mised.

QUEX.

[_Calmly._] You have?

SOPHY.

Indeed I have, as true as I stand here. [_Steadying herself._] But the
fact is--the fact is Miss Eden had a purchase to make that she didn't
wish the ladies to interfere over, and--and she has run out for ten
minutes. If your lordship must know where she is, she's in the
Burlington.

QUEX.

[_Very quietly._] Oh, she has run out for a few minutes?

SOPHY.

She might be a quarter of an hour.

QUEX.

Not _run_ out; _flown_ out, at one of these windows.

SOPHY.

[_Faintly._] One of these windows?

QUEX.

[_Pointing to the entrance._] She has not gone out by the door.

SOPHY.

What do you mean?

QUEX.

Your young ladies assured me just now that Miss Eden was in this room
with you. [FRAYNE, _possessed of an idea, has gone to the door in the
partition. He now raps at the door gently._] No, no, Chick--please! we
are not policemen.

FRAYNE.

[_Opening the door a few inches._] Miss Eden, I regret to learn you are
suffering from headache.

SOPHY.

[_Indignantly._] Well, of all the liberties--!

QUEX.

[_Angrily._] Frayne!

FRAYNE.

May I tell you of an unfailing remedy--? [_He peeps into the private
room, then withdraws his head, and says to_ QUEX.] No.

SOPHY.

[_Flouncing up to_ FRAYNE, _and speaking volubly and violently._] Now,
look here, sir, I'm a busy woman--as busy and as hard-working a woman as
any in London. Because you see things a bit slack Ascot week, it doesn't
follow that my books, and a hundred little matters, don't want attending
to. [_Sitting at the desk and opening and closing the books noisily._]
And I'm certainly not going to have gentlemen, whoever they may be,
marching into my place, and taking possession of it, and doubting my
word, and opening and shutting doors, exactly as if they were staying in
a common hotel. I'd have you to know that my establishment isn't
conducted on _that_ principle.

[QUEX _has been standing, with compressed lips and a frown upon his
face, leaning upon the back of the chair near the circular table.
During_ SOPHY'S _harangue his eyes fall upon the jeweller's case and the
scrap of paper lying open upon it. He stares at the writing for a
moment, then comes to the table and picks up both the case and the
paper._

FRAYNE.

[_To_ SOPHY, _while this is going on._] My good lady, a little candour
on your part--

SOPHY.

I don't understand what you're hinting at by "a little candour." You've