You're very hard. ALEC. Dick has been teaching me to take life flippantly. And I have learnt that things are only serious if you take them seriously, and that is desperately stupid. [_To_ LUCY.] Don't you agree with me? LUCY. No. [_Her tone, almost tragic, makes him pause for an instant; but he is determined that the conversation shall be purely conventional._ ALEC. It's so difficult to be serious without being absurd. That is the chief power of women, that life and death are merely occasions for a change of costume: marriage a creation in white, and the worship of God an opportunity for a Paris bonnet. [MRS. CROWLEY _makes up her mind to force a crisis, and she gets up_. MRS. CROWLEY. It's growing late, Dick. Won't you take me round the house? ALEC. I'm afraid my luggage has made everything very disorderly. MRS. CROWLEY. It doesn't matter. Come, Dick! DICK. [_To_ LUCY.] You don't mind if we leave you? LUCY. Oh, no. [MRS. CROWLEY _and_ DICK _go out. There is a moment's silence._ ALEC. Do you know that our friend Dick has offered his hand and heart to Mrs. Crowley this afternoon? LUCY. I hope they'll be very happy. They're very much in love with one another. ALEC. [_Bitterly._] And is that a reason for marrying? Surely love is the worst possible foundation for marriage. Love creates illusions, and marriages destroy them. True lovers should never marry. LUCY. Will you open the window? It seems stifling here. ALEC. Certainly. [_From the window._] You can't think what a joy it is to look upon London for the last time. I'm so thankful to get away. [LUCY _gives a little sob and_ ALEC _turns to the window. He wants to wound her and yet cannot bear to see her suffer._ ALEC. To-morrow at this time I shall be well started. Oh, I long for that infinite surface of the clean and comfortable sea. LUCY. Are you very glad to go? ALEC. [_Turning to her._] I feel quite boyish at the very thought. LUCY. And is there no one you regret to leave? ALEC. You see, Dick is going to marry. When a man does that, his bachelor friends are wise to depart gracefully before he shows them that he needs their company no longer. I have no relations and few friends. I can't flatter myself that any one will be much distressed at my departure. LUCY. [_In a low voice._] You must have no heart at all. ALEC. [_Icily._] If I had, I certainly should not bring it to Portman Square. That sentimental organ would be surely out of place in such a neighbourhood. LUCY. [_Gets up and goes to him._] Oh, why do you treat me as if we were strangers? How can you be so cruel? ALEC. [_Gravely._] Don't you think that flippancy is the best refuge from an uncomfortable position. We should really be much wiser merely to discuss the weather. LUCY. [_Insisting._] Are you angry because I came? ALEC.