]

LUCAS. [Giving ST. OLPHERTS the letter.] Thanks. [St. OLPHERTS pockets
the letter and picks up his cloak, LUCAS assisting him.]

AGNES. [Outwardly calm.] Oh--Lucas--

LUCAS. Yes?

AGNES. The Duke has been--has been--telling me--

LUCAS. What, dear?

AGNES. The sort of arrangement proposed for your going back to London.

LUCAS. Oh, my brother's brilliant idea!

AGNES. Acquiesced in by your wife. [ST. OLPHERTS strolls away from
them.]

LUCAS. Certainly; as I anticipated, she has become intensely
dissatisfied with her position.

AGNES. And it would be quite possible, it seems, for you to resume your
old career?

LUCAS. Just barely possible--well, for the moment, quite possible.

AGNES. Quite possible.

LUCAS. I haven't, formally, made a sign to my political friends yet.
It's a task one leaves to the last. I shall do so now--at once. My
people have been busying themselves, it appears, in reporting that I
shall return to London directly my health is fully re-established.

AGNES. In the hope--? Oh, yes.

LUCAS. Hoping they'd be able to separate us before it was too--too
late.

AGNES. Which hope they've now relinquished?

LUCAS. Apparently.

AGNES. They're prepared to accept a--a compromise, I hear?

LUCAS. Ha!--yes.

AGNES. A compromise in my favour?

LUCAS. [Hesitatingly.] They suggest--

AGNES. Yes, yes, I know. [Looking at him searchingly.] After all, your
old career was--a success. You made your mark, as you were saying the
other day. You did make your mark. [He walks up and down restlessly,
abstractedly, her eyes following him.] You were generally spoken of,
accepted, as a Coming Man. The Coming Man, often, wasn't it?

LUCAS. [With an impatient wave of the hand.] That doesn't matter!

AGNES. And now you are giving it up--giving it all up.

[He sits on the settee, resting his elbow on his knee, pushing his hand
through his hair.]

LUCAS. But--but you believe I shall succeed equally well in this new
career of mine?

AGNES. [Stonily.] There's the risk, you must remember.

LUCAS. Obviously, there's the risk. Why do you say all this to me now?

AGNES. Because now is the opportunity to--to go back.

LUCAS. [Scornfully.] Opportunity--?

AGNES. An excellent one. You're so strong and well now.

LUCAS. Thanks to you.

AGNES. [Staring before her.] Well--I did nurse you carefully, didn't
I?

LUCAS. But I don't understand you. You are surely not proposing to--to
--break with me?

AG