AGATHA POSKET.
[_To herself._] Sunstroke evidently. Poor fellow! [_To LUKYN._] I a.s.sure you my husband is at home, quite well, and by this time sleeping soundly.
[_CIS and MR. POSKET are heard laughing in the next room._
ISIDORE.
[_Within._] You are two funny gentlemen, I beg your pardon.
AGATHA POSKET.
[_Startled._] What is that?
LUKYN.
In the next room. [_Raps at the door._] Hush--hush, hush!
CHARLOTTE.
Get it over, Aggy, and let us go home. I am so awfully hungry.
LUKYN.
[_Peering through the curtains._] It is still bearing him. What"s his weight? Surely he can"t scale over ten stone. Lord, how wet he is!
AGATHA POSKET.
Colonel Lukyn!
LUKYN.
[_Leaving the window sharply._] Madam, command me!
AGATHA POSKET.
Colonel Lukyn, we knew each other at Baroda twenty years ago.
LUKYN.
When I look at you, impossible.
AGATHA POSKET.
Ah, then you mustn"t look at me.
LUKYN.
Equally impossible.
CHARLOTTE.
[_To herself._] Oh, I feel quite out of this.
AGATHA POSKET.
You were at my little boy"s christening.
LUKYN.
[_Absently._] Yes--yes--certainly.
AGATHA POSKET.
You remember what a fine little fellow he was.
LUKYN.
[_Thoughtfully._] Not a pound over ten stone.
AGATHA POSKET.
Colonel Lukyn!
LUKYN.
I beg your pardon, yes--I was at the christening of your boy.
AGATHA POSKET.
[_To herself._] One of the worst cases of sunstroke I have ever known.
LUKYN.
I remember the child very well. Has he still got that absurd mug?
AGATHA POSKET.
Colonel Lukyn!
LUKYN.
Madam!
AGATHA POSKET.
My child is, and always was--perfect.
LUKYN.