LEXY. Mr. Burgess has been kind enough to give us a really splendid supper at the Belgrave. BURGESS (with effusive magnanimity). Don't mention it, Mr. Mill. (Modestly.) You're 'arty welcome to my little treat. PROSERPINE. We had champagne! I never tasted it before. I feel quite giddy. MORELL (surprised). A champagne supper! That was very handsome. Was it my eloquence that produced all this extravagance? MILL (rhetorically). Your eloquence, and Mr. Burgess's goodness of heart. (With a fresh burst of exhilaration.) And what a very fine fellow the chairman is, Morell! He came to supper with us. MORELL (with long drawn significance, looking at Burgess). O-o-o-h, the chairman. NOW I understand. (Burgess, covering a lively satisfaction in his diplomatic cunning with a deprecatory cough, retires to the hearth. Lexy folds his arms and leans against the cellaret in a high-spirited attitude. Candida comes in with glasses, lemons, and a jug of hot water on a tray.) CANDIDA. Who will have some lemonade? You know our rules: total abstinence. (She puts the tray on the table, and takes up the lemon squeezers, looking enquiringly round at them.) MORELL. No use, dear. They've all had champagne. Pross has broken her pledge. CANDIDA (to Proserpine). You don't mean to say you've been drinking champagne! PROSERPINE (stubbornly). Yes, I do. I'm only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller. I don't like beer. Are there any letters for me to answer, Mr. Morell? MORELL. No more to-night. PROSERPINE. Very well. Good-night, everybody. LEXY (gallantly). Had I not better see you home, Miss Garnett? PROSERPINE. No, thank you. I shan't trust myself with anybody to-night. I wish I hadn't taken any of that stuff. (She walks straight out.) BURGESS (indignantly). Stuff, indeed! That gurl dunno wot champagne is! Pommery and Greeno at twelve and six a bottle. She took two glasses a'most straight hoff. MORELL (a little anxious about her). Go and look after her, Lexy. LEXY (alarmed). But if she should really be--Suppose she began to sing in the street, or anything of that sort. MORELL. Just so: she may. That's why you'd better see her safely home. CANDIDA. Do, Lexy: there's a good fellow. (She shakes his hand and pushes him gently to the door.) LEXY. It's evidently my duty to go. I hope it may not be necessary. Good-night, Mrs. Morell. (To the rest.) Good-night. (He goes. Candida shuts the door.) BURGESS. He was gushin' with hextra piety hisself arter two sips. People carn't drink like they huseter. (Dismissing the subject and bustling away from the hearth.) Well, James: it's time to lock up. Mr. Morchbanks: shall I 'ave the pleasure of your company for a bit of the way home? MARCHBANKS (affrightedly). Yes: I'd better go. .(He hurries across to the door; but Candida places herself before it, barring his way.) CANDIDA (with quiet authority). You sit down. You're not going yet.