MELISANDE.  Well then, look at yourself in the glass!

(BOBBY goes anxiously to the glass, and then pulls at his clothes.)

BOBBY (looking back at her).  Well?

MELISANDE.  Well!

BOBBY.  I don’t see what’s wrong.

MELISANDE.  Oh, Bobby, everything’s wrong.  The man to whom I give myself must be not only my lover, but my true knight, my hero, my prince.  He must perform deeds of derring-do to win my love.  Oh, how can you perform deeds of derring-do in a stupid little suit like that!

BOBBY (looking at it).  What’s the matter with it?  It’s what every other fellow wears.

MELISANDE (contemptuously).  What every other fellow wears!  And you think what every other fellow thinks, and talk what every other fellow talks, and eat what every other—­I suppose you didn’t like the bread-sauce this evening?

BOBBY (guardedly).  Well, not as bread-sauce.

MELISANDE (nodding her head).  I thought so, I thought so.

BOBBY (struck by an idea).  I say, you didn’t make it, did you?

MELISANDE.  Do I look as if I made it?

BOBBY.  I thought perhaps—­You know, I really don’t know what you do want, Sandy.  Sorry; I mean—­

MELISANDE.  Go on calling me Sandy, I’d rather you did.

BOBBY.  Well, when you marry this prince of yours, is he going to do the cooking?  I don’t understand you, Sandy, really I don’t.

MELISANDE (shaking her head gently at him).  No, I’m sure you don’t,
Bobby.

BOBBY (still trying, however).  I suppose it’s because he’s doing the cooking that he won’t be able to dress for dinner.  He sounds a funny sort of chap; I should like to see him.

MELISANDE.  You wouldn’t understand him if you did see him.

BOBBY (jealously).  Have you seen him?

MELISANDE.  Only in my dreams.

BOBBY (relieved).  Oh, well.

MELISANDE (dreamily to herself).  Perhaps I shall never see him in this world—­and then I shall never marry.  But if he ever comes for me, he will come not like other men; and because he is so different from everybody else, then I shall know him when he comes for me.  He won’t talk about bread-sauce—­billiards—­and the money market.  He won’t wear a little black suit, with a little black tie—­all sideways. (BOBBY hastily pulls his tie straight.) I don’t know how he will be dressed, but I know this, that when I see him, that when my eyes have looked into his, when his eyes have looked into mine—­

BOBBY.  I say, steady!

MELISANDE (waking from her dream).  Yes? (She gives a little laugh)
Poor Bobby!

BOBBY (appealingly).  I say, Sandy! (He goes up to her.)

(MRS. KNOWLE has seized this moment to come back for her handkerchief. 
She sees them together, and begins to walk out on tiptoe.)

(They hear her and turn round suddenly.)