MISS DYOTT. I am married secretly--secretly, because my husband could never face the world of fashion as the consort of the proprietress of a scholastic establishment. You will gather from this that my husband is a gentleman. BERNSTEIN. H'm--so--is he? MISS DYOTT. It had been a long-cherished ambition with me, if ever I married, to wed no one but a gentleman. I do not mean a gentleman in a mere parliamentary sense--I mean a man of birth, blood, and breeding. Respect my confidence--I have wedded the Honourable Vere Queckett. BERNSTEIN. [_Unconcernedly._] Ah! Is he a very nice man? MISS DYOTT. Nice! Mr. Bernstein, you are speaking of a brother of Lord Limehouse! BERNSTEIN. Oh, am I? Lord Limehouse--let me tink--he is very--very--vot you gall it?--very popular just now. Yah--yah--he is in the Bankruptcy Court! MISS DYOTT. [_With pride._] Certainly. So is Harold Archideckne Queckett, Vere's youngest brother. So is Loftus Martineau Queckett, Vere's cousin. They have always been a very united family. But, dear Mr. Bernstein, you have accidentally probed the one--I won't say fault--the one most remarkable attribute of these great Saxon Quecketts. BERNSTEIN. Oh yes, I see; you have to pay your husband's leedle pills. MISS DYOTT. Quite so--that is it. I have the honour of being employed in the gradual discharge of liabilities incurred by Mr. Vere Queckett since the year 1876. I am also engaged in the noble task of providing Mr. Queckett with the elaborate necessities of his present existence. BERNSTEIN. I know now vy you vanted mine help. MISS DYOTT. Ah, yes! Volumnia College is not equal to the grand duty imposed upon it. It is absolutely necessary that I should increase my income. In my despair at facing this genial season I wrote to you. BERNSTEIN. Proposing to turn your cabital voice to account, eh? MISS DYOTT. Quite so--and suggesting that I should sing in your new Oratorio.. BERNSTEIN. Well, you are going to do zo. MISS DYOTT. What! When you have induced me to figure in a comic opera! BERNSTEIN. Yah, yah--but I have told you I have used the music of my new Oratorio for my new Gomic Opera. MISS DYOTT. Ah, yes--that is my only consolation. BERNSTEIN. Vill your goot gentleman be in the stalls to-night? MISS DYOTT. In the stalls--at the theatre! Hush, Mr. Bernstein, it is a secret from Vere. Lest his suspicions should be aroused by my leaving home every evening, I have led him to think that I am visiting a clergyman's wife at Hereford. I shall really be lodging in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. BERNSTEIN. Oh, vy not tell him all about it? MISS DYOTT. Nonsense! Vere is a gentleman; he would insist upon attending me to and from the theatre. BERNSTEIN. Veil, I should hope so. MISS DYOTT. No--no. He is himself a graceful dancer. A common chord of sympathy would naturally be struck between him and the _coryphées_. Oh, there is so much variety in Vere's character. BERNSTEIN.