Almost inaudibly.] I suppose so.

LUCAS. As a matter of fact, he has the reputation of being rather a
pleasant companion; though I--I confess--I--I don't find him very
entertaining. [He goes out. She stands staring at the door through
which he has disappeared. There is a knock at the opposite door.]

AGNES. [Rousing herself.] Fortune! [Raising her voice.] Fortune! [The
door opens, and GERTRUDE enters hurriedly.]

GERTRUDE. Fortune is complacently smoking a cigarette in the Campo.

AGNES. Mrs. Thorpe!

GERTRUDE. [Breathlessly.] Mr Cleeve is out, I conclude?

AGNES. No. He is later than usual going out this afternoon.

GERTRUDE. [Irresolutely.] I don't think I'll wait, then.

AGNES. But do tell me: you have been crossing the streets to avoid me
during the past week; what has made you come to see me now?

GERTRUDE. I would come. I've given poor Amos the slip; he believes I am
buying beads for the Ketherick school-children.

AGNES. [Shaking her head.] Ah, Mrs. Thorpe!--

GERTRUDE. Of course, it's perfectly brutal to be underhanded. But we're
leaving for home tomorrow; I couldn't resist it.

AGNES. [Coldly.] Perhaps I'm very ungracious--

GERTRUDE. [Taking AGNES' hand.] The fact is, Mrs. Cleeve--oh, what do
you wish me to call you?

AGNES. [Withdrawing her hand.] Well--you're off tomorrow. Agnes will
do.

GETRUDE. Thank you. The fact is, it's been a bad week with me--
restless, fanciful. And I haven't been able to get you out of my head.

AGNES. I'm sorry.

GERTRUDE. Your story, your present life; you, yourself--such a
contradiction to what you profess! Well, it all has a sort of
fascination for me.

AGNES. My dear, you're simply not sleeping again. [Turning away.] You'd
better go back to the ammonia Kirke prescribed for you.

GERTRUDE. [Taking a card from her purse, with a little, light laugh.]
You want to physic me, do you, after worrying my poor brain as you've
done? [Going to her.] "The Rectory, Daleham, Ketherick Moor."
Yorkshire, you know. There can be no great harm in your writing to me
sometimes.

AGNES [Refusing the card.] No; under the circumstances I can't promise
that.

GERTRUDE. [Wistfully.] Very well.

AGNES. [Facing her.] Oh, can't you understand that it can only be--
disturbing to both of us for an impulsive, emotional creature like
yourself to keep up acquaintanceship with a woman who takes life as I
do? We'll drop each other, leave each other alone. [She walks away, and
stands l