ARNOLD. No. I gave it up during the war. LADY KITTY. So wise of you. It's so bad for the figure. Besides being patriotic, of course. Isn't it absurd that I should ask my son if he takes sugar or not? Life is really very quaint. Sad, of course, but oh, so quaint! Often I lie in bed at night and have a good laugh to myself as I think how quaint life is. ARNOLD. I'm afraid I'm a very serious person. LADY KITTY. How old are you now, Arnold? ARNOLD. Thirty-five. LADY KITTY. Are you really? Of course, I was a child when I married your father. ARNOLD. Really. He always told me you were twenty-two. LADY KITTY. Oh, what nonsense! Why, I was married out of the nursery. I put my hair up for the first time on my wedding-day. ARNOLD. Where is Lord Porteous? LADY KITTY. My dear, it sounds too absurd to hear you call him Lord Porteous. Why don't you call him--Uncle Hughie? ARNOLD. He doesn't happen to be my uncle. LADY KITTY. No, but he's your godfather. You know, I'm sure you'll like him when you know him better. I'm so hoping that you and Elizabeth will come and stay with us in Florence. I simply adore Elizabeth. She's too beautiful. ARNOLD. Her hair is very pretty. LADY KITTY. It's not touched up, is it? ARNOLD. Oh, no. LADY KITTY. I just wondered. It's rather a coincidence that her hair should be the same colour as mine. I suppose it shows that your father and you are attracted by just the same thing. So interesting, heredity, isn't it? ARNOLD. Very. LADY KITTY. Of course, since I joined the Catholic Church I don't believe in it any more. Darwin and all that sort of thing. Too dreadful. Wicked, you know. Besides, it's not very good form, is it? [_CHAMPION-CHENEY comes in from the garden._ C.-C. Do I intrude? LADY KITTY. Come in, Clive. Arnold and I have been having such a wonderful heart-to-heart talk. C.-C. Very nice. ARNOLD. Father, I stepped in for a moment at the Harveys' on my way back. It's simply criminal what they're doing with that house. C.-C. What are they doing? ARNOLD. It's an almost perfect Georgian house and they've got a lot of dreadful Victorian furniture. I gave them my ideas on the subject, but it's quite hopeless. They said they were attached to their furniture. C.-C. Arnold should have been an interior decorator. LADY KITTY. He has wonderful taste. He gets that from me. ARNOLD. I suppose I have a certain _flair._ I have a passion for decorating houses. LADY KITTY. You've made this one charming. C.-C. D'you remember, we just had chintzes and comfortable chairs when we lived here, Kitty. LADY KITTY. Perfectly hideous, wasn't it? C.-C. In those days gentlemen and ladies were not expected to have taste. ARNOLD. You know, I've been looking at this chair again. Since Lord Porteous said the legs weren't right I've been very uneasy. LADY KITTY. He only said that because he was in a bad temper. C.-C. His temper seems to me very short these days, Kitty. LADY KITTY. Oh, it is.