Act I

A lady and gentleman are sitting together on a chesterfield in a
retired corner of the lounge of a seaside hotel. It is a summer
night: the French window behind them stands open. The terrace
without overlooks a moonlit harbor. The lounge is dark. The
chesterfield, upholstered in silver grey, and the two figures on
it in evening dress, catch the light from an arc lamp somewhere;
but the walls, covered with a dark green paper, are in gloom.
There are two stray chairs, one on each side. On the gentleman's
right, behind him up near the window, is an unused fireplace.
Opposite it on the lady's left is a door. The gentleman is on the
lady's right.

The lady is very attractive, with a musical voice and soft
appealing manners. She is young: that is, one feels sure that she
is under thirty-five and over twenty-four. The gentleman does not
look much older. He is rather handsome, and has ventured as far
in the direction of poetic dandyism in the arrangement of his
hair as any man who is not a professional artist can afford to in
England. He is obviously very much in love with the lady, and is,
in fact, yielding to an irresistible impulse to throw his arms
around her.

**

THE LADY. Don't--oh don't be horrid. Please, Mr. Lunn [she rises
from the lounge and retreats behind it]! Promise me you won't be
horrid.

GREGORY LUNN. I'm not being horrid, Mrs. Juno. I'm not going to
be horrid. I love you: that's all. I'm extraordinarily happy.

MRS. JUNO. You will really be good?

GREGORY. I'll be whatever you wish me to be. I tell you I love
you. I love loving you. I don't want to be tired and sorry, as I
should be if I were to be horrid. I don't want you to be tired
and sorry. Do come and sit down again.

MRS. JUNO [coming back to her seat]. You're sure you don't want
anything you oughtn't to?

GREGORY. Quite sure. I only want you [she recoils]. Don't be
alarmed. I like wanting you. As long as I have a want, I have a
reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

MRS. JUNO. Yes; but the impulse to commit suicide is sometimes
irresistible.

GREGORY. Not with you.

MRS. JUNO. What!

GREGORY. Oh, it sounds uncomplimentary; but it isn't really. Do
you know why half the couples who find themselves situated as we
are now behave horridly?

MRS. JUNO. Because they can't help it if they let things go too
far.

GREGORY. Not a bit of it. It's because they have nothing else to
do, and no other way of entertaining each other. You don't know
what it is to be alone with a woman who has little beauty and
less conversation. What is a man to do? She can't talk
interestingly; and if he talks that way himself she doesn't
understand him. He