The count.  Extremely kind of him.

Savoyard.  Then I went to Vaughan, because he does music as well as the drama:  and you said you thought there would be music.  I told him Trotter would feel lonely without him; so he promised like a bird.  Then I thought youd like one of the latest sort:  the chaps that go for the newest things and swear theyre oldfashioned.  So I nailed Gilbert Gunn.  The four will give you a representative team.  By the way [looking at his watch] theyll be here presently.

The count.  Before they come, Mr Savoyard, could you give me any hints about them that would help me to make a little conversation with them?  I am, as you said, rather out of it in England; and I might unwittingly say something tactless.

Savoyard.  Well, let me see.  As you dont like English people, I dont know that youll get on with Trotter, because hes thoroughly English:  never happy except when hes in Paris, and speaks French so unnecessarily well that everybody there spots him as an Englishman the moment he opens his mouth.  Very witty and all that.  Pretends to turn up his nose at the theatre and says people make too much fuss about art [the Count is extremely indignant].  But thats only his modesty, because art is his own line, you understand.  Mind you dont chaff him about Aristotle.

The count.  Why should I chaff him about Aristotle?

Savoyard.  Well, I dont know; but its one of the recognized ways of chaffing him.  However, youll get on with him all right:  hes a man of the world and a man of sense.  The one youll have to be careful about is Vaughan.

The count.  In what way, may I ask?

Savoyard.  Well, Vaughan has no sense of humor; and if you joke with him he’ll think youre insulting him on purpose.  Mind:  it’s not that he doesnt see a joke:  he does; and it hurts him.  A comedy scene makes him sore all over:  he goes away black and blue, and pitches into the play for all hes worth.

The count.  But surely that is a very serious defect in a man of his profession?

Savoyard.  Yes it is, and no mistake.  But Vaughan is honest, and dont care a brass farthing what he says, or whether it pleases anybody or not; and you must have one man of that sort to say the things that nobody else will say.

The count.  It seems to me to carry the principle of division of labor too far, this keeping of the honesty and the other qualities in separate compartments.  What is Mr Gunn’s speciality, if I may ask?

Savoyard.  Gunn is one of the intellectuals.

The count.  But arnt they all intellectuals?