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PHILIP.
[_To_ SIR RANDLE, _bluntly._] Yes, I _do_ know of the settlement you made upon Ottoline on her marriage, and of your having supplemented it when she became a widow. Very handsome of you.
LADY FILSON.
[_As before._] Ha!
SIR RANDLE.
[_Leaning back in his chair._] _There_ then, my dear Mr. Mackworth, is the state of the case. Ottoline is beyond our control----
LADY FILSON.
Unhappily.
SIR RANDLE.
If she _will_ deal this crus.h.i.+ng blow to her mother and myself, we must bow our heads to it. But, for the sake of your self-esteem, I beg you to reflect! [_Partly to_ PHILIP, _partly at_ OTTOLINE.] What construction would be put upon a union between you and Madame de Chaumie--between a lady of means and--I _must_ be cruel--I _must_ be brutal--a man who is--commercially at least--a failure?
LADY FILSON.
There _could_ only be one construction put upon it!
OTTOLINE.
[_Rising._] Mother----!
PHILIP.
[_To_ SIR RANDLE, _calmly._] Oh, but--ah, Ottoline hasn't told you----!
OTTOLINE.
[_To_ PHILIP.] No, I hadn't time, Philip----
PHILIP.
My dear Sir Randle--[_rising and going to_ LADY FILSON]--my dear Lady Filson--let me dispel your anxiety for the preservation of my self-esteem. Ottoline and I have no idea of getting married yet awhile.
OTTOLINE.
No, mother.
LADY FILSON.
When, pray----?
PHILIP.
We have agreed to wait until I have ceased to be--commercially--a failure.
OTTOLINE.
[_To_ SIR RANDLE _and_ LADY FILSON.] Until he has obtained public recognition; [_coming forward_] until, in fact, even the member's of one's own family, Dad, can't impute unworthy motives.
SIR RANDLE.
[_To_ PHILIP, _incredulously--rising._] Until you have obtained public recognition, Mr. Mackworth?
PHILIP.
[_Smiling._] Well, it may sound extravagant----
LADY FILSON.
Grotesque!
SIR RANDLE.
[_Walking about on the extreme right._] Amazing!
OTTOLINE.
Why grotesque; why amazing? [_Sitting in the low-backed arm-chair._]
All that is amazing about it is that Philip should lack the superior courage which enables a man, in special circ.u.mstances, to sink his pride and ignore ill-natured comments.
PHILIP.
[_To_ LADY FILSON.] At any rate, this is the arrangement that Ottoline and I have entered into; and I suggest, with every respect, that you and Sir Randle should raise no obstacle to my seeing her under your roof occasionally.
LADY FILSON.
As being preferable to hole-and-corner meetings in friends' houses----!
OTTOLINE.
[_Coolly._] Or under lamp-posts in the streets--yes, mother.
LADY FILSON.
[_Rising and crossing to the round table._] Ottoline----!
SIR RANDLE.
[_Bearing down upon_ PHILIP.] May I ask, Mr. Mackworth, how long you have been following your precarious profession? Pardon my ignorance. My reading is confined to our great journals; and _there_ your name has escaped me.
PHILIP.
Oh, I've been at it for nearly ten years.
