Belle and the dragon. An elfin comedy

...remember your ancestors and the royal blood in your veins?"

"Save my pipe!" shouted the Gadfly, frantically holding out a short and blackened clay pipe toward the Mystic, who managed to rescue it.

"And you dare to come smoking into my drawing room?"

"My drawing room, indeed! I should like to know what place in the house I can call my own. With all this polishing and cheap finery, I hate every room in the house."

"If there is anything I loathe—" began the Mystic.

"Oh, of course, you loathe everything! Bah!" and the Gadfly rushed to the door.

"Stop!" shrieked the mistress of Ravendale, in the voice of a "She-who-must-be-obeyed." A reference to the title character of H. Rider Haggard’s popular 1887 novel, She.

"Well, what is it now?" asked the Gadfly, snatching back his pipe and dropping a small pile of ashes on the pale lavender of the brand-new carpet.

"That will do! You can go, villain! If ever—"

"There, there! I am very sorry. It is very seldom that I make a mess; I'm too frightened; it’s as much as my life's worth. Besides, I don't like it myself. And these things are hardly paid for anyway. I'm not sure they are paid for at all. I wish I'd never seen this house. I know it will be my ruin. With all the bills and the extravagance, and that great, vulgar, staring beast of a new brass bedstead—it's quite out of keeping with everything! I thought you had better taste. Upon my word, it's too bad. I don't spend four shillings a week on myself. What about the bicycles, you say? I've only had three this season, and I always intend to get rid of the old ones. I won't—I say I will be firm. Bah! Ugh! Brrr! But it serves me right. I wish I'd never moved from the Briar Rose; I wish I'd stayed in Squiller Park; I wish the ceilings had fallen. It's my own fault, I admit it. A man at my time of life should have known better."

"Say you'd be glad to get rid of me," cried the indignant Melusine.

"Say—I don't say anything of the kind," replied the Gadfly, who was a wise man and hated a direct confrontation.

"And say I will be divorced from you tomorrow. There isn't a judge in the kingdom who won't believe me. My lord, look at his hands! He does nothing but take photographs and play with phonographs. My lord, look at his clothes! He belongs to the aristocracy, and he buys a ready-made matching suit for twenty-eight shillings from Watts. My lord, he is a cyclist! That will be evidence enough. It is cruelty and desertion. Damages: ten thousand pounds, and a handsome quarterly allowance. You will be responsible for all my bills. That is the law."