VALENTINE. Of course not. Now what happens in the duel of sex? The old fashioned mother received an old fashioned education to protect her against the wiles of man. Well, you know the result: the old fashioned man got round her. The old fashioned woman resolved to protect her daughter more effectually--to find some armor too strong for the old fashioned man. So she gave her daughter a scientific education--your plan. That was a corker for the old fashioned man: he said it wasn't fair--unwomanly and all the rest of it. But that didn't do him any good. So he had to give up his old fashioned plan of attack--you know--going down on his knees and swearing to love, honor and obey, and so on. MRS. CLANDON. Excuse me: that was what the woman swore. VALENTINE. Was it? Ah, perhaps you're right--yes: of course it was. Well, what did the man do? Just what the artillery man does-- went one better than the woman--educated himself scientifically and beat her at that game just as he had beaten her at the old game. I learnt how to circumvent the Women's Rights woman before I was twenty- three: it's all been found out long ago. You see, my methods are thoroughly modern. MRS. CLANDON (with quiet disgust). No doubt. VALENTINE. But for that very reason there's one sort of girl against whom they are of no use. MRS. CLANDON. Pray which sort? VALENTINE. The thoroughly old fashioned girl. If you had brought up Gloria in the old way, it would have taken me eighteen months to get to the point I got to this afternoon in eighteen minutes. Yes, Mrs. Clandon: the Higher Education of Women delivered Gloria into my hands; and it was you who taught her to believe in the Higher Education of Women. MRS. CLANDON (rising). Mr. Valentine: you are very clever. VALENTINE (rising also). Oh, Mrs. Clandon! MRS. CLANDON And you have taught me n o t h i n g. Good-bye. VALENTINE (horrified). Good-bye! Oh, mayn't I see her before I go? MRS. CLANDON. I am afraid she will not return until you have gone Mr. Valentine. She left the room expressly to avoid you. VALENTINE (thoughtfully). That's a good sign. Good-bye. (He bows and makes for the door, apparently well satisfied.) MRS. CLANDON (alarmed). Why do you think it a good sign? VALENTINE (turning near the door). Because I am mortally afraid of her; and it looks as if she were mortally afraid of me. (He turns to go and finds himself face to face with Gloria, who has just entered. She looks steadfastly at him. He stares helplessly at her; then round at Mrs. Clandon; then at Gloria again, completely at a loss.) GLORIA (white, and controlling herself with difficulty). Mother: is what Dolly told me true? MRS. CLANDON. What did she tell you, dear? GLORIA. That you have been speaking about me to this gentleman. VALENTINE (murmuring). This gentleman! Oh!