CHARTERIS (to the page). Off with you, my boy: Dr. Paramore's waiting breathless with expectation. PAGE BOY (seriously). Indeed, sir. (He hurries off.) CHARTERIS. That boy will make his way in this country. He has no sense of humour. (Grace comes in. Her dress, very convenient and businesslike, is made to please herself and serve her own purposes without the slightest regard to fashion, though by no means without a careful concern for her personal elegance. She enters briskly, like an habitually busy woman.) SYLVIA (running to her). Here you are at last Tranfield, old girl. I've been waiting for you this last hour. I'm starving. GRACE. All right, dear. (To Charteris.) Did you get my letter? CHARTERIS. Yes. I wish you wouldn't write on those confounded blue letter cards. SYLVIA (to Grace). Shall I go down first and secure a table? CHARTERIS (taking the reply out of Grace's mouth). Do, old boy. SYLVIA. Don't be too long. (She goes into the dining room.) GRACE. Well? CHARTERIS. I'm afraid to face you after last night. Can you imagine a more horrible scene? Don't you hate the very sight of me after it? GRACE. Oh, no. CHARTERIS. Then you ought to. Ugh! it was hideous--an insult--an outrage. A nice end to all my plans for making you happy--for making you an exception to all the women who swear I have made them miserable! GRACE (sitting down placidly). I am not at all miserable. I'm sorry; but I shan't break my heart. CHARTERIS. No: yours is a thoroughbred heart: you don't scream and cry every time it's pinched. That's why you are the only possible woman for me. GRACE (shaking her head). Not now. Never any more. CHARTERIS. Never! What do you mean? GRACE. What I say, Leonard. CHARTERIS. Jilted again! The fickleness of women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me. Well, well! I see how it is, Grace: you can't get over that horrible scene last night. Imagine her saying I had kissed her within the last two days! GRACE (rising eagerly). Was that not true? CHARTERIS. True! No: a thumping lie. GRACE. Oh, I'm so glad. That was the only thing that really hurt me. CHARTERIS. Just why she said it. How adorable of you to care! My darling. (He seizes her hands and presses them to his breast.) GRACE. Remember! it's all broken off. CHARTERIS. Ah yes: you have my heart in your hands. Break it. Throw my happiness out of the window. GRACE. Oh, Leonard, does your happiness really depend on me? CHARTERIS (tenderly). Absolutely. (She beams with delight. A sudden revulsion comes to him at the sight: he recoils, dropping her hands and crying) Ah no: why should I lie to you? (He folds his arms and adds firmly) My happiness depends on nobody but myself. I can do without you. GRACE (nerving herself). So you shall. Thank you for the truth. Now _I_ will tell you the truth.