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. This Argentine scheme is a commonplace Stock Exchange swindle. MRS. CHEVELEY. A speculation, Sir Robert! A brilliant, daring speculation. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Believe me, Mrs. Cheveley, it is a swindle. Let us call things by their proper names. It makes matters simpler. We have all the information about it at the Foreign Office. In fact, I sent out a special Commission to inquire into the matter privately, and they report that the works are hardly begun, and as for the money already subscribed, no one seems to know what has become of it. The whole thing is a second Panama, and with not a quarter of the chance of success that miserable affair ever had. I hope you have not invested in it. I am sure you are far too clever to have done that. MRS. CHEVELEY. I have invested very largely in it.