LADY CHILTERN. I have heard nothing about it. But I will send for
the butler and ask. [Touches the bell.]
MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, pray don't trouble, Lady Chiltern. I dare say I
lost it at the Opera, before we came on here.
LADY MARKBY. Ah yes, I suppose it must have been at the Opera. The
fact is, we all scramble and jostle so much nowadays that I wonder we
have anything at all left on us at the end of an evening. I know
myself that, when I am coming back from the Drawing Room, I always
feel as if I hadn't a shred on me, except a small shred of decent
reputation, just enough to prevent the lower classes making painful
observations through the windows of the carriage. The fact is that
our Society is terribly over-populated. Really, some one should
arrange a proper scheme of assisted emigration. It would do a great
deal of good.
MRS. CHEVELEY. I quite agree with you, Lady Markby. It is nearly
six years since I have been in London for the Season, and I must say
Society has become dreadfully mixed. One sees the oddest people
everywhere.
LADY MARKBY. That is quite true, dear. But one needn't know them.
I'm sure I don't know half the people who come to my house. Indeed,
from all I hear, I shouldn't like to.
[Enter MASON.]
LADY CHILTERN. What sort of a brooch was it that you lost, Mrs.
Cheveley?
MRS. CHEVELEY. A diamond snake-brooch with a ruby, a rather large
ruby.
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