Here. By this very stile. Monty was riding past and he asked me the way to somewhere--Thoresby, I think. I was standing by the stile. Next day I happened to ride into Weymouth. We collided--and the rest you know. MRS. DE MULLIN _(sternly)_ Were those the _only_ times you met him, Janet? JANET Of course not, mother. After the Weymouth collision we met constantly, nearly every day. We used to meet out riding and I had tea with him lots of times in his rooms. MRS. DE MULLIN _(horrified)_ How long did this go on? JANET More than a month--till he left Weymouth, in fact. Now, mother, is that all you want to know? Because if so we’ll drop the subject. MRS. DE MULLIN Oh, Janet, what _will_ your father say! JANET Father? He won’t know. MRS. DE MULLIN Won’t know? But I must tell him. JANET Good heavens, why? MRS. DE MULLIN In order that Mr. Bulstead may marry you, of course. Your father will insist on his marrying you. JANET If father attempts to do that, mother, I shall deny the whole story. And Monty will back me up. MRS. DE MULLIN He would never be so wicked. JANET He would have to if I ask him. It’s the least he could do. MRS. DE MULLIN Johnny is there to prove it. JANET There’s nothing to prove that Monty is Johnny’s father. Nothing whatever. MRS. DE MULLIN But, Janet, _why_ won’t you marry him? JANET _(impatiently)_ My dear mother, because I don’t want to, of course. MRS. DE MULLIN You don’t _want_ to? JANET Great heavens, no. Why should I? Monty Bulstead isn’t at all the sort of man I should care to _marry_. MRS. DE MULLIN Why not? JANET Frankly, mother, because he’s not interesting enough. Monty’s a very nice fellow and I like him very much, but I don’t want to pass the remainder of my life with him. If I’m to marry anybody--and I don’t think I shall--it will have to be a rather more remarkable person than Monty Bulstead. MRS. DE MULLIN Yet you _did_ love him, Janet. You must have loved him... then. JANET Oh yes. Then. But that was ages ago, before Johnny was born. After that I didn’t care for anybody any more except Johnny. MRS. DE MULLIN But, Janet, you _ought_ to marry him, for Johnny’s sake. JANET Too late, mother. That should have been eight years ago to be any use. MRS. DE MULLIN Better too late than not at all. JANET Better not at all than too late. MRS. DE MULLIN He seduced you, Janet. JANET _(thoughtfully)_ Did he? I was twenty-seven. He was twenty. If either of us was to blame, wasn’t it I? MRS. DE MULLIN Janet, you’re trying to screen him. JANET Dearest mother, you talk like a sentimental novel. MRS. DE MULLIN _(indignantly)_ And he’s to be allowed to marry Bertha Aldenham, just as if this had never happened? JANET Why not? It’s not _her_ fault, is it? And girls find it difficult enough to get married nowadays, goodness knows. MRS. DE MULLIN