_Enter_ Charles.

_Lady E_. Please put this in the post, Charles. [_Exit_ Charles.] Now
I must go and get ready to go out riding with papa, and reconcile him to
the dreadful idea of having "a Radical, a plutocrat, and an infidel" at
his dinner-table. [_Exit_ Elaine.

(_A month elapses_.)



SCENE IV.--Lady Gules's Boudoir. Lord and Lady Gules.


_Lord G_. I tell you what it is, my dear--we've only known that fellow
Plumper a month, and he has already completely captivated Elaine with his
_Kindergarten_, and his sunflowers, and his hatred of the landed interest
and Irish coercion, and love of the _cloture_ and humanity, and Buddha
and Brahma, and Zoroaster and Mahomet, and all the rest of them. I must
really take steps to find out whether Gresham was well informed about his
reputed wealth. I shall ride down and take a look at 20 Heavitree
Gardens to-morrow. I haven't met a single man at the Club who has ever
heard of him.

_Lady G_. It's no use: if he should turn out a pauper, or even a
swindler, I am afraid Elaine will marry him. I saw it in her eye last
night; and so, I should think, did he. He certainly can't complain of
not receiving encouragement. I only wonder that he has not yet proposed.
I believe the man to be capable of any act of audacity, in spite of his
languid manner, and his long hair, and short-sightedness, and his