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faintness. I think I should like some supper very much. I know I
should like some supper.

LADY BASILDON. I am positively dying for supper, Margaret!

MRS. MARCHMONT. Men are so horribly selfish, they never think of
these things.

LADY BASILDON. Men are grossly material, grossly material!

[The VICOMTE DE NANJAC enters from the music-room with some other
guests. After having carefully examined all the people present, he
approaches LADY BASILDON.]

VICOMTE DE NANJAC. May I have the honour of taking you down to
supper, Comtesse?

LADY BASILDON. [Coldly.] I never take supper, thank you, Vicomte.
[The VICOMTE is about to retire. LADY BASILDON, seeing this, rises
at once and takes his arm.] But I will come down with you with
pleasure.

VICOMTE DE NANJAC. I am so fond of eating! I am very English in all
my tastes.

LADY BASILDON. You look quite English, Vicomte, quite English.

[They pass out. MR. MONTFORD, a perfectly groomed young dandy,
approaches MRS. MARCHMONT.]

MR. MONTFORD. Like some supper, Mrs. Marchmont?

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Languidly.] Thank you, Mr. Montford, I never touch
supper. [Rises hastily and takes his arm.] But I will sit beside
you, and watch you.

MR. MONTFORD. I don't know that I like being watched when I am
eating!

MRS. MARCHMONT. Then I will watch some one else.

MR. MONTFORD. I don't know that I should like that either.

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Severely.] Pray, Mr. Montford, do not make these
painful scenes of jealousy in public!

[They go downstairs with the other guests, passing SIR ROBERT
CHILTERN and MRS. CHEVELEY, who now enter.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. And are you going to any of our country houses
before you leave England, Mrs. Cheveley?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, no! I can't stand your English house-parties.
In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is
so dreadful of them! Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.
And then the family skeleton is always reading family prayers. My
stay in England really depends on you, Sir Robert. [Sits down on the
sofa.]

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Taking a seat beside her.] Seriously?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Quite seriously. I want to talk to you about a great
political and financial scheme, about this Argentine Canal Company,
in fact.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What a tedious, practical subject for you to
talk about, Mrs. Cheveley!

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, I like tedious, practical subjects. What I don't
like are tedious, practical people. There is a wide difference.
Besides, you are interested, I know, in International Canal schemes.
You were Lord Radley's secretary, weren't you, when the Government
bought the Suez Canal shares?

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes. But the Suez Canal was a very great and
splendid undertaking. It gave us our direct route to India. It had
imperial value. It was necessary that we should have control.

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