LADY KITTY. It's too much. I can't bear it any more. I've put up with him for thirty years and now I'm at the end of my tether. C.-C. Calm yourself, my dear Kitty. LADY KITTY. I won't listen to a word. I've quite made up my mind. It's finished, finished, finished. [_With a change of tone._] I was so touched when I heard that you never lived in this house again after I left it. C.-C. The cuckoos have always been very plentiful. Their note has a personal application which, I must say, I have found extremely offensive. LADY KITTY. When I saw that you didn't marry again I couldn't help thinking that you still loved me. C.-C. I am one of the few men I know who is able to profit by experience. LADY KITTY. In the eyes of the Church I am still your wife. The Church is so wise. It knows that in the end a woman always comes back to her first love. Clive, I am willing to return to you. C.-C. My dear Kitty, I couldn't take advantage of your momentary vexation with Hughie to let you take a step which I know you would bitterly regret. LADY KITTY. You've waited for me a long time. For Arnold's sake. C.-C. Do you think we really need bother about Arnold? In the last thirty years he's had time to grow used to the situation. LADY KITTY. [_With a little smile._] I think I've sown my wild oats, Clive. C.-C. I haven't. I was a good young man, Kitty. LADY KITTY. I know. C.-C. And I'm very glad, because it has enabled me to be a wicked old one. LADY KITTY. I beg your pardon. [_ARNOLD comes in with a large book in his hand._ ARNOLD. I say, I've found the book I was hunting for. Oh! isn't Lord Porteous here? LADY KITTY. One moment, Arnold. Your father and I are busy. ARNOLD. I'm so sorry. [_He goes out into the garden._ LADY KITTY. Explain yourself, Clive. C.-C. When you ran away from me, Kitty, I was sore and angry and miserable. But above all I felt a fool. LADY KITTY. Men are so vain. C.-C. But I was a student of history, and presently I reflected that I shared my misfortune with very nearly all the greatest men. LADY KITTY. I'm a great reader myself. It has always struck me as peculiar. C.-C. The explanation is very simple. Women dislike intelligence, and when they find it in their husbands they revenge themselves on them in the only way they can, by making them--well, what you made me. LADY KITTY. It's ingenious. It may be true. C.-C. I felt I had done my duty by society and I determined to devote the rest of my life to my own entertainment. The House of Commons had always bored me excessively and the scandal of our divorce gave me an opportunity to resign my seat. I have been relieved to find that the country got on perfectly well without me. LADY KITTY. But has love never entered your life? C.-C. Tell me frankly, Kitty, don't you think people make a lot of unnecessary fuss about love? LADY KITTY. It's the most wonderful thing in the world. C.-C. You're incorrigible. Do you really think it was worth sacrificing so much for?