[_Sombrely._] Of course, it sounds very delightful. MRS. DOT. You must show a coming-on disposition, you know, or I can do nothing. BLENKINSOP. Do you want me to make love to _you_? MRS. DOT. I’m afraid it’s asking a great deal of you. BLENKINSOP. Not at all. Not at all. But I wish you’d tell me what your little game is. MRS. DOT. Ah, here’s Aunt Eliza. The very person I wanted. [AUNT ELIZA _comes on the terrace from the house. Impulsively._] Aunt Eliza, will you be a perfect brick? Will you do something for me, that’s an awful nuisance? AUNT ELIZA. My dear, why on earth are you so excited? Of course I’ll do anything in reason for you. MRS. DOT. But it’s not in reason. AUNT ELIZA. Well, I’ll do it all the same. MRS. DOT. I want you to take a motor and bolt up to London and get a special licence. AUNT ELIZA. A special licence! BLENKINSOP. A special licence! MRS. DOT. [_Catching sight of his face._] Get two special licences. They’re always useful things to have in a house. AUNT ELIZA. But they must be made out to certain names. MRS. DOT. Must they? How stupid! Well, have one made out for Frederick Perkins and Eleanor Sellenger. AUNT ELIZA. My dear child, you must be crazy. MRS. DOT. Now don’t argue, but do as I tell you. If two young things are thrown together with a certain amount of skill they always marry. AUNT ELIZA. But they hardly know one another. MRS. DOT. If people waited to know one another before they married, the world wouldn’t be so grossly over-populated as it is now. AUNT ELIZA. You’re certainly quite crazy. MRS. DOT. No, I’m not. I shall never get Gerald to break his word. My only chance is with Nellie. BLENKINSOP. [_Uneasily._] But you’ve told her to get two licences. MRS. DOT. Make the second one out in the names of James Blenkinsop and Frances Annandale Worthley. BLENKINSOP. I absolutely refuse. MRS. DOT. But you must let me. You can’t leave an old friend in the lurch. BLENKINSOP. It’s all very fine to invoke the claims of friendship, but it’s carrying it rather far when you pay three guineas for a special licence. MRS. DOT. My dear man, I can’t drag you to the altar. BLENKINSOP. I’m beginning to think you’re capable of anything. MRS. DOT. But don’t you see, you idiot, that I want to marry Gerald Hollington? And I’m eating my heart out. BLENKINSOP. [_Crossly._] It’s evidently a diet that agrees with you. You’re growing fat on it. MRS. DOT. Don’t be spiteful. I’ve not gained half a pound in the last five years. AUNT ELIZA. And how on earth are you going to get Freddie and Nellie Sellenger to use this licence? MRS. DOT. Never mind, leave everything to me. And make haste to get up to London. AUNT ELIZA. Very well, I’ll go at once. [_Just as_ AUNT ELIZA _is going into the house_ LADY SELLENGER _comes out, followed by_ NELLIE; AUNT ELIZA _stops and listens to the conversation from the doorway_. MRS. DOT. I hope you’ve found everything you wanted.