SELINA: And Sir Henry Bootle will say to Ninian: “That’s a new acquisition, isn’t it?” pointing to the oldest family portrait, and Ninian will reply: “It has hung there for four hundred years.” And Ann will be wretched. Then Lady Bootle will exclaim: “What a superb emerald,” and Ninian will indicate that it was given to an ancestress by Catherine the Great, and Ann will wish she hadn’t put it on. LADY EMILY: And the vicar will say to me: “Quite a stranger, Lady Emily,” which he always says, however often I come, and I will answer: “I had meant to be down before,” and he will shake his finger playfully at me, exclaiming: “A change of mind is the prerogative of the fair sex.” And at that moment, God willing, dinner will be announced. ANN: I think you are all very unkind, and as I am very tired I am going to shoo you all away. LORD WILLIAM (_grumbling_): You manage things so simply, Ann. When you want people to come, you ask them to come, and when you want them to go, you ask them to go. LADY EMILY: Why can’t you let the poor child alone? She is tired. MOLYNEUX: We can believe that she is tired, but we are incapable of believing that we are not refreshing. ANN: Of course you are refreshing. It is only that I am showing absolute self-interest. I don’t want even the film of a headache to come between us after dinner. LADY EMILY: Molly can never believe that a woman is resting. He remembers that in his youth it invariably meant that she was with someone else. MOLYNEUX: I have always felt that instead of saying strong as an ox, one should say strong as a woman. SELINA: You haven’t read your Shakespeare. “Frailty, thy name is woman.” MOLYNEUX: That had a moral, not a physical, significance, my dear. I am not speaking of robust virtue. [_They are talking themselves out of the room._ ANN: Aunt Emily—will you show Mabel her room? LADY EMILY: Certainly, my love. ANN (_calling to the door_): Half-past eight dinner, everybody. TIM (_in an undertone_): Might I stay for a moment or two? I will be quiet as a mouse. ANN: Tim, dear. TIM: Please don’t think that I am going to be tiresome. I do try to keep my thoughts away from you when you don’t want them, but it is so difficult. ANN: My dear, I need all of the reinforcements that you can give me—always. TIM: You are so nice, dearest, that you count on my being a fool. ANN: You’re teasing me. TIM: I know you can’t need anything. It is horrible to have nasty involuntary necessities nibbling things out of one’s wishes. ANN: What wishes? TIM: The wish to behave well. ANN: I never want to behave well. TIM: You’ve never had to. ANN (_to herself_): Oh, my dear. TIM: I always hope that there are going to be little things that I can do for you. I don’t ask you to need things. I only long—quite passionately—for you to want some thing. ANN: It is so complicated—I need your love and I want you to be happy. TIM: How deliciously simple that would be. You have my love and you make me happy.