LADY SELLENGER. Oh, yes, thanks. I’m quite delighted with the view from my room. MRS. DOT. Come and sit down. I have something very serious I want to talk to you about. LADY SELLENGER. Dear Mr. Blenkinsop, do take Nellie for a little stroll in the garden. MRS. DOT. Oh, but it concerns Nellie, and I want her to hear. BLENKINSOP. I perceive you are inclined to think that the serious cannot fail to be improper, Lady Sellenger. LADY SELLENGER. Be quiet, you horrible cynic. MRS. DOT. Well, a most ridiculous thing has happened, and I want Nellie to help me. NELLIE. Me? MRS. DOT. My dear, it’s so unfortunate, but my nephew has fallen head over ears in love with you. NELLIE. Nonsense! MRS. DOT. I can’t understand it. After all, he’s only seen you once, and you can’t have exchanged more than a dozen words. LADY SELLENGER. How very annoying! MRS. DOT. And it’s so unexpected, because he’s not at all the sort of boy who falls in and out of love with every pretty girl he meets. I think you’re his first passion, and he’s inclined to take it very seriously. LADY SELLENGER. Poor boy, I can afford to sympathise with him now that Nellie is safely engaged to Gerald Hollington. NELLIE. It’s really rather flattering, isn’t it? But how on earth d’you know? MRS. DOT. He tells me everything. You see I’ve always tried to be his friend as well as his aunt. He has no secrets from me. BLENKINSOP. You’ll tell us next that a boy who’s been to Eton and Oxford has a pure and innocent mind. MRS. DOT. My dear child, he simply raves about you. He’s been talking of nothing else ever since you met. LADY SELLENGER. But doesn’t he know that Nellie is going to be married at the end of the season? MRS. DOT. Of course, he does. I’ve dinned it into his ears, but it seems to have no effect on him. He’s the sort of lover that will hear of no obstacles. It’s really quite pathetic to hear the passionate harangues that he pours into my ears. NELLIE. What sort of things does he say? MRS. DOT. My dear, I suppose very much the same as Gerald. NELLIE. No one could accuse Gerald of being a passionate lover. MRS. DOT. Really? LADY SELLENGER. I’m very glad he’s not. He’s going to be your husband, and that’s more satisfactory than any amount of pretty speeches. NELLIE. I could wish that he talked to me of something besides the weather and the Royal Academy. LADY SELLENGER. My dear child, what are you saying? Gerald has a charming nature and the very highest principles. BLENKINSOP. [_Imitating her pompous manner._] To say nothing of a peerage and a considerable income. MRS. DOT. He certainly has every advantage over poor Freddie, who is nobody in particular and hasn’t a penny to bless himself with. NELLIE. I think he’s awfully nice. MRS. DOT. Well, that’s just what I don’t want you to think. I shouldn’t have said anything to you about his--mad infatuation, only I want you to be very careful. LADY SELLENGER.