DR. FREEMANTLE. Ah! [A silence.] Forgive me—I’m an old friend of the family. You’re not a bit what I expected.
FANNY. But you like it? I mean you think this—[with a gesture]—is all right?
DR. FREEMANTLE. My dear young lady, it’s charming. You couldn’t be anything else.
FANNY. Thank you.
DR. FREEMANTLE. I merely meant that—well, I was not expecting anything so delightfully demure.
FANNY. That’s the idea—“seemly.” The Lady Bantocks have always been “seemly”? [She puts it as a question.]
DR. FREEMANTLE [more and more puzzled]. Yes—oh, yes. They have always been—[His eye catches that of Constance, first Lady Bantock, looking down at him from above the chimney-piece. His tone changes.] Well, yes, in their way, you know.
FANNY. You see, I’m in the difficult position of following her late ladyship. She appears to have been exceptionally “seemly.” This is her frock. I mean it was her frock.
DR. FREEMANTLE. God bless my soul! You are not dressing yourself up in her late ladyship’s clothes? The dear good woman has been dead and buried these twenty years.
FANNY [she looks at her dress]. Yes, it struck me as being about that period.