love with me. We encourage it because it's pleasant to have company.

JUNO. And is your husband as insensible as yourself?

MRS. LUNN. Oh, Gregory's not insensible: very far from it; but I am the
only woman in the world for him.

JUNO. But you? Are you really as insensible as you say you are?

MRS. LUNN. I never said anything of the kind. I'm not at all insensible
by nature; but (I don't know whether you've noticed it) I am what
people call rather a fine figure of a woman.

JUNO [passionately] Noticed it! Oh, Mrs. Lunn! Have I been able to
notice anything else since we met?

MRS. LUNN. There you go, like all the rest of them! I ask you, how do
you expect a woman to keep up what you call her sensibility when this
sort of thing has happened to her about three times a week ever since
she was seventeen? It used to upset me and terrify me at first. Then I
got rather a taste for it. It came to a climax with Gregory: that was
why I married him. Then it became a mild lark, hardly worth the
trouble. After that I found it valuable once or twice as a spinal tonic
when I was run down; but now it's an unmitigated bore. I don't mind
your declaration: I daresay it gives you a certain pleasure to make it.
I quite understand that you adore me; but (if you don't mind) I'd
rather you didn't keep on saying so.

JUNO. Is there then no hope for me?

MRS. LUNN. Oh, yes. Gregory has an idea that married women keep lists
of the men they'll marry if they become widows. I'll put your name
down, if that will satisfy you.

JUNO. Is the list a long one?

MRS. LUNN. Do you mean the real list? Not the one I show to Gregory:
there are hundreds of names on that; but the little private list that
he'd better not see?

JUNO. Oh, will you really put me on that? Say you will.

MRS. LUNN. Well, perhaps I will. [He kisses her hand]. Now don't begin
abusing the privilege.

JUNO. May I call you by your Christian name?

MRS. LUNN. No: it's too long. You can't go about calling a woman
Seraphita.

JUNO [ecstatically] Seraphita!

MRS. LUNN. I used to be called Sally at home; but when I married a man
named Lunn, of course that became ridiculous. That's my one little pet
joke. Call me Mrs. Lunn for short. And change the subject, or I shall
go to sleep.

JUNO. I can't change the subject. For me there is no other subject. Why
else have you put me on your list?

MRS. LUNN. Because you're a solicitor. Gregory's a solicitor. I'm
accustomed to my hu