ACT SECOND. _Sunday afternoon. Well-dressed ladies and gentlemen are drinking coffee on the verandah. Several of the guests appear through the open glass door in the garden-room; the following song is heard from within._ CHORUS. Welcome, welcome, new plighted pair To the merry ranks of the plighted! Now you may revel as free as air, Caress without stint and kiss without care,— No longer of footfall affrighted. Now you are licensed, wherever you go, To the rapture of cooing and billing; Now you have leisure love’s seed to sow, Water, and tend it, and make it grow;— Let us see you’ve a talent for tilling! MISS JAY [_within_]. Ah Lind, if I only had chanced to hear, I would have teased you! A LADY [_within_]. How vexatious though! ANOTHER LADY [_in the doorway_]. Dear Anna, did he ask in writing? AN AUNT. No! MISS JAY. _Mine_ did. A LADY [_on the verandah_]. How long has it been secret, dear? [_Runs into the room._ MISS JAY. To-morrow there will be the ring to choose. LADIES [_eagerly_]. We’ll take his measure! MISS JAY. Nay; that _she_ must do. MRS. STRAWMAN [_on the verandah, to a lady who is busy with embroidery_]. What kind of knitting-needles do you use? A SERVANT [_in the door with a coffee-pot_]. More coffee, madam? A LADY. Thanks, a drop or two. MISS JAY [_to_ ANNA]. How fortunate you’ve got your new manteau Next week to go your round of visits in! AN ELDERLY LADY [_at the window_]. When shall we go and order the trousseau? MRS. STRAWMAN. How are they selling cotton-bombasine? A GENTLEMAN [_to some ladies on the verandah_]. Just look at Lind and Anna; what’s his sport? LADIES [_with shrill ecstasy_]. Gracious, he kissed her glove! OTHERS [_similarly, springing up_]. No! Kiss’d it? Really? LIND [_appears, red and embarrassed, in the doorway_]. O, stuff and nonsense! [_Disappears._