ck and brushed her hair. What
an awful change!

[PROBYN appears at the conservatory entrance.]

PROBYN.

Lady Euphemia Vibart.

[LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART, a handsome, distinguished-looking, and elegantly
dressed girl of about twenty, enters. She scarcely notices VALENTINE,
who bows formally.]

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

No one has returned yet, Brooke?

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Effie, don't you recollect Mr. White?

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Oh! how do you do? [She shakes hands with him in an affected manner.] We
are distantly related, I remember.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Lady Euphemia, I join you in remembering the relationship--and the
distance.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Oh, I don't mean that, Mr. White. At any rate, we were excellent friends
many years ago when our cousin Imogen used to give us tea in her
school-room. She will be _too_ rejoiced at your return.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

[At the window.] Hullo, I think pa has come home.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Good-by, Lady Euphemia.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

I say, Effie, Mr. White won't stay.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

[Indifferently.] What a pity!

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

He has turned against civilization, you know, and has become a sort of
pleasant cannibal.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

A cannibal! That is _too_ interesting. Pray remain, Mr. White. My
brother, Lord Drumdurris, is on duty at the Palace to-day and is coming
on here. We all knew each other as children. He will be _too_ delighted.

VALENTINE WHITE.

I recollect Lord Vibart, as he then was, very well. He once burnt me
with a red-hot poker.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

Good-humouredly, I am sure. Perhaps you have not heard that he married
Lady Egidia Cardelloe, Lord Struddock's second daughter, about two years
ago. If you stay you will meet her also.

VALENTINE WHITE.

Ah, I am afraid I--I----

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

You will find her _too_ enchanting.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

No, he won't. She's not tattooed or anything.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

They have a little son, just five months old, who is _too_ divine.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

Ah, now, if you boiled the baby it might be to Val's taste.

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

As they have been constantly travelling, Egidia is only just presented
to-day by my mother. You recollect Lady Drumdurris, my mother?

VALENTINE WHITE.

Perfectly.

BROOKE TWOMBLEY.

[Poking VALENTINE in the side.] Old Lady Drum!

LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.

My mother will be _too_ charmed to meet