This
bottle seems to have a double bottom. It looks so large. The glass
manufacturers are terrible cheats.

_[He lights the cigar with the air of a man relaxing into beatific
repose. His Wife ties the red ribbon in her hair, looking at herself
in the dark pane of the window._

WIFE

Don't you see?

MAN

I see everything. I see your ribbon, and I see, you want me to kiss
you on your dear little bare neck.

WIFE.

No, sir, I won't permit that. You've grown too forward of late anyway.
You take such liberties. Please go on smoking your cigar and leave my
neck--

MAN

What, isn't your neck mine? I'll be jiggered! Why, it's an attack
on the sacred rights of property _(She runs away; he catches her and
kisses her)_ So, the property rights have been restored. Now, my
dear, we'll dance. Imagine that this is a magnificent, a luxurious, a
wonderful, a supernatural, ah exquisitely beautiful palace.

WIFE

Very well. I'm imagining it.

MAN

Imagine you're the queen of the ball.

WIFE

All right. It is imagined.

MAN

And that counts, marquises, and dukes come up and ask you to dance.
But you refuse. You choose that one--What's his name?--the one in
uniform--the prince. What's the matter?

WIFE

I don't like princes.

MAN

Indeed? Then whom do you like?

WIFE

Talented artists.

MAN

Very well. Here's one for you. Why, girl, what are you doing? Are you
flirting with the air?

WIFE

I am imagining.

MAN

All right. Imagine a wonderful orchestra. Here is the Turkish
drum--boom, boom, boom! _(He strikes his fist on the table as on a
drum)_

WIFE

Why, dear, it's only in the circus that they attract crowds by beating
drums, but in a palace--

MAN

Oh, hang it! Stop imagining that, then. Now imagine something else.
The violins are playing a melodious plaint; the flutes are singing
gently; the double bass drones like a beetle.

_[Man sits down, still wearing his oak wreath, and strikes up a dance
tune, clapping his hands in accompaniment. The melody is the same as
in the next scene at Man's ball. The Wife dances. She is well-formed
and graceful._

MAN

Oh, you darling!

WIFE

I am the queen of the ball.

_[The song and dance grow ever jollier. Man rises slowly and begins
to dance lightly on the spot where he is standing; then he seizes his
Wife and dances with her. The oak wreath slips to one side. Someone
in Gray looks on indifferently, the candle burning brightly in his