_By this time the passenger has got the goggles off, and stands revealed as a remarkably good-looking woman._ MRS TARLETON. | Well I never!!! | | | BENTLEY. | [_in a whisper_] Oh, I say! | | | JOHNNY. | By George! | | | _All LORD SUMMERHAYS| A lady! | to- | | gether._ HYPATIA. | A woman! | | | TARLETON. | [_to Percival_] You never told me-- | | | PERCIVAL. | I hadnt the least idea-- | _An embarrassed pause._ PERCIVAL. I assure you if I'd had the faintest notion that my passenger was a lady I shouldnt have left you to shift for yourself in that selfish way. LORD SUMMERHAYS. The lady seems to have shifted for both very effectually, sir. PERCIVAL. Saved my life. I admit it most gratefully. TARLETON. I must apologize, madam, for having offered you the civilities appropriate to the opposite sex. And yet, why opposite? We are all human: males and females of the same species. When the dress is the same the distinction vanishes. I'm proud to receive in my house a lady of evident refinement and distinction. Allow me to introduce myself: Tarleton: John Tarleton (_seeing conjecture in the passenger's eye_)--yes, yes: Tarleton's Underwear. My wife, Mrs Tarleton: youll excuse me for having in what I had taken to be a confidence between man and man alluded to her as the Chickabiddy. My daughter Hypatia, who has always wanted some adventure to drop out of the sky, and is now, I hope, satisfied at last. Lord Summerhays: a man known wherever the British flag waves. His son Bentley, engaged to Hypatia. Mr Joseph Percival, the promising son of three highly intellectual fathers. HYPATIA. _[startled]_ Bentley's friend? _[Bentley nods]._ TARLETON. _[continuing, to the passenger]_ May I now ask to be allowed the pleasure of knowing your name? THE PASSENGER. My name is Lina Szczepanowska _[pronouncing it Sh-Chepanovska]._ PERCIVAL. Sh-- I beg your pardon? LINA. Szczepanowska. PERCIVAL. _[dubiously]_ Thank you. TARLETON. _[very politely]_ Would you mind saying it again? LINA. Say fish. TARLETON. Fish. LINA. Say church. TARLETON. Church. LINA. Say fish church. TARLETON. _[remonstrating]_ But it's not good sense. LINA. _[inexorable]_ Say fish church. TARLETON. Fish church. LINA. Again. TARLETON. No, but--_[resigning himself]_ fish church. LINA. Now say Szczepanowska.