SHEL.                 It was my glory.
    I had hoped to offer to my lady there
    My belts, my championships, my heaped-up stakes,
    My undefeated record; but I knew
    Behind their blaze a hateful secret lurked.

    LYDIA. Another secret?

    LUCIAN.                Is there worse to come?

    CASHEL. Know ye not then my mother is an actress?

    LUCIAN. How horrible!

    LYDIA.                Nay, nay: how interesting!

    CASHEL. A thousand victories cannot wipe out
    That birthstain. Oh, my speech bewrayeth it:
    My earliest lesson was the player's speech
    In Hamlet; and to this day I express myself
    More like a mobled queen than like a man
    Of flesh and blood. Well may your cousin sneer!
    What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?

    LUCIAN. Injurious upstart: if by Hecuba
    Thou pointest darkly at my lovely cousin,
    Know that she is to me, and I to her,
    What never canst thou be. I do defy thee;
    And maugre all the odds thy skill doth give,
    Outside I will await thee.

    LYDIA.                      I forbid
    Expressly any such duello. Bashville:
    The door. Put Mr. Webber in a hansom,
    And bid the driver hie to Downing Street.
    No answer: 'tis my will.      [_Exeunt_ LUCIAN _and_ BASHVILLE.
    And now, farewell.
    You must not come again, unless indeed
    You can some day look in my eyes and say:
    Lydia: my occupation's gone.

    CASHEL.                     Ah, no:
    It would remind you of my wretched mother.
    O God, let me be natural a moment!
    What other occupation can I try?
    What would you have me be?

    LYDIA.                     A gentleman.

    CASHEL. A gentleman! I, Cashel Byron, stoop
    To be the thing that bets on me! the fool
    I flatter at so many coins a lesson!
    The screaming creature who beside the ring
    Gambles with basest wretches for my blood,
    And pays with money that he never earned!
    Let me die broken-hearted rather!

    LYDIA.                            But
    You need not be an idle gentleman.
