Mrs. Crowley
Don't be so silly.
Dick
By the way, you don't want to dance with me, do you?
Mrs. Crowley
Certainly not. You dance abominably.
Dick
It's charming of you to say so. It puts me at my ease at once.
Mrs. Crowley
Come and sit on the sofa and talk seriously.
Dick
Ah, you want to flirt with me, Mrs. Crowley.
Mrs. Crowley
Good heavens, what on earth makes you think that?
Dick
It's what a woman always means when she asks you to talk sensibly.
Mrs. Crowley
I can't bear a man who thinks women are in love with him.
Dick
Bless you, I don't think that. I only think they want to marry me.
Mrs. Crowley
That's equally detestable.
Dick
Not at all. However old, ugly, and generally undesirable a man is, he'll find a heap of charming girls who are willing to marry him. Marriage is still the only decent means of livelihood for a really nice girl.
Mrs. Crowley
But, my dear friend, if a woman really makes up her mind to marry a man, nothing on earth can save him.
Dick
Don't say that, you terrify me.
Mrs. Crowley
You need not be in the least alarmed, because I shall refuse you.
Dick
Thanks, awfully. But all the same I don't think I'll risk a proposal.
Mrs. Crowley
My dear Mr. Lomas, your only safety is in immediate flight.
Dick
Why?
Mrs. Crowley
It must be obvious to the meanest intelligence that you've been on the verge of proposing to me for the last month.
Dick
Oh, I assure you, you're quite mistaken.
Mrs. Crowley
Then I shan't come to the play with you to-morrow?
Dick
But I've taken the seats, and I've ordered an exquisite dinner at the Carlton.
Mrs. Crowley
What have you ordered?
Dick
Potage Bisque… [She makes a little face.]
Sole Normande… [She shrugs her shoulders.]
Wild Duck.