[_Handing a bundle of legal documents to HUGH._] “Dangars v. Dangars.” Oh, excuse me, but Mr. Renshaw has sent in some little nosegays with a request that they should be worn to-day. [_Sniffing the flower in his buttonhole._] As the wedding takes place from the office, as it were, I considered it would be a permissible compliment to our client, the bride---- HUGH MURRAY. Quite so--very kind of Mr. Renshaw. EPHGRAVES. I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I see you’re not wearing yours. HUGH MURRAY. Oh, this is from Mr. Renshaw? EPHGRAVES. Yes. HUGH MURRAY. We are keeping Lord Dangars waiting. [_EPHGRAVES goes into the clerk’s office, as HUGH takes a flower from a glass on the table._] I can’t wear it--I can’t wear it, at _her_ wedding. [_EPHGRAVES ushers in LORD DANGARS, a dissipated-looking man of about forty, dressed in the height of fashion._] LORD DANGARS. Good morning, Mr. Murray. HUGH MURRAY. Good morning. Pray sit down. LORD DANGARS. I don’t want to bother you, you know, but my servant, who has been reading the newspapers for me since my damned--I beg your pardon--since my divorce business has been before the public, says that we were in Court again yesterday. HUGH MURRAY. Oh, yes. The Decree _Nisi_ has been made absolute on the application of the petitioner. LORD DANGARS. The Petitioner. Let me see--they call me the Respondent, don’t they? HUGH MURRAY. They do--[_under his breath_] amongst other things. LORD DANGARS. It’s a deuced odd circumstance that I have been nearly everything in divorce cases, but _never_ a petitioner. Decree _Nisi_ made absolute, eh? That means I am quite free, doesn’t it? HUGH MURRAY. Certainly. LORD DANGARS. And eligible? HUGH MURRAY. I beg pardon? LORD DANGARS. I can marry again? HUGH MURRAY. You could marry again if you thought proper. LORD DANGARS. You wouldn’t call it improper? HUGH MURRAY. If you ask me that as your solicitor I answer No. Otherwise I have what are perhaps peculiar notions as to the eligibility of a man who marries. LORD DANGARS. Oh, have you! Well, I don’t see that a man’s eligibility requires any further qualification than that of his being single. You differ? HUGH MURRAY. May I speak honestly, Lord Dangars? LORD DANGARS. Do. I admire anything of that sort. I think your partner told me you were a Scotchman and new to London. I like to encounter a man in his honest stage. HUGH MURRAY. Thank you. Then you will allow me to maintain that the man who marries a good woman knowing that his past life is not as spotless as hers grievously wrongs his wife and fools himself. LORD DANGARS. As for wronging _her_, that’s an abstract question of sentiment. But I don’t see how the man is a fool. HUGH MURRAY. A man is a fool to bind himself to one who sooner or later must learn what little need there is to respect her husband. LORD DANGARS.