DONE. You don't look pretty when you are trying to keep a secret. You bloat. Explain. ANTHONY. Mrs. Herriott! BLAYNE. (After a long pause, to the room generally.) It's my notion that we are a set of fools. MACKESY. Nonsense. That business was knocked on the head last season. Why, young Mallard-- ANTHONY. Mallard was a candlestick, paraded as such. Think awhile. Recollect last season and the talk then. Mallard or no Mallard, did Gandy ever talk to any other woman? CURTISS. There's something in that. It was slightly noticeable now you come to mention it. But she's at Naini Tat and he's at Simla. ANTHONY. He had to go to Simla to look after a globe-trotter relative of his--a person with a title. Uncle or aunt. BLAYNE And there he got engaged. No law prevents a man growing tired of a woman. ANTHONY. Except that he mustn't do it till the woman is tired of him. And the Herriott woman was not that. CURTISS. She may be now. Two months of Naini Tal works wonders. DONE. Curious thing how some women carry a Fate with them. There was a Mrs. Deegie in the Central Provinces whose men invariably fell away and got married. It became a regular proverb with us when I was down there. I remember three men desperately devoted to her, and they all, one after another, took wives. CURTISS. That's odd. Now I should have thought that Mrs. Deegie's influence would have led them to take other men's wives. It ought to have made them afraid of the judgment of Providence. ANTHONY. Mrs. Herriott will make Gandy afraid of something more than the judgment of Providence, I fancy. BLAYNE. Supposing things are as you say, he'll be a fool to face her. He'll sit tight at Simla. ANTHONY. 'Shouldn't be a bit surprised if he went off to Naini to explain. He's an unaccountable sort of man, and she's likely to be a more than unaccountable woman. DONE. What makes you take her character away so confidently? ANTHONY. Primum tern pus. Caddy was her first and a woman doesn't allow her first man to drop away without expostulation. She justifies the first transfer of affection to herself by swearing that it is forever and ever. Consequently-- BLAYNE. Consequently, we are sitting here till past one o'clock, talking scandal like a set of Station cats. Anthony, it's all your fault. We were perfectly respectable till you came in Go to bed. I'm off, Good-night all. CURTISS. Past one! It's past two by Jove, and here's the khit coming for the late charge. Just Heavens! One, two, three, four, five rupees to pay for the pleasure of saying that a poor little beast of a woman is no better than she should be. I'm ashamed of myself. Go to bed, you slanderous villains, and if I'm sent to Beora to-morrow, be prepared to hear I'm dead before paying my card account! THE TENTS OF KEDAR