Kitty: A savage! Yes! A savage!
Lady Flo: Oh! Kitty! Kitty! Is this the way to make friends?
Jem: Come, Uncle Will! Let us go into the smoking-room! I shall choke here! (Exit.)
Sir W.: There's but little hope for them! Little hope! Little hope! (Exit, shaking his head.)
Kitty: Now, perhaps, you believe that I have something to put up with?
Lady Flo (soothingly): And yet there's no doubt Jem is extremely fond of you.
Kitty: He has a strange way of showing it! The other morning, after we had had one of our little scenes, I went down to the stream to find him when he was fishing. I would even have been willing to try and bait (shudders) his hook. But as I was starting off I met him coming up the garden, and he stared at me like an avenging god (or demon, I should say), and asked if I wasn't on my way to matins? Naturally, I did not contradict him.
Lady Flo: Dearest! You distress me!
Kitty: There's another thing I can't endure! You know I took the pledge, so as to be a good example to the village people here. Well! Jem is furious every time I refuse wine at luncheon or dinner. He declares that I pose! Can you imagine such nonsense?
Lady Flo: Well, dear! I confess I sympathize with Jem. I don't think any really nice women ever take the pledge—do they? I only ask, you know.