Grace. I like Lena Dudley.
Mrs. Phillimore. [Speaking slowly and gently.] Do I know Miss Dudley?
Grace. She knows Philip. She expects an announcement of the wedding.
Mrs. Phillimore. I trust you told her that my son, my sister and myself are all of the opinion that those who have been divorced should remarry with modesty and without parade.
Grace. I told the Dudleys Philip's wedding was here, to-morrow.
Miss Heneage. [To Mrs. Phillimore, picking up a sheet of paper from the table.] I have spent the afternoon, Mary, in arranging and listing the wedding gifts, and in writing out the announcements of the wedding. I think I have attained a proper form of announcement. [Taking the sheet of note-paper and giving it to Thomas.] Of course the announcement Philip himself made was quite out of the question. [Grace smiles.] However, there is mine. [She points to the paper. Thomas gives the list to Mrs. Phillimore and moves away.
Grace. I hope you'll send an announcement to the Dudleys.
Mrs. Phillimore. [Prepared to make the best of things, plaintively reads.] "Mr. Philip Phillimore and Mrs. Cynthia Dean Karslake announce their marriage, May twentieth, at three o'clock, Nineteen A, Washington Square, New York." [Replacing the paper on Thomas's salver.] It sounds very nice.
[Thomas returns the paper to Miss Heneage.
Miss Heneage. In my opinion it barely escapes sounding nasty. However, it is correct. The only remaining question is—to whom the announcement should not be sent. [Thomas goes out.] I consider an announcement of the wedding of two divorced persons to be in the nature of an intimate communication. It not only announces the wedding—it also announces the divorce. [Returning to her teacup.] The person I shall ask counsel of is cousin William Sudley. He promised to drop in this afternoon.