LORD ILLINGWORTH _Mr. Tree_. SIR JOHN PONTEFRACT _Mr. E. Holman Clark_. LORD ALFRED RUFFORD _Mr. Ernest Lawford_. MR. KELVIL, M.P. _Mr. Charles Allan_. THE VEN. ARCHDEACON DAUBENY, D.D. _Mr. Kemble_. GERALD ARBUTHNOT _Mr. Terry_. FARQUHAR (_Butler_) _Mr. Hay_. FRANCIS (_Footman_) _Mr. Montague_. LADY HUNSTANTON _Miss Rose Leclercq_. LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT _Miss Le Thière_. LADY STUTFIELD _Miss Blanche Horlock_. MRS. ALLONBY _Mrs. Tree_. MISS HESTER WORSLEY _Miss Julia Neilson_. ALICE (_Maid_) _Miss Kelly_. MRS. ARBUTHNOT _Mrs. Bernard-Beere_. FIRST ACT SCENE _Lawn in front of the terrace at Hunstanton_. [SIR JOHN _and_ LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT, MISS WORSLEY, _on chairs under large yew tree_.] LADY CAROLINE. I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley? HESTER. Yes, Lady Caroline. LADY CAROLINE. You have no country houses, I am told, in America? HESTER. We have not many. LADY CAROLINE. Have you any country? What we should call country? HESTER. [_Smiling_.] We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used to tell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together. LADY CAROLINE. Ah! you must find it very draughty, I should fancy. [_To_ SIR JOHN.] John, you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you won’t wear them? SIR JOHN. I am quite warm, Caroline, I assure you. LADY CAROLINE. I think not, John. Well, you couldn’t come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here. [_To_ SIR JOHN.] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle— SIR JOHN. Kelvil, my love, Kelvil. LADY CAROLINE. He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one’s life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very suitable person. HESTER. I dislike Mrs. Allonby. I dislike her more than I can say. LADY CAROLINE. I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate likes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet. Mrs. Allonby is very well born. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster’s. It is said, of course, that she ran away twice before she was married. But you know how unfair people often are. I myself don’t believe she ran away more than once. HESTER. Mr. Arbuthnot is very charming.