MARGOT Don’t be so annoying, Zoe. I really am frightfully interested. ZOE You always are, darling, in other people’s affairs. MARGOT Naturally—they all sound so much more entertaining than my own. Did you see Jim anywhere about in Spain? ZOE Yes, in Barcelona. He’d just come in from a yachting cruise. MARGOT [_Eagerly_] _Who_ was with him? _Do_ tell me! ZOE Nobody. I met him coming out of a bathroom at the Ritz. MARGOT Did he look more or less unattached? ZOE Yes. He seemed quite happy. EDWARD Margot’s interest in her husband is so maternal, it always makes me feel as though I were in the presence of something sacred! MARGOT I’m awfully fond of Jim, really—particularly when he’s on a yachting cruise. ZOE Are you definitely living apart now? MARGOT Oh yes—except for religious festivals like Easter and Christmas; then we forgather and go down to Draycott with the children. EDWARD [_Smiling_] It seems a comfortable arrangement, doesn’t it? ZOE Frightfully. MARGOT [_Reflectively_] We _could_ get a divorce, I suppose, but it would make such dreary complications. And then when you’re free there’s the awful danger of starting the whole thing over again with some one else. ZOE I haven’t noticed it. MARGOT You will, I expect, dear—later on. [_She rises._] I’ve enjoyed my nice cocktail very much, thank you, Edward. I must go now. Come and lunch on Thursday, Zoe darling. I’ve only got Rebecca coming. She’ll adore seeing you again. ZOE All right. One-thirty? MARGOT Yes. Come along, Bobbie. Good-by, Edward. Give my love to Carol. EDWARD I will. Good bye. BOBBIE Good bye. MARGOT [_At door_] You’ve come back from abroad a changed woman, Zoe, if _that’s_ any comfort to you. [_She and BOBBIE go out._] ZOE What a sham Margot is, isn’t she? EDWARD Not really. Just a type. ZOE Yes, but she’s a type that couldn’t exist unless surrounded by false values. EDWARD She’s making the best of a bad job. ZOE She’s letting everything slide—morals, dignity, and discretion. Thank Heaven, I broke away. I might have got like that. EDWARD I wonder if breaking away _is_ such a very good plan. ZOE Of course it is. It’s the most regenerating thing in the world. EDWARD You’re so dashing, Zoe. Have another cigarette? ZOE [_Taking one_] Thanks. I feel almost panic-stricken, you know. EDWARD Why? ZOE Coming back anywhere is always such a dreadful anti-climax. EDWARD Not such an anti-climax as staying still. ZOE To think that all this used to be my life before I let Kenneth divorce me. EDWARD It’s pretty futile, isn’t it? ZOE