one vast
comprehensive motive. Lady Macphail is the little woman to whom I
introduced you on the stairs at the Palace.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Well, but----

DOWAGER.

I encountered her again, and delivered a message from you begging her to
come on here with Sir Colin to drink tea.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

I never----

DOWAGER.

I know you didn't. My motive is this. She has just brought her boy to
London.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Is he the great man in the kilt I saw holding on to her lappets?

DOWAGER.

Yes.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

He's thirty, if he's an hour.

DOWAGER.

He's more. But he is a fine example of the grand simplicity that exists
in many Scottish families. Proprietor of eighty thousand acres, head of
a great clan, Colin Macphail of Ballocheevin remains a child attached to
his mother.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Oh, I shall be very happy to----

DOWAGER.

Ah, you grasp my motive!

LADY TWOMBLEY.

No, I don't.

DOWAGER.

[In LADY TWOMBLEY's ear.] _Imogen._

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Imogen?

DOWAGER.

Imogen _must_ make a match this season and marry before the year is out.

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Why?

DOWAGER.

Don't deceive yourself, Kate Twombley. You are aware that Julian's
position in the Ministry is precarious?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

You think so?

DOWAGER.

Everybody thinks so. It's my opinion they'll make a Jonah of him and
cast him from them before many months are over. You know what that
means?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Horrible! Julian giving up public life and settling down in some dismal
swamp as a country gentleman. He has threatened it.

DOWAGER.

Very well then; you must assure your children's future before the blow
falls. What could you do for Imogen in the country?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

A vicar or a small squire.

DOWAGER.

More likely a curate or a farmer. Will you resign yourself to that?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Never, Dora! I never will! I've had to swallow the husks of London and
my chicks shall have the barley. Julian _shall_ hold on till they have
made brilliant marriages!

DOWAGER.

Ah!

LADY TWOMBLEY.

He shall! Afterwards I'll go back to darning stockings with a light
heart.

DOWAGER.

Well spoken, Kate Twombley!

[PROBYN appears at the entrance.]

PROBYN.

Sir Colin and Lady Macphail.

DOWAGER.

[To LADY TWOMBLEY.] You see my motive?

LADY TWOMBLEY.

Yes, Dora.

[LADY MACPHAIL and SIR COLIN enter--she a simple little old woman in
Court dress, ecstatically sentimental