[_Passing her hands over her face and walking to the settee on the right._] Ha, ha, ha, ha----! LADY FILSON. [_Rising and moving to the fireplace, complainingly._] Really, Ottoline----! OTTOLINE. [_Sitting upon the settee._] Ha, ha, ha----! LADY FILSON. [_To_ BERTRAM, _who is slowly getting to his feet._] Go away, Bertie darling. OTTOLINE. _Mais pourquoi?_ Bertie knows everything, obviously. LADY FILSON. Why shouldn't he, Otto? Your brother is as interested as we are---- OTTOLINE. But of course! _Naturellement!_ [_With a shrug._] _C'est une affaire de famille._ [_To_ BERTRAM, _who is now at the door on the left, his hand on the door-handle._] Come back, Bertie. [_Repeating her wry smile._] I shall be glad to receive your congratulations with mother's and Dad's. [_To_ SIR RANDLE _and_ LADY FILSON.] Sit down, Dad; sit down, mother. [SIR RANDLE _sits in the chair on the left of the settee on the right,_ LADY FILSON _in the low-backed arm-chair, and_ BERTRAM _at the oblong table._] Are you very much surprised, dear people? SIR RANDLE. Surprised? Hardly. LADY FILSON. Poor Sir Timothy! No, we are hardly surprised, Ottoline. OTTOLINE. Ah, but I don't mean surprised at my--having made Sir Timothy unhappy; I mean surprised at hearing there is--someone else---- SIR RANDLE. My dear child, _that_ surprises us even less. LADY FILSON. Your dear father and I, Ottoline, are not unaware of the _many_ eligible men who are--how shall I put it?--pursuing you with their attentions. SIR RANDLE. Parents are notoriously short-sighted; but they are not necessarily--er--what are the things?--tssh!--the creatures that flutter---- BERTRAM. Bats, father. SIR RANDLE. [_To_ BERTRAM.] Thank you, my boy. OTTOLINE. [_In a rigid attitude._] It's cowardly of me perhaps, but I almost wish I had told Sir Timothy--a little more---- LADY FILSON. Cowardly? OTTOLINE. So that he might have taken the edge off the announcement I'm going to make--and spared me---- SIR RANDLE. The edge----? LADY FILSON. _Spared_ you--? [_Staring at_ OTTOLINE.] Ottoline, what on earth----! OTTOLINE. [_Relaxing._] Oh, I know I'm behaving as if I were a girl instead of a woman who has been married--a widow--free--independent--[_to_ SIR RANDLE] thanks to your liberality, Dad! But, being at home, I seem to have lost, in a measure, my sense of personal liberty----