_Lady Cant._ Are these times to split our sides, with so many serious social problems pressing for solution? You are presumably not without intelligence; do you never reflect upon the responsibility you incur in assisting to circulate trivial and frivolous trash of this sort? _Clerk_ (_dubiously_). Well, I can't say as I do, particular, Ma'am. I'm paid to sell the books--I don't _select_ 'em. _Lady Cant._ That is _no_ excuse for you--you ought to exercise some discrimination on your own account, instead of pressing people to buy what can do them no possible good. You can give me a _Society Snippets_. _Lady Maisie._ Mamma! A penny paper that says such rude things about the Royal Family! _Lady Cant._ It's always instructive to know what these creatures are saying about one, my dear, and it's astonishing how they manage to find out the things they do. Ah, here's GRAVENER coming back. He's got us a carriage, and we'd better get in. [_She and her daughter enter a first-class compartment_; UNDERSHELL _and_ DRYSDALE _return_. _Drys._ (_to_ UNDERSHELL). Well, I don't see now where the insolence comes in. These people have invited you to stay with them---- _Und._ But why? Not because they appreciate my work--which they probably only half understand--but out of mere idle curiosity to see what manner of strange beast a Poet may be! And _I_ don't know this Lady CULVERIN--never met her in my life! What the deuce does she mean by sending me an invitation? Why should these smart women suppose that they are entitled to send for a Man of Genius, as if he was their _lackey?_ Answer me that! _Drys._ Perhaps the delusion is encouraged by the fact that Genius occasionally condescends to answer the bell. _Und._ (_reddening_). Do you imagine I am going down to this place simply to please _them_? _Drys._ I should think it a doubtful kindness, in your present frame of mind; and, as you are hardly going to please yourself, wouldn't it be more dignified, on the whole, not to go at all? _Und._ You never _did_ understand me! Sometimes I think I was born to be misunderstood! But you might do me the justice to believe that I am not going from merely snobbish motives. May I not feel that such a recognition as this is a tribute less to my poor self than to Literature, and that, as such, I have scarcely the _right_ to decline it? _Drys._ Ah, if you put it in that way, I am silenced, of course. _Und._ Or what if I am going to show these Patricians that--Poet of the People as I am--they can neither patronise nor cajole me? _Drys._ Exactly, old chap--what if you _are_? _Und._ I don't say that I may not have another reason--a--a rather romantic one--but you would only sneer if I told you! I know you think me a poor creature whose head has been turned by an undeserved success.