MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [suffering from shock] Well, I really can't
get used to the new ways.

CLARA [throwing herself discontentedly into the Elizabethan
chair]. Oh, it's all right, mamma, quite right. People will think
we never go anywhere or see anybody if you are so old-fashioned.

MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. I daresay I am very old-fashioned; but I do
hope you won't begin using that expression, Clara. I have got
accustomed to hear you talking about men as rotters, and calling
everything filthy and beastly; though I do think it horrible and
unladylike. But this last is really too much. Don't you think so,
Colonel Pickering?

PICKERING. Don't ask me. I've been away in India for several
years; and manners have changed so much that I sometimes don't
know whether I'm at a respectable dinner-table or in a ship's
forecastle.

CLARA. It's all a matter of habit. There's no right or wrong in
it. Nobody means anything by it. And it's so quaint, and gives
such a smart emphasis to things that are not in themselves very
witty. I find the new small talk delightful and quite innocent.

MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [rising] Well, after that, I think it's time
for us to go.

Pickering and Higgins rise.