Sir W.: "Women are so indiscreet."
Lady Flo (flattered): Indeed!
Kitty: Indeed! I must say that no one could appreciate Aunt Flo's virtues more than I, although at the same time I am certain she would very soon have lost her sweet temper if her husband had been aggravating, ignorant, domineering!
Jem: Why not call me a savage at once?
Kitty: A savage! Yes! A savage!
Lady Flo: Oh! Kitty! Kitty! Is this the way to make friends?
Jem: Come, Uncle Will! Let us go into the smoking-room! I shall choke here! (Exit.)
Sir W.: There's but little hope for them! Little hope! Little hope! (Exit, shaking his head.)
Kitty Now, perhaps, you believe that I have something to put up with?
Lady Flo (soothingly): And yet there's no doubt Jem is extremely fond of you.
Kitty: He has a strange way of showing it! The other morning, after we had had one of our little scenes, I went down to the stream to find him when he was fishing. I would even have been willing to try and bait (shudders) his hook. But as I was starting off I met him coming up the garden, and he stared at me like an avenging god (or demon, I should say), and asked if I wasn't on my way to matins? Naturally, I did not contradict him.
Lady Flo: Dearest! You distress me!
Kitty: There's another thing I can't endure! You know I took the pledge, so as to be a good example to the village people here. Well! Jem is furious every time I refuse wine at luncheon or dinner. He declares that I pose! Can you imagine such nonsense?
Lady Flo: Well, dear! I confess I sympathize with Jem. I don't think any really nice women ever take the pledge—do they? I only ask, you know.
Kitty: Why, yes! Of course they do, aunty when they want to be good examples. Jem cannot understand this; and, far from taking the pledge himself, he revolts me day after day by drinking—(whispers mysteriously)—Bass's pale ale!
Lady Flo: Ah! That's bad! But, oh! my dear, if you only knew the proper way to manage a husband!
Kitty: How could I? For Jem is as unmanageable as the Great Mogul.
Lady Flo: I see you don't realize how the most violent men are those most easy to subdue. Now, there's your uncle———
Kitty: I always thought him as mild as Moses!
Lady Flo: So he is now! But there was a time———
Kitty: Oh! Do tell me all about it!
Lady Flo: Well. There was a time when your uncle imagined he might be allowed to complain if dinner were late. One day he actually dared to ask, in a voice of thunder, "Is dinner ready?"
Kitty: Jem dares that every day.
Lady Flo: It happened to be the cook's fault.
Kitty: Ah! That would make no difference to Jem.
