n, to-morrow morning. No
wedding-cake, I'm afraid, Olivia. (He laughs again) But we'll go and
have a good lunch somewhere.

OLIVIA. I will think it over, George.

GEORGE (good-humouredly). Well, give us a kiss while you're thinking.

OLIVIA. I'm afraid you mustn't kiss me until we are actually engaged.

GEORGE (laughing uneasily). Oh, we needn't take it as seriously as all
that.

OLIVIA. But a woman must take a proposal seriously.

GEORGE (alarmed at last). What do you mean?

OLIVIA. I mean that the whole question, as I heard somebody say once,
demands much more anxious thought than either of us has given it.
These hasty marriages--

GEORGE. Hasty!

OLIVIA. Well, you've only just proposed to me, and you want to marry
me to-morrow.

GEORGE. Now you're talking perfect nonsense, Olivia. You know quite
well that our case is utterly different from--from any other.

OLIVIA. All the same, one has to ask oneself questions. With a young
girl like--well, with a young girl, love may well seem to be all that
matters. But with a woman of my age, it is different. I have to ask
myself if you can afford to support a wife.

GEORGE (coldly). Fortunately that is a question that you can very
easily answer for yourself.

OLIVIA. Well, but I have been hearing rather bad reports lately. What
with taxes always going up, and rents always going down, some of our
landowners are getting into rather straitened circumstances. At least,
so I'm told.

GEORGE. I don't know what you're talking about.

OLIVIA (surprised). Oh, isn't it true? I heard of a case only this
morning--a landowner who always seemed to be very comfortably off, but
who couldn't afford an allowance for his only niece when she wanted to
get married. It made me think that one oughtn't to judge by
appearances.

GEORGE. You know perfectly well that I can afford to support a wife as
my wife _should_ be supported.

OLIVIA. I'm so glad, dear. Then your income--you aren't getting
anxious at all?

GEORGE (stiffly). You know perfectly well what my income is. I see no
reason for anxiety in the future.

OLIVIA. Ah, well, then we needn't think about that any more. Well,
then, there is another thing to be considered.

GEORGE. I can't make out what you're up to. Don't you want to get
married; to--er--legalise this extraordinary situation in which we are
placed?

OLIVIA. I want to be sure that I am going to be happy, George. I can't
just jump at the very first offer I