AR HUNCH, _President;_ Miss DORA DARLISH, _Secretary_;
Mrs EGERTON and Mrs CLARE GRAHAM, _Visitors_; and the
"CELIBATES," eight in number.

SCENE I.--THE CLUB ROOM.

Miss HUNCH. Oh, Mrs Egerton, you are just in time. We are now to take
the oath binding ourselves to refuse all offers of marriage.

Mrs EGERTON. Perhaps I had better retire; as wife, and mother of a
family, I----

Miss HUNCH. Certainly not; we welcome any witness, and, after all, we
owe much to married women, since everyone of them is a Curtius who, by a
leap into the chasm of publicity, may save a doomed multitude!

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM (_laughing_). Gracious! I did not know I could leap
anywhere. Pray tell me how it is done.

Miss HUNCH (_glaring through her spectacles_). The subject is too
serious for trifling. Marriage is calculated to pen the free instincts
of the feminine community. You know our motto, _Aut viam inveniam aut
faciam_?

Mrs EGERTON. I see it all over the room, but that doesn't tell me what
it means.

Miss HUNCH. It means we will find a road out of our bondage--or make
one!

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM (_giggling_). Sail from Scylla into Charybdis, eh? You
see I allow the tragedy of both destinations.

Miss HUNCH (_sarcastically_). A kind concession, but a frivolous. Still,
we prefer the risk of the unknown to the horror of the known.

Mrs GRAHAM to Mrs EGERTON (_aside_). What on earth does she mean? How
many times has she been married?

Mrs EGERTON (_aside_). Hush. You mustn't offend the prejudices of the
club. Ah, how do you do, Miss Darlish?

DORA DARLISH (_joining them_). Charming rooms, aren't they? So glad to
see you here, Clare.

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM. Thank you, but I feel rather like a fish out of water.
It takes a long time to cultivate amphibiousness----

DORA. Oh, we're not amphibious--we mean to keep high and dry----

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM. I thought you didn't forswear love and romance and all
that kind of thing, but----

DORA. Nor do we. We look on love as the divine revelation of life----

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM. Oh! And then?

DORA. When love has ceased to be love, we----

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM. Scramble to the bank to sun yourselves till ready for
another dive? I must tell Charlie----

DORA. Don't. You will put wrong constructions on things. Of course we
would merely preserve the right to scramble out in self-defence----

Mrs CLARE GRAHAM (_laughing_). I thought so! How about amphibians? You
ought to re-christen the