ETHEL. I was saying that Miss Carruthers is still Miss Carruthers, and is likely to remain so. That is, if men really have the taste that they pretend to. CAPT. Do you really think so? Oh, I don't know, she's a dashing girl. ETHEL. I don't like dashing girls. CAPT. Well, when I say a dashing girl, I mean she's undeniably accomplished. ETHEL. I have heard she paints! CAPT. Ah, you don't care for her. Well, I admit, she is a little difficult to understand. ETHEL. Oh, dear me, no! I call her very plain. CAPT. And yet she is considered beautiful by some. ETHEL. I only know one person who considers so, and that's herself. CAPT. Oh, but I know another. ETHEL. Do you? What's the curious creature's name? CAPT. His name---- ETHEL. _His_ name. I thought it was a man. Well, what's his name? CAPT. His name is Larkspur. ETHEL. Larkspur! CAPT. Larkspur. ETHEL. It's my turn to beg your pardon now. You're very much mistaken. Mr. Larkspur doesn't care for her at all. CAPT. Indeed; I wonder what possessed him to propose to her. ETHEL. Propose to her! CAPT. Yes, don't you know that he's proposed to her? ETHEL. I don't believe it--not a word of it! CAPT. I have it on the very best authority. ETHEL. On whose? CAPT. On Miss Carruthers' own. ETHEL. Oh! Miss Carruthers' own! ha, ha, ha! Captain Plunger, now I should have thought with your experience of the world you would have known that upon such a subject Miss Carruthers' was the very worst authority you could possibly have. CAPT. I'm sure she hinted that he had proposed to her. ETHEL. That I can quite believe. But she is labouring under a mistake. The wish was husband to the thought. CAPT. I think the probabilities are in her favour. Mr. Larkspur is the sort of man who would propose to her, and it would only be one more rejection added to the quantity he has already suffered. ETHEL. What, has Mr. Larkspur then proposed to someone else? CAPT. They say, he never sees a girl three times without proposing to her. ETHEL. And he's always unsuccessful? CAPT. Well, I did hear a vague rumour that some girl or other had at last had pity on him,--but by Jove, she must have been hard up. ETHEL. Indeed! He must have been astonished at his sudden change of fortune. CAPT. Quite knocked over. So I heard. He'd got so used to being rejected, that he felt quite disappointed when he was accepted. And between us two---- ETHEL. Yes. CAPT. I shouldn't like his wife to hear it--but between us two, he told a friend of mine that if he'd thought she'd have accepted him, he'd never have proposed to her. ETHEL. Did he? How very amusing! CAPT. Oh, extremely entertaining. It'd be a very good joke to tell his wife. ETHEL. I wouldn't do that. It is a very good joke, but perhaps she mightn't see it. CAPT. Perhaps not: wives are very dull. But he's a rum fish. Everybody cuts his joke at him. Indeed, he's got so laughed at that he's started for Australia. ETHEL. Do you say so? CAPT. At Southampton now.