CARVE. Really! Is it so much talked about as all that? JANET. It's on all the posters--very big. All along Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square and the Strand the newspaper boys, and the newspaper old men too, are wearing it like aprons, as it were. I read the Telegraph myself. There was nearly a page of it in the Telegraph. CARVE. (Staggered.) Nearly a page of it in the Telegraph! JANET. Yes, besides a leading article. Haven't you---- CARVE. I never read obituaries of artists in the papers. JANET. Neither do I. But I should have thought you would. CARVE. Well, they make me angry. Obituaries of archbishops aren't so bad. Newspapers seem to understand archbishops. But when they begin about artists--you cannot imagine the astounding nonsense they talk. JANET. (Protesting against his heat.) Now! You're still all on wires. Why should that make you angry? CARVE. What did the Telegraph say? Did you look at it? JANET. Oh yes. It appears Mr. Carve was a very eccentric person--avoiding society and so on. CARVE. (Resentful.) Eccentric! There you are! He wasn't eccentric in the least. The only society he avoided was the society of gaping fools. JANET. Well, I'm just telling you what it said. Then, let me see--what else did it say? Oh! It said the sole question was whether Mr. Carve was the greatest painter since Velasquez--is that how you pronounce it?--or whether he was the greatest painter that ever lived. CARVE. (Interested.) Really! It said that? JANET. (Nodding.) You ought to read it. CARVE. Upon my soul I think I must. (Attempts to rise.) JANET. Now, please, don't move. What is it you want? CARVE. I was only going to telephone and have the daily papers sent up. JANET. Where is the telephone? CARVE. (Pointing.) There. JANET. So they've put a telephone in your room? CARVE. Telephone in every room. JANET. (Going to telephone.) Can I telephone for you? I never have telephoned, and I should like to. How do you do it? CARVE. Just take that thing off the hook and talk into it. (JANET gingerly obeys.) It won't explode. JANET. What am I to say? CARVE. Tell them to send me up the daily papers at once. JANET. All? CARVE. Yes. JANET. But will they? CARVE. Certainly. JANET. (Into telephone.) Please will you send up all the daily papers at once. CARVE. Thanks very much. Now you can hang it up again. JANET. So this is the Grand Babylon Hotel? Well it's a queer place. (Her eyes rove round the room.) CARVE. What are you looking for? JANET. To speak plainly, I was looking for the bed. I must say I was rather surprised when the young man at the desk said I was to go up to your room.... But really, every thing's so nicely arranged.... I suppose it's one of those folding beds that turn into bookcases and things? CARVE. (Laughs.) No. This is my sitting-room. JANET. Your sitting-room? (Pointing to door, R.) Then that's the bedroom? CARVE. Yes. JANET. (Pointing to another door.) And what's that?