Miss HUNCH. Oh, Mrs Egerton, you are just in time. We are now to take
the oath binding ourselves to refuse all offers of marriage.
Mrs EGERTON. Perhaps I had better retire; as wife, and mother of a
family, I----
Miss HUNCH. Certainly not; we welcome any witness, and, after all, we
owe much to married women, since everyone of them is a Curtius who, by a
leap into the chasm of publicity, may save a doomed multitude!
Mrs CLARE GRAHAM (_laughing_). Gracious! I did not know I could leap
anywhere. Pray tell me how it is done.
Miss HUNCH (_glaring through her spectacles_). The subject is too
serious for trifling. Marriage is calculated to pen the free instincts
of the feminine community. You know our motto, _Aut viam inveniam aut
faciam_?
Mrs EGERTON. I see it all over the room, but that doesn't tell me what
it means.
Miss HUNCH. It means we will find a road out of our bondage--or make
one!
Mrs CLARE GRAHAM (_giggling_). Sail from Scylla into Charybdis, eh? You
see I allow the tragedy of both destinations.
Miss HUNCH (_sarcastically_). A kind concession, but a frivolous. Still,
we prefer the risk of the unknown to the horror of the known.
Mrs GRAHAM to Mrs EGERTON (_aside_). What on earth does she mean? How
many times has she been married?
Mrs EGERTON (_aside_). Hush. You mustn't offend the prejudices of the
club. Ah, how do you do, Miss Darlish?
DORA DARLISH (_joining them_). Charming rooms, aren't they? So glad to
see you here, Clare.
Mrs CLARE GRAHAM. Thank you, but I feel rather like a fish out of water.
It takes a long time to cultivate amphibiousness----