[_Ignoring the question._] That is one of the pills you had to swallow when I married you and your excellent but impoverished family. I started life with neither friend nor money, but with exceptionally fine parts. I soon discovered that the simplest way to succeed is by blackmail. It is astonishing how many men keep a large-sized skeleton in their cupboards. If you only get a sight of those discreditable bones, you can often make a whole family your bosom friends. I’m not boring you, am I? CATHERINE. You’re torturing me. GEORGE WINTER. This is a copy of a letter which you may remember. The original was so crumpled that I can’t help thinking you were romantic enough to sleep with it under your pillow. It begins: My very dear friend.... CATHERINE. [_Interrupting._] How did you get that? GEORGE WINTER. I can never understand why people are such fools as to write love-letters. I never do. I only send telegrams. CATHERINE. [_With flashing eyes._] You didn’t go to my dressing-case? GEORGE WINTER. [_Amused._] I did indeed. CATHERINE. [_Looking at the Bramah-key on her bracelet._] You broke it open? GEORGE WINTER. When I made you a present of your dressing-case, I kept the duplicate key in case you lost yours. CATHERINE. It’s infamous. It’s--it’s just like you. GEORGE WINTER. [_Smiling._] Why on earth were you so incautious as to leave it behind? CATHERINE. [_Indignantly._] I thought I could trust you. It never struck me that you’d pry into my private papers. GEORGE WINTER. [_With a chuckle._] Nonsense. You were so taken with the dramatic gesture of leaving the house in a pink satin opera cloak that you forgot all about it. CATHERINE. There’s nothing in any of my letters that I’m ashamed of. GEORGE WINTER. Would you like to look at this one? CATHERINE. [_Refusing to take it._] I know that there can be absolutely no harm in it. GEORGE WINTER. I wonder what a clever counsel would make of it. I can imagine it read in such a manner that those vague words should gather form and substance. A little irony, a grotesque emphasis here and there, and I can see the junior bar rolling with laughter. I don’t imagine a parliamentary light like your friend Robert Colby would take ridicule very well. It’s only by his entire lack of humour that he’s risen to the exalted position he now adorns. CATHERINE. [_Frightened._] What d’you mean, George? GEORGE WINTER. [_Good-humouredly._] My dear, I’m going to bring a counter petition, that’s all. You want to wash your dirty linen in public, let’s have an entire spring cleaning. CATHERINE. [_Scornfully._] Oh, my dear George, if you only knew how indifferent I am to such a threat! We haven’t done anything with which we can reproach ourselves. GEORGE WINTER.