[_SPENCER PRINGLE enters. He is a smug, self-satisfied looking man of about thirty-five, smooth-shaven, except for small side-whiskers. He is in a light tweed suit, having just come up from the country._ SYLVIA. [_Repressing her disappointment._] Mr. Pringle! PRINGLE. [_In doorway._] Miss Sylvia! Mrs. Futvoye! [_Shaking hands with the PROFESSOR._] Professor! Well! this is unexpected. [_SYLVIA comes down to right._ PROFESSOR FUTVOYE. [_Graciously._] Glad to see you, Pringle! You are quite a stranger. Indeed, my daughter was remarking, only a little while ago, that you hadn't been near us for weeks! SYLVIA. [_In an indignant undertone._] _Father!_ [_MRS. FUTVOYE sits down again._ PRINGLE. [_To SYLVIA, flattered._] Delighted to think I've been missed! But my apparent--er--neglect has been quite unavoidable. SYLVIA. [_Laughing._] So kind of you to relieve our minds, Mr. Pringle! PRINGLE. [_Solemnly._] I assure you it's the fact. I've been away constantly for the last two months, superintending work I'm doing in various parts of the country. [_With importance._] Hardly a moment to call my own! [_SYLVIA turns with the intention of sitting down; he places a chair for her._ PROFESSOR FUTVOYE. [_Taking chair behind table._] A busy man like _you_, my dear Pringle, has no need to make excuses. PRINGLE. [_Fetching a chair for himself._] I really have been fearfully overworked. Not that I complain of _that_! [_As he sits down between the PROFESSOR and SYLVIA._] I'd no idea we should meet _here_, though. Is Ventimore a friend of yours? PROFESSOR FUTVOYE. Oh, we know him, yes. As _you_ do, it seems. PRINGLE. I sublet a room in my offices to him. Rather a good arrangement for him, because he gets experience by looking after any little matters that I've no time to attend to. SYLVIA. [_With suppressed resentment._] And isn't that rather a good arrangement for _you_? PRINGLE. It works fairly well--as a rule. But when I returned from the country this afternoon I found he hadn't been near the office all day! [_He rises, takes SYLVIA'S parasol officiously, and places it in a corner, then returns._ PROFESSOR FUTVOYE. [_To his wife, but speaking at SYLVIA._] Not been near the office all day! I _thought_ as much! SYLVIA. The reason _why_ he wasn't able to help you, Mr. Pringle, is because he's been at an auction, bidding for things on father's account. PROFESSOR FUTVOYE. I should have attended the sale myself but for an engagement to lecture at the Hieroglyphical on a recently inscribed cylinder. MRS. FUTVOYE.