facing one another, silently, dreamily
smoking Argyropulos.

QUEX.

[_Negatively_.] Duchess--

DUCHESS.

To end as we began! you have not the heart to refuse?

QUEX.

I--

DUCHESS.

You do refuse?

QUEX.

I do.

[_She passes him, and again sinks upon the bench._

DUCHESS.

[_Her back towards him, her shoulders heaving._] Oh! oh!

QUEX.

I--I am profoundly sorry to be obliged to speak to you in this fashion.

DUCHESS.

Oh, then I cannot go on Friday!

QUEX.

Not!

DUCHESS.

No! no! no!

QUEX.

Believe me, it would be better for you, for me, for everybody--

DUCHESS.

I cannot! [_Producing a diminutive lace handkerchief._] In the first
shock of the news of your engagement--for it was a shock--one thought
consoled me; throughout the time that has elapsed since then I have fed
upon this same thought--there will be a parting in keeping with our
great attachment! And now, you would rob me even of that!

QUEX.

But--but--but--a solemn, deliberate leave-taking! the ceremony, of all
others, to be carefully avoided!

DUCHESS.

Not by me, Harry--not by me. I wish to carry, in my breast, from this
house the numb despair of a piteous climax. I cannot drive away smugly
from these gates with the simple feelings of a woman who has been paying
a mere visit--I cannot!

QUEX.

My dear Sidonia--!

DUCHESS.

[_Decidedly._] I say I cannot!

QUEX.

[_To himself, with a little groan._] Oh! phew!

[_He walks to and fro impatiently, reflecting._ SOPHY, _without her hat,
comes quickly down the steps as if making for the table. Seeing_ QUEX
_and the_ DUCHESS, _she draws back, inquisitively._

QUEX.

[_By the_ DUCHESS'S _side again, helplessly._] Well, I--ha!--I--

DUCHESS.

[_Rising eagerly, laying a hand upon his arm._] You _will_?

[SOPHY _stoops down behind the dwarf cypress-hedge._

QUEX.

You are certain--certain that this would effectually remove the
obstacle to your rejoining--[_with a wave of the hand_] on Friday?

DUCHESS.

Why, do you think I would risk an anticlimax? [_In an intense whisper._]
To-night! [_Louder._] To-night? [_He hesitates a little longer--then
bows in assent, stiffly and coldly. She gives an ardent sigh._] Ah--!
[_He retreats a step or two. She draws herself up with dignity._]
To-night then--

[_She turns from him and glides away through the trees. He stands for a
moment, a frown upon his face, in thought._

QUEX.

[_Suddenly, moving in the dir