frequented corner, and I
took enormous pains to be looking particularly attractive this morning,
and then you say "This is fate." I am looking particularly attractive,
am I not?

_Maj._: More than ever. Time has only added a ripeness to your charms.

_Em._: I knew you'd put it exactly in those words. The phraseology of
love-making is awfully limited, isn't it? After all, the chief charm is
in the fact of being made love to. You _are_ making love to me, aren't
you?

_Maj._: Emily dearest, I had already begun making advances, even before
you sat down here. I also bribed the steward to put our seats together
in a secluded corner. "You may consider it done, sir," was his reply.
That was immediately after breakfast.

_Em._: How like a man to have his breakfast first. I attended to the
seat business as soon as I left my cabin.

_Maj._: Don't be unreasonable. It was only at breakfast that I
discovered your blessed presence on the boat. I paid violent and unusual
attention to a flapper all through the meal in order to make you jealous.
She's probably in her cabin writing reams about me to a fellow-flapper at
this very moment.

_Em._: You needn't have taken all that trouble to make me jealous,
Dickie. You did that years ago, when you married another woman.

_Maj._: Well, you had gone and married another man--a widower, too, at
that.

_Em._: Well, there's no particular harm in marrying a widower, I suppose.
I'm ready to do it again, if I meet a really nice one.

_Maj._: Look here, Emily, it's not fair to go at that rate. You're a lap
ahead of me the whole time. It's my place to propose to you; all you've
got to do is to say "Yes."

_Em._: Well, I've practically said it already, so we needn't dawdle over
that part.

_Maj._: Oh, well--

(They look at each other, then suddenly embrace with considerable
energy.)

_Maj._: We dead-heated it that time. (Suddenly jumping to his feet) Oh,
d--- I'd forgotten!

_Em._: Forgotten what?

_Maj._: The children. I ought to have told you. Do you mind children?

_Em._: Not in moderate quantities. How many have you got?

_Maj._ (counting hurriedly on his fingers): Five.

_Em._: Five!

_Maj._ (anxiously): Is that too many?

_Em._: It's rather a number. The worst of it is, I've some myself.

_Maj._: Many?

_Em._: Eight.

_Maj._: Eight in six years! Oh, Emily!

_Em._: Only four were my own. The other four were by my husband's first
marriage. Still,