Part 23 (2/2)

MRS. CORTELYON.

You know we are neighbours, Mrs. Tanqueray.

PAULA.

Neighbours? Are we really? Won't you sit down? [_They both sit._]

Neighbours! That's most interesting!

MRS. CORTELYON.

Very near neighbours. You can see my roof from your windows.

PAULA.

I fancy I _have_ observed a roof. But you have been away from home; you have only just returned.

MRS. CORTELYON.

I? What makes you think that?

PAULA.

Why, because it is two months since we came to Highercoombe, and I don't remember your having called.

MRS. CORTELYON.

Your memory is now terribly accurate. No, I've not been away from home, and it is to explain my neglect that I am here, rather unceremoniously, this morning.

PAULA.

Oh, to explain--quite so. [_With mock solicitude._] Ah, you've been very ill; I ought to have seen that before.

MRS. CORTELYON.

Ill!

PAULA.

You look dreadfully pulled down. We poor women show illness so plainly in our faces, don't we?

AUBREY.

[_Anxiously._] Paula dear, Mrs. Cortelyon is the picture of health.

MRS. CORTELYON.

[_With some asperity._] I have never _felt_ better in my life.

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