I am not Humphrey. No. Gervase the Cheese Swallower. . . .
Er--my costume--
SUSAN. Please say nothing more. It was ill-mannered of me to have
inquired. Let a man wear what he likes. It is a free world.
GERVASE. Well, the fact is, I have been having a bathe.
SUSAN (with a bow). I congratulate you on your bathing costume.
GERVASE. Not at all.
SUSAN. You live near here then?
GERVASE. Little Malling. I came over in a car.
SUSAN. Little Malling? That's about twenty miles away.
GERVASE. Oh, much more than that surely.
SUSAN. No. There's Hedgling down there.
GERVASE (surprised). Hedgling? Heavens, how I must have lost my
way. . . . Then I have been within a mile of her all night. And I never
knew!
SUSAN. You are married, Mr. Mallory?
GERVASE. No. Not yet.
SUSAN. Get married.
GERVASE. What?
SUSAN. Take my advice and get married.
GERVASE. You recommend it?
SUSAN. I do. . . . There is no companion like a wife, if you marry the
right woman.
GERVASE. Oh?
SUSAN. I have been married thirty years. Thirty years of happiness.
GERVASE. But in your profession you must go away from your wife a good
deal.
SUSAN (smiling). But then I come back to her a good deal.
GERVASE (thoughtfully).
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