't turn you out at this time of
night. (Vehemently.) Shame on you! For shame!

MARCHBANKS (desperately). But what have I done?

CANDIDA. I know what you have done--as well as if I had been here all
the time. Oh, it was unworthy! You are like a child: you cannot hold
your tongue.

MARCHBANKS. I would die ten times over sooner than give you a moment's
pain.

CANDIDA (with infinite contempt for this puerility). Much good your
dying would do me!

MORELL. Candida, my dear: this altercation is hardly quite seemingly.
It is a matter between two men; and I am the right person to settle it.

CANDIDA. Two MEN! Do you call that a man? (To Eugene.) You bad boy!

MARCHBANKS (gathering a whimsically affectionate courage from the
scolding). If I am to be scolded like this, I must make a boy's excuse.
He began it. And he's bigger than I am.

CANDIDA (losing confidence a little as her concern for Morell's dignity
takes the alarm). That can't be true. (To Morell.) You didn't begin it,
James, did you?

MORELL (contemptuously). No.

MARCHBANKS (indignant). Oh!

MORELL (to Eugene). YOU began it--this morning. (Candida, instantly
connecting this with his mysterious allusion in the afternoon to
something told him by Eugene in the morning, looks quickly at him,
wrestling with the enigma. Morell proceeds with the emphasis of
offended superiority.) But your other point is true. I am certainly the
bigger of the two, and, I hope, the stronger, Candida. So you had
better leave the matter in my hands.

CANDIDA (again soothing him). Yes, dear; but--(Troubled.) I don't
understand about this morning.

MORELL (gently snubbing her). You need not understand, my dear.

CANDIDA. But, James, I--(The street bell rings.) Oh, bother! Here they
all come. (She goes out to let them in.)

MARCHBANKS (running to Morell ). Oh, Morell, isn't it dreadful? She's
angry with us: she hates me. What shall I do?

MORELL (with quaint desperation, clutching himself by the hair).
Eugene: my head is spinning round. I shall begin to laugh presently.
(He walks up and down the middle of the room.)

MARCHBANKS (following him anxiously). No, no: she'll think I've thrown
you into hysterics. Don't laugh. (Boisterous voices and laughter are
heard approaching. Lexy Mill, his eyes sparkling, and his bearing
denoting unwonted elevation of spirit, enters with Burgess, who is
greasy and self-complacent, but has all his wits about him. Miss
Garnett, with her smartest ha