COSMO, his views on the universe crumbling, 'You still like fun?'

ALICE. 'Take care, Cosmo.'

COSMO. 'But you're our mother.'

ALICE. 'Mustn't mothers have fun?

COSMO, heavily, 'Must they? I see. You had played the dowager.'

ALICE. 'No, I didn't. I played the girl in the Wellington boots.'

COSMO, blinking, 'Mother, _I_ played the girl in the Wellington boots.'

ALICE, happily, 'My son--this ought to bring us closer together.'

COSMO, who has not yet learned to leave well alone, 'But the reason I
did it was that we were all boys. Were there no young ladies where you
did it, mother?'

ALICE. 'Cosmo.' She is not a tamed mother yet, and in sudden wrath she
flips his face with her hand. He accepts it as a smack. The Colonel
foolishly chooses this moment to make his return. He is in high
good-humour, and does not observe that two of his nearest relatives are
glaring at each other.

COLONEL, purring offensively, 'It's all right now, Alice; she took to
me at once.'