TARLETON. Come now, Patsy! none of that nonsense. Has Mr Percival said anything to you that I ought to know or that Bentley ought to know? Have you said anything to Mr Percival? HYPATIA. Mr Percival chased me through the heather and kissed me. LORD SUMMERHAYS. As a gentleman, Mr Percival, what do you say to that? PERCIVAL. As a gentleman, I do not kiss and tell. As a mere man: a mere cad, if you like, I say that I did so at Miss Tarleton's own suggestion. HYPATIA. Beast! PERCIVAL. I dont deny that I enjoyed it. But I did not initiate it. And I began by running away. TARLETON. So Patsy can run faster than you, can she? PERCIVAL. Yes, when she is in pursuit of me. She runs faster and faster. I run slower and slower. And these woods of yours are full of magic. There was a confounded fern owl. Did you ever hear the churr of a fern owl? Did you ever hear it create a sudden silence by ceasing? Did you ever hear it call its mate by striking its wings together twice and whistling that single note that no nightingale can imitate? That is what happened in the woods when I was running away. So I turned; and the pursuer became the pursued. HYPATIA. I had to fight like a wild cat. LORD SUMMERHAYS. Please dont tell us this. It's not fit for old people to hear. TARLETON. Come: how did it end? HYPATIA. It's not ended yet. TARLETON. How is it going to end? HYPATIA. Ask him. TARLETON. How is it going to end, Mr Percival? PERCIVAL. I cant afford to marry, Mr Tarleton. Ive only a thousand a year until my father dies. Two people cant possibly live on that. TARLETON. Oh, cant they? When _I_ married, I should have been jolly glad to have felt sure of the quarter of it. PERCIVAL. No doubt; but I am not a cheap person, Mr Tarleton. I was brought up in a household which cost at least seven or eight times that; and I am in constant money difficulties because I simply dont know how to live on the thousand a year scale. As to ask a woman to share my degrading poverty, it's out of the question. Besides, I'm rather young to marry. I'm only 28. HYPATIA. Papa: buy the brute for me. LORD SUMMERHAYS. _[shrinking]_ My dear Miss Tarleton: dont be so naughty. I know how delightful it is to shock an old man; but there is a point at which it becomes barbarous. Dont. Please dont. HYPATIA. Shall I tell Papa about you? LORD SUMMERHAYS. Tarleton: I had better tell you that I once asked your daughter to become my widow. TARLETON. _[to Hypatia]_ Why didnt you accept him, you young idiot? LORD SUMMERHAYS. I was too old. TARLETON. All this has been going on under my nose, I suppose. You run after young men; and old men run after you. And I'm the last person in the world to hear of it. HYPATIA. How could I tell you? LORD SUMMERHAYS. Parents and children, Tarleton. TARLETON. Oh, the gulf that lies between them! the impassable, eternal gulf! And so I'm to buy the brute for you, eh?