraphina (Miss Middleton), the proudest beauty of her day, in the custody of a duenna (Miss Dale), and plighted to Don Fernan, of the Guzman family (Mr. Whitford). There you have our dramatis personae."
"You are Patrick?"