Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honor Part 19

All you say is so very wise and sensible. Of course I agree.

ROSE.

I wonder if you'll think me sensible and wise in ten years.

GERALD.

I'm quite sure I shall.

ROSE.

Why, then, I'm afraid we shan't cultivate any great brilliancy of repartee.

GERALD.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.

ROSE.

Oh, don't say that. When a man's in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them with his arms akimbo.

When a woman's in love she doesn't care two straws for Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not.

GERALD.

When a woman's in love she can put her heart on the slide of a microscope and examine how it beats. When a man's in love, what do you think he cares for science and philosophy and all the rest of it!

ROSE.

When a man's in love he can only write sonnets to the moon. When a woman's in love she can still cook his dinner and darn her own stockings.

GERALD.

I wish you wouldn't cap all my observations.

[_She lifts up her face, and he kisses her lips._

ROSE.

I'm beginning to think you're rather nice, you know.

GERALD.

That's rea.s.suring, at all events.

ROSE.

But no one could accuse you of being a scintillating talker.

GERALD.

Have you ever watched the lovers in the Park sitting on the benches hour after hour without saying a word?

ROSE.

Why?

GERALD.

Because I've always thought that they must be bored to the verge of tears. Now I know they're only happy.

ROSE.

You're certainly my soldier, so I suppose I'm your nursery-maid.

GERALD.

You know, when I was at Trinity College, Dublin----

ROSE.

[_Interrupting._] Were you there? I thought you went to Oxford.

GERALD.

No, why?

ROSE.

Only all my people go to Magdalen.

GERALD.

Yes.

ROSE.

And I've decided that if I ever have a son he shall go there too.

[_The_ ADMIRAL _starts and pulls the handkerchief off his face. The others do not notice him.

He is aghast and astounded at the conversation._ LADY FREDERICK _comes in later and stands smiling as she listens_.

GERALD.

My darling, you know I hate to thwart you in any way, but I've quite made up my mind that my son shall go to Dublin as I did.

ROSE.

I'm awfully sorry, Gerald, but the boy must be educated like a gentleman.