Janet, there was a baby! JANET Of course there was a baby. MONTY Oh, Janet! And you never wrote! Why didn’t you write? JANET I did think of it. But on the whole I thought I wouldn’t. It would have been no good. MONTY No good? JANET You were in India. MONTY I was in England. JANET Not then. MONTY You ought to have written at once--directly your mother found out. JANET One week after you sailed, Monty _(defiantly)_. Besides why should I write? MONTY Why? I could have married you, of course. JANET If I’d asked you, you mean? Thank you, my dear Monty. MONTY No, I don’t. Of course I should have married you. I _must_ have married you. JANET _(looking at him thoughtfully)_ I wonder if you would. MONTY Certainly I should. I should have been bound in honour. JANET I see. Then I’m glad I never wrote. MONTY You’re _glad?_ Now? JANET Yes. I’ve done some foolish things in my life, Monty, but none quite so foolish as that. To marry a schoolboy, not because he loves you or wants to marry you but because he thinks he’s “bound in honour.” No, thank you. MONTY I don’t mean that. You know I don’t, Janet. I loved you, of course. That goes without saying. I’d have married you like a shot before, only the Governor would have made such a fuss. The Governor was so awfully straitlaced about this sort of thing. When I was sent away from Eton he made the most ghastly fuss. JANET Were you sent away from Eton for “this sort of thing”? MONTY Yes--at least I don’t mean that either. But it was about a girl there. He was frightfully wild. He threatened to cut me off if I ever did such a thing again. Such rot! As if no one had ever been sent away from school before! JANET _(reflectively)_ I didn’t know you’d been sent away from Eton. MONTY Didn’t you? I suppose I didn’t like to tell you-for fear of what you’d think _(bitterly)_. I seem to have been afraid of everything in those days. . JANET Not _everything_, Monty. MONTY Oh, you know what I mean. I was awfully afraid of the Governor, I remember. I suppose all boys are if their parents rag them too much. But I would have married you, Janet, if I’d known. I would honestly. JANET _(blandly)_ What is the pay of a British subaltern, Monty? MONTY The Governor would have had to stump up, of course. JANET Poor Mr. Bulstead! He’d have _liked_ that, I suppose? And what about your poor unhappy colonel? And all the other little subalterns? MONTY _(obstinately)_ Still, you ought to have written. JANET _(quietly)_ _You_ never wrote. MONTY I couldn’t. You know that. You never would let me. That was why I couldn’t send that note to you to tell you I was going away. You said my letters would be noticed. JANET Yes, I forgot that. That’s the result of having a father who is what is called old-fashioned. MONTY What do you mean? JANET