PATIOMKIN [amazed]. You refuse! EDSTASTON. I thank your Highness; but it is not the custom for English gentlemen to take presents of that kind. PATIOMKIN. Are you really an Englishman? EDSTASTON [bows]! PATIOMKIN. You are the first Englishman I ever saw refuse anything he could get. [He puts the goblet on the table; then turns again to Edstaston.] Listen, darling. You are a wrestler: a splendid wrestler. You threw me on my back like magic, though I could lift you with one hand. Darling, you are a giant, a paladin. EDSTASTON [complacently]. We wrestle rather well in my part of England. PATIOMKIN. I have a Turk who is a wrestler: a prisoner of war. You shall wrestle with him for me. I'll stake a million roubles on you. EDSTASTON [incensed]. Damn you! do you take me for a prize-fighter? How dare you make me such a proposal? PATIOMKIN [with wounded feeling]. Darling, there is no pleasing you. Don't you like me? EDSTASTON [mollified]. Well, in a sort of way I do; though I don't know why I should. But my instructions are that I am to see the Empress; and-- PATIOMKIN. Darling, you shall see the Empress. A glorious woman, the greatest woman in the world. But lemme give you piece 'vice--pah! still drunk. They water my vinegar. [He shakes himself; clears his throat; and resumes soberly.] If Catherine takes a fancy to you, you may ask for roubles, diamonds, palaces, titles, orders, anything! and you may aspire to everything: field-marshal, admiral, minister, what you please--except Tsar. EDSTASTON. I tell you I don't want to ask for anything. Do you suppose I am an adventurer and a beggar? PATIOMKIN [plaintively]. Why not, darling? I was an adventurer. I was a beggar. EDSTASTON. Oh, you! PATIOMKIN. Well: what's wrong with me? EDSTASTON. You are a Russian. That's different. PATIOMKIN [effusively]. Darling, I am a man; and you are a man; and Catherine is a woman. Woman reduces us all to the common denominator. [Chuckling.] Again an epigram! [Gravely.] You understand it, I hope. Have you had a college education, darling? I have. EDSTASTON. Certainly. I am a Bachelor of Arts. PATIOMKIN. It is enough that you are a bachelor, darling: Catherine will supply the arts. Aha! Another epigram! I am in the vein today. EDSTASTON [embarrassed and a little offended]. I must ask your Highness to change the subject. As a visitor in Russia, I am the guest of the Empress; and I must tell you plainly that I have neither the right nor the disposition to speak lightly of her Majesty. PATIOMKIN. You have conscientious scruples? EDSTASTON. I have the scruples of a gentleman. PATIOMKIN. In Russia a gentleman has no scruples. In Russia we face facts. EDSTASTON. In England, sir, a gentleman never faces any facts if they are unpleasant facts.