Summary

The first scene of the play opens in the drawing room of the Chamberlaynes’ London flat in the early evening. Edward Chamberlayne, Julia Shuttlethwaite, Celia Coplestone, Peter Quilpe, Alexander MacColgie, Gibbs, and an unidentified guest, who is later revealed as Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly, are all in the room. Alex has been telling a story but Julia has not understood it. The group tries to get Julia to tell a story that they all like about a wedding where a butler found a woman in the pantry rinsing her mouth out with champagne after trying the wedding cake, but the conversation keeps circling around as the group talks about the woman involved in the story, Lady Klootz, and other people that they know. Edward leaves the room, and Julia wants to wait until he returns to tell the story. She laments that without his wife, Lavinia...