ized that since I was twenty-three. I always used to take it as a matter of course that I should be married before I was twenty. BENTLEY'S VOICE. [in the garden] Youve got to keep yourself fresh: to look at these things with an open mind. JOHN TARLETON'S VOICE. Quite right, quite right: I always say so. MRS TARLETON. Theres your father, and Bunny with him. BENTLEY. Keep young. Keep your eye on me. Thats the tip for you. Bentley and Mr Tarleton (an immense and genial veteran of trade) come into view and enter the pavilion. JOHN TARLETON. You think youre young, do you? You think I'm old? [energetically shaking off his motoring coat and hanging it up with his cap]. BENTLEY. [helping him with the coat] Of course youre old. Look at your face and look at mine. What you call your youth is nothing but your levity. Why do we get on so well together? Because I'm a young cub and youre an old josser. [He throws a cushion at Hypatia's feet and sits down on it with his back against her knees]. TARLETON. Old! Thats all you know about it, my lad. How do, Patsy! [Hypatia kisses him]. How is my Chickabiddy? [He kisses Mrs Tarleton's hand and poses expansively in the middle of the picture]. Look at me! Look at these wrinkles, these gray hairs, this repulsive mask that you call old age! What is it? [Vehemently] I ask you, what is it? BENTLEY. Jolly nice and venerable, old man. Dont be discouraged. TARLETON. Nice? Not a bit of it. Venerable? Venerable be blowed! Read your Darwin, my boy. Read your Weismann. [He goes to the sideboard for a drink of lemonade]. MRS TARLETON. For shame, John! Tell him to read his Bible. TARLETON. [manipulating the syphon] Whats the use of telling children to read the Bible when you know they wont. I was kept away from the Bible for forty years by being told to read i