BETTY. [Softly.] Poor Hector!

WALTER. [Uncomfortably.] ...  Yes ...

BETTY.  Doesn’t it make you feel dreadful when he talks like that? [She kisses him; then puts her arms round his neck, draws his face to her, and kisses him again, on the cheek.] Doesn’t it?

     [She nestles contentedly closer to him.

WALTER. [Trying to edge away.] Well, it does.  Yes.

BETTY. [Dreamily.] I—­like it.

WALTER.  Betty!

BETTY.  Yes, I like it.  I don’t know why.  I suppose I’m frightfully wicked. 
Or the danger perhaps—­I don’t know.

WALTER. [Making a futile effort to get up.] Betty—­

BETTY. [Tightening her arms around him.] Stop there, and don’t move.  How smooth your chin is—­his scrapes.  Why don’t husbands shave better?  Or is it that the forbidden chin is always smoother?  Poor old Hector!  If he could see us!  He hasn’t a suspicion.  I think it’s lovely—­really, I do.  He leaves us here together, night after night, and imagines you’re teaching me bridge.

WALTER. [Restlessly.] So I am.  Where are the cards?

BETTY. [Caressing him.] Silly, have you forgotten that this is Tuesday—­Maggie’s night out?  She’s gone—­I told her she needn’t wait to clear away.  We’ve arranged master’s supper.  Master! You’re my master, aren’t you?

WALTER. ...  I don’t know what I am ...

BETTY.  Oh yes you do—­you’re my boy.  Whom I love.  There. [She kisses him again, full on the lips.] That was a nice one, wasn’t it?  Poor old Hector, sitting in his stall—­thinks he’s so wonderful, knows such a lot!  Yes, Maggie’s out—­with her young man, I suppose.  The world’s full of women, with their young men—­and husbands sitting in the stalls....  And I suppose that’s how it always has been, and always will be.

WALTER. [Shifting uneasily.] Don’t, Betty—­I don’t like it.  I mean, he has such confidence in us.

BETTY.  Of course he has.  And quite rightly.  Aren’t you his oldest friend?

WALTER. [With something of a groan.] I’ve known him since I was seven.

BETTY.  The first man he introduced me to—­his best man at the wedding—­do you remember coming to see us during the honeymoon?  I liked you then.

WALTER. [Really shocked.] Betty!

BETTY.  I did.  You had a way of squeezing my hand....  And then when we came back here.  You know it didn’t take me long to discover—­

WALTER. [Protesting.] I scarcely saw you the first two or three years!

BETTY.  No—­you were afraid.  Oh I thought you so silly! [He suddenly contrives to release himself—­gets up, and moves to the card-table.] Why, what’s the matter?

WALTER. [At the table, with his back to her.] I hate hearing you talk like this.