COLONEL. 'No, no, darling, it isn't you who have made her cry. She--she is teething. It's her teeth, isn't it?' he barks at the nurse, who emerges looking not altogether woeful. 'Say it's her teeth, woman.' NURSE, taking this as a reflection on her charge. 'She had her teeth long ago.' ALICE, the forlorn, 'The better to bite me with.' NURSE, complacently, 'I don't understand it. She is usually the best-tempered lamb--as you may see for yourself, sir.' It is an imitation that the Colonel is eager to accept, but after one step toward the nursery he is true to Alice. COLONEL. 'I _decline_ to see her. I refuse to have anything to do with her till she comes to a more reasonable frame of mind.' The nurse retires, to convey possibly this ultimatum to her charge. ALICE, in the noblest spirit of self-abnegation, 'Go, Robert. Perhaps she--will like you better.' COLONEL. 'She's a contemptible child.' But that nursery door does draw him strongly. He finds himself getting nearer and nearer to it. 'I'll show her,' with a happy pretence that his object is merely to enforce discipline. The forgotten Cosmo pops up again; the Colonel introduces him with a gesture and darts off to his baby. ALICE, entranced, 'My son!' COSMO, forgetting all plans, 'Mother!' She envelops him in her arms, worshipping him, and he likes it. ALICE. 'Oh, Cosmo--how splendid you are.' COSMO, soothingly, 'That's all right, mother.' ALICE. 'Say it again.' COSMO. 'That's all right.' ALICE. 'No, the other word.' COSMO. 'Mother.' ALICE. 'Again.' COSMO. 'Mother--mother--' When she has come to: 'Are you better now?'