England, it is impossible to leave them in ignorance any longer.
(Agitated.) Finch: I cannot bring myself to tell them. I--- (She is
interrupted by the twins and Gloria. Dolly comes tearing up the steps,
racing Philip, who combines a terrific speed with unhurried propriety of
bearing which, however, costs him the race, as Dolly reaches her mother
first and almost upsets the garden seat by the precipitancy of her
arrival.)

DOLLY (breathless). It's all right, mamma. The dentist is coming;
and he's bringing his old man.

MRS. CLANDON. Dolly, dear: don't you see Mr. McComas? (Mr. McComas
rises, smilingly.)

DOLLY (her face falling with the most disparagingly obvious
disappointment). This! Where are the flowing locks?

PHILIP (seconding her warmly). Where the beard? ---the cloak? ---the
poetic exterior?

DOLLY. Oh, Mr. McComas, you've gone and spoiled yourself. Why
didn't you wait till we'd seen you?

McCOMAS (taken aback, but rallying his humor to meet the emergency).
Because eighteen years is too long for a solicitor to go without having
his hair cut.

GLORIA (at the other side of McComas). How do you do, Mr. McComas?
(He turns; and she takes his hand and presses it, with a frank straight
look into his eyes.) We are glad to meet you at last.