Oh, do excuse me. How did I become acquainted with such a vulgar expression? I don't know where I pick up my slang. It must be through loitering at shop windows. Oh, oh, oh! LUKYN. Pray compose yourself. I'll leave you for a moment. [_Going to the window._ AGATHA POSKET. [_To CHARLOTTE._] How shall I begin, Charley? CHARLOTTE. Make a bold plunge, do! The odour of cooking here, to a hungry woman, is maddening. [_VALE softly opens the window and comes into the recess, but remains concealed by the curtain._ VALE. [_To himself._] This is too bad of Lukyn! I'm wet to the skin and frightfully hungry! Who the deuce are these women? AGATHA POSKET. Colonel Lukyn! LUKYN. Madam. [_Listening._] No crash yet. AGATHA POSKET. [_Impulsively laying her hand upon his arm._] Friend of twenty years! I will be quite candid with you. You are going to dine with us, to-morrow? LUKYN. Madam, I will repay your candour as it deserves. I am. AGATHA POSKET. My husband knows of your acquaintance with the circumstances of my first marriage. I know what men are. When the women leave the dinner-table, men become retrospective. Now, to-morrow night, over dessert, I beg you not to give my husband dates. LUKYN. Eh? AGATHA POSKET. Keep anything like dates from him. LUKYN. Mustn't eat stone fruit? AGATHA POSKET. No, I mean years, months, days, dates connected with my marriage with Mr. Farringdon. LUKYN. Dear me, sore subject! AGATHA POSKET. I will be more than candid with you. My present husband, having a very short vacation in the discharge of his public duties, wooed me but for three weeks; you, who have in your time courted and married, know the material of which that happy period is made up. The future is all-engrossing to the man; the presents--I mean the present, a joyous dream to the woman. But in dealing with my past I met with more than ordinary difficulties. LUKYN. Don't see why--late husband died a natural death--wasn't stood on a balcony or anything. AGATHA POSKET. Colonel Lukyn, you know I was six-and-thirty at the time of my recent marriage! LUKYN. You surprise me! AGATHA POSKET. You know it! Be frank, Lukyn! Am I not six-and-thirty? LUKYN. You are. AGATHA POSKET. Very well, then. In a three weeks' engagement how was it possible for me to deal with the various episodes of six-and-thirty years? The past may be pleasant, golden, beautiful--but one may have too much of a good thing. LUKYN. [_To himself._] I am in that position now. AGATHA POSKET. The man who was courting me was seeking relaxation from the discharge of multifarious responsibilities. How could I tax an already wearied attention with the recital of the events of thirty-six years? LUKYN. What did you do? AGATHA POSKET. Out of consideration for the man I loved, I sacrificed five years of happy girlhood--told him I was but one-and-thirty--that I had been married only fifteen years previously--that my boy was but fourteen! LUKYN.