Arnold. I’m going to do my best. I gave you my promise and I shall keep it. But I can’t answer for my father.
Anna. Here is your father.
[Mr. Champion-Cheney shows himself at one of the French windows.
C.-C. May I come in through the window, or shall I have myself announced by a supercilious flunkey?
Elizabeth. Come in. We’ve been expecting you.
C.-C. Impatiently, I hope, my dear child.
[Mr. Champion-Cheney is a tall man in the early sixties, spare, with a fine head of gray hair and an intelligent, somewhat ascetic face. He is very carefully dressed. He is a man who makes the most of himself. He bears his years jauntily. He kisses Elizabeth and then holds out his hand to Arnold.
Elizabeth. We thought you’d be in Paris for another month.
C.-C. How are you, Arnold? I always reserve to myself the privilege of changing my mind. It’s the only one elderly gentlemen share with pretty women.