I've always wanted to make mine purple. BRACKLEY. Don't you think women ought to be artificial? It's just as much their duty to rouge their cheeks and powder their noses as it is for them to wear nice frocks. HILDA. But I know many women who wear horrid frocks. BRACKLEY. Oh, those are the others. I treat them as non-existent. _Hilda._ What do you mean? BRACKLEY. There are only two sorts of women in the world--the women who powder their noses and the others. HILDA. And who are they if you please? BRACKLEY. I haven't examined the matter very carefully, but I understand they are clergymen's daughters by profession. [_He shakes hands with her._ HILDA. It's so nice of you to have come. BRACKLEY. [_Nodding at_ BASIL.] Good-bye.... May I come again soon? HILDA. [_Looking at him quickly._] Were you serious just now, or were you laughing at me? BRACKLEY. I've never been more serious in my life. HILDA. Then perhaps I shall be in to luncheon on Thursday after all. BRACKLEY. A thousand thanks. Good-bye. [_He nods to_ BASIL _and goes out_. HILDA _looks at_ BASIL _with a smile_. HILDA. Is that a very interesting book? BASIL. [_Putting it down._] I thought that man was never going away. HILDA. [_Laughing._] I suspect he thought precisely the same of you. BASIL. [_Ill-temperedly._] What an ass he is! How _can_ you stand him? HILDA. I'm rather attached to him. I don't take everything he says very seriously. And young men ought to be foolish. BASIL. He didn't strike me as so juvenile as all that. HILDA. He's only forty, poor thing--and I've never known a coming young man who was less than that. BASIL. He's a young man with a very bald head. HILDA. [_Amused._] I wonder why you dislike him! BASIL. [_With a jealous glance, icily._] I thought he wasn't admitted into decent houses. HILDA. [_Opening her eyes._] He comes here, Mr. Kent. BASIL. [_Unable to restrain his ill-temper._] Don't you know that he's been mixed up in every scandal for the last twenty years? HILDA. [_Good-humouredly_, _seeing that_ BASIL _is merely jealous_.] There must be people in the world to provide gossip for their neighbours. BASIL. It's no business of mine. I have no right to talk to you like this. HILDA. I wonder why you do it? BASIL. [_Almost savagely._] Because I love you. [_There is a little pause._ HILDA. [_With a smile, ironically._] Won't you have some more tea, Mr. Kent? BASIL. [_Going up to her, speaking with a sort of vehement gravity._] You don't know what I've suffered. You don't know what a hell my life is.... I tried so hard to prevent myself from coming here. When I married I swore I'd break with all my old friends.... When I married I found I loved _you_. HILDA. I can't listen to you if you talk like that. BASIL. D'you want me to go?