SCENE VI.—LADY FLUMM’S _drawing-room_. LADY FLUMM _at the

writing-table_. MRS. FUBSEY _at work on a sofa_.

_Enter_ LORD FLUMM _and_ TURNSTILE.

_Lord Flumm._ Lady Flumm, this is Mr. Turnstile, whom you have so long wished to know. Mr. Turnstile,—Lady Flumm.

_Lady Flumm._ _The_ Mr. Turnstile. My dear sir, I am too happy to see you. We had just been speaking of your delightful book. Selina! (_Calling._) [_Enter_ LADY SELINA.] This is Mr. Turnstile.

_Lady Selina._ Indeed!

_Lady Flumm._ Yes, indeed! You see he is a mortal man after all. Bring me, my love, the book you will find open on the table in the boudoir. I wish to show Mr. Turnstile the passages I have marked this morning.

_Lady Selina._ (_Returning with the book, and running over the leaves._) “Lace made by caterpillars.”—“Steam-engines with fairy fingers.”—“Robe of nature.”—“Sun of science.”—“Faltering worshipper.”—“Altar of truth.” It _is, indeed_, delightful! The taste, the poetical imagination, are surprising. I hope, Mr. Turnstile,—indeed I am sure, that you love music?

_Turnstile._ Not _very_ particularly, I must acknowledge (_smiling_); a barrel-organ is the instrument most in my way.

_Lady Flumm._ (_Smiling._) Music and machinery, Mr. Turnstile. Polite literature and mathematics. You _do_ know how to combine. Others must judge of the profounder parts of your works; but the style, and the fancy, are what I should most admire.—You dine with Lord Flumm, he tells me, on Tuesday. Now you _must_ come to _me_ on Thursday night.

_Turnstile._ I am sorry to say, that, on recollection, I _ought_ to {281} have apologized to Lord Flumm. The Pottery Question stands for Tuesday; and I should be there, as one of the Committee; and Thursday, your Ladyship knows, is the second reading of the Place and Pension Bill.

_Lady Flumm._ Oh, we are Staffordshire people! _that_ will excuse you to the pottery folks; and, for Thursday, I _will_ absolutely take no excuse. We have Pasta and Donzelli! perhaps a quadrille afterwards—(you dance, Mr. Turnstile?)—and Lady Sophia C—— and her cousin, Lord F——, have said _so much_ about those beautiful passages at the end of your book, that they will be quite disappointed if I do not keep my promise to introduce them. (_Touching his arm with her finger._)

_Turnstile._ Your Ladyship knows how to conquer: I feel that I _cannot_ refuse. [_Exit._