windows, and midway between
the windows there is the entrance to a conservatory. The conservatory,
which is seen beyond, is of the kind that is built out over the
portico of a front-door, and is plentifully stocked with flowers and
hung with a velarium and green sun-blinds. In the right-hand wall
there is another window and, nearer the spectator, a console-table
supporting a high mirror; and in the wall on the left, opposite the
console-table, there is a double-door opening into the room, the
further half of which only is used._

_In the entrance to the conservatory, to the right, there is a low,
oblong tea-table at which are placed three small chairs; and near-by,
on the left, are a grand-piano and a music-stool. Against the piano
there is a settee, and on the extreme left, below the door, there is
an arm-chair with a little round table beside it. At the right-hand
window in the wall at the back is another settee, and facing this
window and settee there is a smaller arm-chair._

_Not far from the fire-place there is a writing-table with a
telephone-instrument upon it. A chair stands at the writing-table,
its back to the window in the wall on the right; and in front of the
table, opposing the settee by the piano, there is a third settee. On
the left of this settee, almost in the middle of the room, is an
arm-chair; and closer to the settee, on its right, are two more
arm-chairs. Other articles of furniture-- a cabinet, "occasional"
chairs, etc., etc.-- occupy spaces against the walls._

_On the piano, on the console-table and cabinet, on the settee at the
back, on the round table, and upon the floor, stand huge baskets of
flowers, and other handsome floral devices in various forms, with
cards attached to them; and lying higgledy-piggledy upon the
writing-table are a heap of small packages, several little cases
containing jewellery, and a litter of paper and string. The packages
and the cases of jewellery are also accompanied by cards or letters._

_A fierce sunlight streams down upon the velarium, and through the
green blinds, in the conservatory._

[_Note: Throughout, "right" and "left" are the spectators' right and
left, not the actor's._]

[_LORD FARNCOMBE, his gloves in his hand, is seated in the arm-chair
in the middle of the room. He is a simple-mannered, immaculately
dressed young man in his early twenties, his bearing and appearance
suggesting the soldier. He rises expectantly as GLADYS, a flash