MRS. M. It didn't seem like it, dear. Why, your father's asleep. MAGGIE. Isn't that extraordinary! MRS. M. [_admiringly._] How soundly he sleeps! What's the time? MAGGIE. Four o'clock. MRS. M. I should have thought they'd have been here now. MAGGIE. Not Percy and Sybil, I hope. You don't expect _them,_ until the last minute, do you? MRS. M. No, dear--of course not. MAGGIE. I wouldn't walk the streets this afternoon for any man. MRS. M. I don't suppose they find it cold. MAGGIE. Oh, I daresay they're sitting in the Park. MRS. M. I hope they won't be late for tea. I shall want mine soon. MAGGIE. I'll put on the kettle now and when Lil and Charley come, we will have tea and not wait for the others. We'll have it cosily in here. [_She goes out, returning with kettle, which she puts on fire. Sits close to MRS. MASSEY._] MAGGIE. Mother! MRS. M. Yes. MAGGIE. Mother, did you love father when you married him--very much, I mean, very, very much! MRS. M. [_much astonished._] What a question! Of course. MAGGIE. More than any other man you'd ever seen? MRS. M. Of course! MAGGIE. More than everything and everybody? MRS. M. _Of course!_ MAGGIE. Well, there's something wrong with me, then--or else with Walter. I don't feel a bit like that. There's no "of course" with me. I wouldn't go and sit in the Park with him this afternoon for anything. MRS. M. I suppose you've quarrelled? MAGGIE. No, we haven't. I wish we had. MRS. M. Maggie! Don't talk like that. MAGGIE. But I do. He wants me to marry him next month. MRS. M. And a very good thing too. MAGGIE. He says he's found a house, and wants me to go and look at it. _I_ don't want to see it. MRS. M. What's come over you lately? You used to be satisfied. Walter is very nice and attentive--in fact, quite devoted. MAGGIE. Yes, I know. Just like he was to his first wife, I expect. MRS. M. You've such an absurd prejudice against widowers, Maggie. You're jealous. MAGGIE. I'm not. Not a bit. But I do wish he would do something, and not worry about getting married. MRS. M. The poor man is doing something, I should think, running after you every spare minute, and house hunting. MAGGIE. I would much rather he went to Australia--or somewhere. MRS. M. That's that absurd Tennant man again. You're not in love with _him,_ I hope? MAGGIE. [_promptly._] Not a scrap! I find him rather dull. MRS. M. Then what is it? MAGGIE. I should like Walter to go out and seek his fortune instead of getting it in a coal merchant's office. MRS. M. He mightn't come back. MAGGIE. [_thoughtfully._] Perhaps he wouldn't. _Click of gate._ MRS. M. There's the gate, Maggie. _MAGGIE goes out R. She comes back in a moment, followed by LILY. LILY goes to her mother and kisses her. She looks at her father._ LILY. Father asleep? MAGGIE. What a question. Shall I take your hat and coat? _LILY takes them off and hands them to MAGGIE._ You're shivering! Sit close to the fire. Aren't you well?