Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts

by W. Somerset Maugham

Anne.

[Smiling.] Mrs. Appleby is dying to know all about it, Violet.

Mrs. Appleby.

I'm an old woman, Lady Little.

Violet.

[Gaily.] Well, I met Arthur at a week-end party. He'd come home on leave and all sorts of important people had been asked to meet him. I was frightened out of my life. The duchesses had strawberry leaves hanging all over them and they looked at me down their noses. And the Cabinet Ministers' wives had protruding teeth and they looked at me up their noses.

Anne.

What nonsense you talk, Violet!

Violet.

I was expecting to be terrified of Arthur. After all, I knew he was a great man. But you know, I wasn't a bit. He was inclined to be rather fatherly at first, so I cheeked him.