DRUMMLE.
Aub----! [_Looking towards_ MISQUITH.] Is it a joke?
MISQUITH.
No.
DRUMMLE.
[_Looking from_ MISQUITH _to_ JAYNE.] To whom?
MISQUITH.
He doesn"t tell us.
JAYNE.
We three were asked here to-night to receive the announcement.
Aubrey has some theory that marriage is likely to alienate a man from his friends, and it seems to me he has taken the precaution to wish us good-bye.
MISQUITH.
No, no.
JAYNE.
Practically, surely.
DRUMMLE.
[_Thoughtfully._] Marriage in general, does he mean, or this marriage?
JAYNE.
That"s the point. Frank says----
MISQUITH.
No, no, no; I feared it suggested----
JAYNE.
Well, well. [_To_ DRUMMLE.] What do you think Of it?
DRUMMLE.
[_After a slight pause._] Is there a light there? [_Lighting his cigar._] He--wraps the lady--in mystery--you say?
MISQUITH.
Most modestly.
DRUMMLE.
Aubrey"s--not--a very--young man.
JAYNE.
Forty-three.
DRUMMLE.
Ah! _L"age critique!_
MISQUITH.
A dangerous age--yes, yes.
DRUMMLE.
When you two fellows go home, do you mind leaving me behind here?
MISQUITH.
Not at all.
JAYNE.
By all means.
DRUMMLE.
All right. [_Anxiously._] Deuce take it, the man"s second marriage mustn"t be another mistake!
[_With his head bent he walks up to the fireplace._
JAYNE.
You knew him in his short married life, Cayley. Terribly unsatisfactory, wasn"t it?
DRUMMLE.
Well---- [_Looking at the door._] I quite closed that door?
MISQUITH.
Yes.
[_Settles himself on the sofa_; JAYNE _is seated in an armchair._