All you say is so very wise and sensible. Of course I agree.
ROSE.
I wonder if you'll think me sensible and wise in ten years.
GERALD.
I'm quite sure I shall.
ROSE.
Why, then, I'm afraid we shan't cultivate any great brilliancy of repartee.
GERALD.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.
ROSE.
Oh, don't say that. When a man's in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them with his arms akimbo.
When a woman's in love she doesn't care two straws for Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not.
GERALD.
When a woman's in love she can put her heart on the slide of a microscope and examine how it beats. When a man's in love, what do you think he cares for science and philosophy and all the rest of it!
ROSE.
When a man's in love he can only write sonnets to the moon. When a woman's in love she can still cook his dinner and darn her own stockings.
GERALD.
I wish you wouldn't cap all my observations.
[_She lifts up her face, and he kisses her lips._
ROSE.
I'm beginning to think you're rather nice, you know.
GERALD.
That's reassuring, at all events.
ROSE.
But no one could accuse you of being a scintillating talker.
GERALD.
Have you ever watched the lovers in the Park sitting on the benches hour after hour without saying a word?
ROSE.
Why?
GERALD.
Because I've always thought that they must be bored to the verge of tears. Now I know they're only happy.
ROSE.
You're certainly my soldier, so I suppose I'm your nursery-maid.
GERALD.
You know, when I was at Trinity College, Dublin----
ROSE.
[_Interrupting._] Were you there? I thought you went to Oxford.
GERALD.
No, why?
ROSE.
Only all my people go to Magdalen.
GERALD.
Yes.
ROSE.
And I've decided that if I ever have a son he shall go there too.
[_The_ ADMIRAL _starts and pulls the handkerchief off his face. The others do not notice him.
He is aghast and astounded at the conversation._ LADY FREDERICK _comes in later and stands smiling as she listens_.
GERALD.
My darling, you know I hate to thwart you in any way, but I've quite made up my mind that my son shall go to Dublin as I did.
ROSE.
I'm awfully sorry, Gerald, but the boy must be educated like a gentleman.