MRS. MORLAND. What is it, dear?
MR. MORLAND. I am afraid I was rather thoughtless about the apple-tree, Fanny. I hurt you.
MRS. MORLAND (brightly). Such nonsense. Have another pipe, James.
MR. MORLAND (doggedly). I will not have another pipe. I hereby undertake to give up smoking for a week as a punishment to myself. (His breast swells a little.)
MRS. MORLAND. You will regret this, you know.
MR. MORLAND (his breast ceasing to swell). Why is my heart not broken? If I had been a man of real feeling it would have broken twenty-five years ago, just as yours did.
MRS. MORLAND. Mine didn’t, dear.
MR. MORLAND. In a way it did. As for me, at the time I thought I could never raise my head again, but there is a deal of the old Adam in me still. I ride and shoot and laugh and give pompous decisions on the bench and wrangle with old George as if nothing much had happened to me. I never think of the island now; I dare say I could go back there and fish. (He finds that despite his outburst his hand has strayed towards his tobacco-pouch.) See what I am doing! (He casts his pouch aside as if it were the culprit.) I am a man enamoured of myself. Why, I have actually been considering, Fanny, whether I should have another dress suit.
MRS. MORLAND (picking up the pouch). And why shouldn’t you?
MR. MORLAND. At my age! Fanny, this should be put on my tombstone: ‘In spite of some adversity he remained a lively old blade to the end.’