Rankling's in there--asleep. In the dark I sat on him. Oh, what a narrow escape I've had! [_Coming behind Miss Dyott and suddenly seeing her._] Caroline! Scylla and Charybdis! [_He bolts back into the dark room._] Miss Dyott. [_Rising alarmed._] What's that? [_Mrs. Rankling enters in a peignoir._] MRS. RANKLING. I heard something fall. [_Seeing Miss Dyott._] Mrs. Queckett! [_Distantly._] Instructions were given that everybody should be called at eight. I had arranged that a more appropriate costume should be placed at your disposal. [_Seeing the broken bust._] Ah, what has happened? MISS DYOTT. I knocked over the pedestal. MRS. RANKLING. [_Distressed._] Oh, bust of myself by Belt! I saw him working on it! Oh, Mrs. Queckett, is there no end of the trouble you have brought upon us? MISS DYOTT. The trouble _you_ have brought upon me. MRS. RANKLING. What! Why didn't you tell us you had a husband? MISS DYOTT. Why didn't you tell me that Dinah had a husband? MRS. RANKLING. We didn't know it. MISS DYOTT. Well, if you didn't know your own daughter was married how can you wonder at your ignorance of other people's domestic complications? MRS. RANKLING. But that's not all. You have informed us that you are now actually contributing to a nightly entertainment of a volatile description--that you are positively being laughed at in public. MISS DYOTT. Isn't it better to be laughed at in public, and paid for it, than to be sniggered at privately for nothing? MRS. RANKLING. Mrs. Queckett, you are revealing your true character. MISS DYOTT. It is the same as your own--an undervalued wife. Let me open your eyes as mine are opened. We have engaged to love and to honour two men. MRS. RANKLING. _I_ have done nothing of the kind. MISS DYOTT. I mean one each. MRS. RANKLING. Oh--excuse me. MISS DYOTT. Now--looking at him microscopically--is there much to love and to honour in Admiral Rankling? MRS. RANKLING. He is a genial After-dinner Speaker. MISS DYOTT. Hah! MRS. RANKLING. It is true he is rather austere. MISS DYOTT. An austere sailor! All bows abroad, and stern at home. Well, then--knowing what occurred last night--is there anything to love and to honour in Mr. Queckett? MRS. RANKLING. Nothing whatever. MISS DYOTT. [_Annoyed._] And yet he is undoubtedly the superior of Admiral Rankling. Very well then--do as I mean to do--put your foot down. If heaven has gifted you with a large one, so much the better. [_The voices of Queckett and Rankling are heard suddenly raised in the adjoining room._] RANKLING. [_ Outside._] Queckett. QUECKETT. [_ Outside._] My dear Rankling! MISS DVOTT. Vere! MRS. RANKLING. The Admiral has released your husband. RANKLING. [_In the distance._] I'll trouble you, sir! QUECKETT. Certainly, Rankling. MISS DYOTT