"I mean, that's more or less the definition of a pervert, isn't it? Fine upstanding citizens such as ourselves never find our minds in the gutter."

"Of course, of course." She reaches out to run a finger along Wilhelmina's chest. "And so if they choose to see something dirty in my portrait of David and Jonathan that's their own business."

"It's a Biblical painting! Can't get any more upright than that."

"A woman after my own heart."

"I merely picked up good taste spending time around you."

"Quite, quite. We did get you out of those nasty old clothes."

(Ruby is not exactly oblivious to the fact that Wilhelmina was in nasty old clothes not because of bad taste but because she couldn't afford better ones, but she dislikes bringing up such distasteful subjects.)

"Trousers are far too overrated."

"Quite. Nothing but skirts for me. --Speaking of, are you going to Lady Malcolm's this year?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world! --unless some poor fool decided to put on Hamlet on the same night, but luckily this year we've managed to avoid that idiocy."

"Oh, there'll always be another Hamlet. No one can shut up about the man."

"You'd think everyone would get bored being trapped in the orbit of a flip-flopping madman, yet here English theatre is."

"So you could miss it for the ball. Now, a Noel Coward opening night--"

"I'm afraid not even Lady Malcolm could not compete with that."

"Of course he'd never schedule his opening night opposite Lady Malcolm's so we'll never be faced with such an appalling dilemma."

"We've been saved by General Good Sense."

"Oh, what army is he enlisted in?"

"He probably works for your brother, seeing as half the army in London does, apparently."

Ruby sucks her teeth. "Do you think I'll be able to find him at the docks? I do so love trade."

"If not Hyde Park. Though with a name like that, one wonders if he appreciates the finer things in life."

"Oh, I've corrupted enough of the fine flower of British youth. I had such a lovely time during the Great War. So many fine soldier-boys--!"

"British youth are just too much fun to corrupt. It's hard to resist."

"I'm sure you've corrupted plenty with the homosexuality and the opium and the"-- she gestures vaguely-- "ancestor worship."

"I am a fine upstanding citizen, who has neither corrupted nor been corrupted in my entire life--" (His tongue is firmly in his cheek.)

"Oh, really?" She reaches for her fan on the nightstand table and flutters it innocently. "I was a good Christian girl before I met you, you know. Went to church every week."

"And proceeded to be bored out of your mind every time?"