Porteous. Oh, damn! now she’s going to cry.
[He shambles out into the garden. Champion-Cheney, Elizabeth and Teddie are left alone. There is a moment’s pause. Champion-Cheney looks from Teddie to Elizabeth, with an ironical smile.
C.-C. Upon my soul, they might be married. They frip so much.
Elizabeth. [Frigidly.] It’s been nice of you to come here so often since they arrived. It’s helped to make things easy.
C.-C. Irony? It’s a rhetorical form not much favoured in this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
Elizabeth. What exactly are you getting at?
C.-C. How slangy the young women of the present day are! I suppose the fact that Arnold is a purist leads you to the contrary extravagance.
Elizabeth. Anyhow you know what I mean.
C.-C. [With a smile.] I have a dim, groping suspicion.
Elizabeth. You promised to keep away. Why did you come back the moment they arrived?