Chapter IV: Act I: GEOFFREY DELAMAYN and his brother are seen conversing in an

arbor. (Don't let the printer imagine that I mean Ann Arbor. It was bad enough in_ WILKIE COLLINS _to banish his dramatis personae to Scotland; but he was nevertheless too humane to send them to Michigan_.)

JULIUS DELAMAYN. "GEOFFREY, you really must do something. The unmannerly people who are just coming into the theatre make such a noise that I couldn't be heard if I took the trouble to preach to you for an hour, so I won't attempt to make my meaning any clearer."

GEOFFREY. "I will or I won't, I forget which. However, the audience can't hear. We've got a pretty good house here to-night I wonder if my muscles really show to any extent. Here comes LADY LUNDIE and her friends."

LADY LUNDIE. "I choose everybody to play croquet on my side. The rest may play on BLANCHE'S side. Miss SYLVESTER, you look as if you could not stand alone. Therefore I order you to play."

ANNIE SYLVESTER. "Madame, I will. GEOFFREY, meet me here in ten minutes, or you'll be sorry for it." (Exit everybody. ANNIE and GEOFFREY returning on tip-toe.)

ANNIE. "You must marry me this afternoon. Meet me at the inn on the moor."

GEOFFREY. "I won't cross the moor with you. DESDEMONA foolishly crossed the Moor, and came to grief in consequence. I take warning by her. I hate you, but I suppose I must marry you, or you'll sell all my letters to the _Sun_."--(_They go out to be married_.)

ARNOLD _enters and makes love to_ BLANCHE. SIR PATRICK _does the comic business with_ LEWIS'S _usual humor_. (_What a nice man_ LEWIS _must be for girls to quarrel with; he "makes up" so nicely--this is a joke_.) LADY LUNDIE _enters and announces that_ ANNIE _is no longer her governess, that misguided person having thrown up her situation, for the irrational reason that it was an interesting one, and having fled in the silence of the after-dinner hour. Shrieks of horror from the young ladies, who desist from knocking their croquet-balls into the orchestra and the proscenium boxes; and triumphant falling of a new act-drop_. STOEPEL, _having thought of a sweet passage for the fife, in a Chinese opera, plays it uninterruptedly for forty-five minutes. A deaf old gentleman approvingly remarks that this is really classical music_.