Then why the dickens do you suggest it? CATHERINE. Because I’m nervous and restless and rather bored. I wanted to hear you say that you wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice the world for my sake. COLBY. You absurd, delightful creature! [_She is all smiles and coquetry. Suddenly the tears force themselves into her eyes and her voice breaks._ CATHERINE. Bob! [_She stretches out her hands and he takes her in his arms and kisses her passionately; she breaks away from him and stands panting._ MR. PERIGAL _comes in followed by_ FRANCIS ETCHINGHAM, _who wears on one foot a large felt slipper, and walks with a stick_. PERIGAL. Your father insisted on coming downstairs. ETCHINGHAM. I really can’t stand my room any longer. And I can walk quite well now. CATHERINE. I thought Dr. O’Farrell said you were to stay upstairs till to-morrow, father. ETCHINGHAM. O’Farrell’s an idiot. COLBY. [_Smiling._] It certainly looks as if you were better when you start abusing your doctor. PERIGAL. [_To_ COLBY.] I hope I haven’t kept you waiting? COLBY. Not a bit! PERIGAL. [_Very amiably._] Lady Francis has been showing me an old photograph. ETCHINGHAM. [_Settling himself heavily into an armchair._] That little joke of Angela’s didn’t quite come off. [CATHERINE _gives him a footstool and puts his foot on it_. PERIGAL. I looked at it blankly, and then she said: Don’t you remember? It’s so-and-so. It gave me quite a start. It was the photograph of a young lady I’d been so madly in love with that I asked her to bolt with me--married woman and all that sort of thing--and, would you believe it? thirty years have passed since then, and upon my soul I didn’t know her from Adam! ETCHINGHAM. Or Eve! [CATHERINE _looks at him gravely, seeing the application to herself of his story_. COLBY. You must congratulate yourself. PERIGAL. Well, my friends, I do. I’m not a high-minded, quixotic fellow like you, and I don’t mind telling you that I find it very agreeable to be Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister. And yet, at the time, if anyone had given me the choice between my present position and a trip across Europe with the object of my affections, I wouldn’t have hesitated. COLBY. A merciful providence evidently had you under its care. [CATHERINE _gives a slight start and rises as she hears these words, and looks at him steadily_. PERIGAL. Well, we must be off. We mustn’t let even this charming lady interfere too much with the working of the British Empire. CATHERINE. Good-bye. PERIGAL. You must get your mother to show you that photograph. Thirty years ago I thought the little hussy much more attractive than that. [_Turning to_ ETCHINGHAM.] Good-bye, Frank. I hope your foot’ll be all right in a day or two. [PERIGAL _and_ COLBY _go out_. ETCHINGHAM. I remember that little woman quite well. Not much to look at. I wondered at the time what Perigal saw in her. CATHERINE.