CULVER. You are a heartless creature. (_In an ordinary voice_.) Did we finish the first letter? This is the second one. (_Dictates_.) 'My dear Lord Woking'-- MISS STARKEY. But you've just given me that one. CULVER (_firmly_.) 'My dear Lord Woking.' Go on the same as the first one down to 'I cannot adequately express to you my sense of the honour in contemplation.' 'Full stop. I need hardly say that, in spite of my feeling that I have done only too little to deserve it, I accept it with the greatest pleasure and the greatest gratitude. Believe me, etc.' MISS STARKEY. But-- CULVER. Don't imagine that your giving me notice has affected me in the slightest degree. It has not. I told you I had two letters. I have not yet decided whether to accept or refuse the title. (_Enter_ Mrs. Culver, _back_.) Go and copy both letters and bring them in to me in a quarter of an hour, whether I ring or not. That will give you plenty of time for post. Now--run! (_Exit_ Miss Starkey, _back_. Culver _rises, clears his throat, and obviously braces himself for a final effort of firmness_. Mrs. Culver _calmly rearranges some flowers in a vase_.) Well, my dear, I was expecting you. MRS. CULVER (_very sweetly_), Arthur, I was wrong. CULVER (_startled_). Good God! (Mrs. Culver _bends down to examine the upholstery of a chair_. Culver _gives a gesture, first of triumph, and then of apprehension_.) MRS. CULVER (_looking straight at him_). I say I was wrong. CULVER (_lightly, but uneasily_). Oh no! Oh no! MRS. CULVER. Of course I don't mean wrong in my arguments about the title. Not for a moment. I mean I was wrong not to sacrifice my own point of view. I'm only a woman, and it's the woman's place to submit. So I do submit. Naturally I shall always be a true wife to you, but-- CULVER. Now child, don't begin to talk like that. I don't mind _reading_ novels, but I won't have raw lumps of them thrown _at_ me. MRS. CULVER (_with a gentle smile_), I _must_ talk like this. I shall do everything I can to make you comfortable, and I hope nobody, and especially not the poor children, will notice any difference in our relations. CULVER (_advancing, with a sort of menace_). But? MRS. CULVER. But things can never be the same again. CULVER. I knew the confounded phrase was coming. I knew it. I've read it scores of times. (_Picking up the vase_.) Hermione, if you continue in that strain, I will dash this vase into a thousand fragments. MRS. CULVER (_quietly taking the vase from him and putting it down_). Arthur, I could have forgiven you everything. What do I care--really--about a title? (_Falsely_.) I only care for your happiness. But I can't forgive you for having laid a trap for me last night--and in front of the children and a stranger too. CULVER. Laid a trap for you? MRS. CULVER. You knew all about the title when you first came in last night and you deliberately led me on.