ches the bell_.]

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, pray don't trouble, Lady Chiltern. I dare say I lost
it at the Opera, before we came on here.

LADY MARKBY. Ah yes, I suppose it must have been at the Opera. The fact
is, we all scramble and jostle so much nowadays that I wonder we have
anything at all left on us at the end of an evening. I know myself that,
when I am coming back from the Drawing Room, I always feel as if I hadn't
a shred on me, except a small shred of decent reputation, just enough to
prevent the lower classes making painful observations through the windows
of the carriage. The fact is that our Society is terribly
over-populated. Really, some one should arrange a proper scheme of
assisted emigration. It would do a great deal of good.

MRS. CHEVELEY. I quite agree with you, Lady Markby. It is nearly six
years since I have been in London for the Season, and I must say Society
has become dreadfully mixed. One sees the oddest people everywhere.

LADY MARKBY. That is quite true, dear. But one needn't know them. I'm
sure I don't know half the people who come to my house. Indeed, from all
I hear, I shouldn't like to.

[_Enter_ MASON.]

LADY CHILTERN. What sort of a brooch was it that you lost, Mrs.
Cheveley?

MRS. CHEVELEY. A diamond snake-brooch with a ruby, a rather large ruby.

LADY MARKBY. I thought you said there was a sapphire on the head, dear?

MRS. CHEVELEY [_Smiling_.] No, lady Markby--a ruby.

LADY MARKBY. [_Nodding her head_.] And very becoming, I am quite sure.

LADY CHILTERN. Has a ruby and diamond brooch been found in any of the
rooms this morning, Mason?

MASON. No, my lady.

MRS. CHEVELEY. It really is of no consequence, Lady Chiltern. I am so
sorry to have put you to any inconvenience.

LADY CHILTERN. [_Coldly_.] Oh, it has been no inconvenience. That will
do, Mason. You can bring tea.

[_Exit_ MASON.]

LADY MARKBY. Well, I must say it is most annoying to lose anything. I
remember once at Bath, years ago, losing in the Pump Room an exceedingly
handsome cameo bracelet that Sir John had given me. I don't think he has
ever given me anything since, I am sorry to say. He has sadly
degenerated. Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our
husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a
happy married life that there has been since that terrible thing called
the Higher Education of Women was invented.

LADY CHILTERN. Ah! it is