worry about
me.

[Loud knock at the upper doors.]

IVANOFF [despairingly]. It is the carabiniere.

PIKE. Steady. [Looks at watch.] Not yet. Go back. We won't throw our
hands into the discard until we're called. We'll keep on raising.

[Exit IVANOFF through door on the right, closing it after him.]

[PIKE scratches his head and slowly says: "Helene." Then calls: "Come
in!"]

[MARIANO opens the upper doors from without and bows.]

MARIANO. Miladi Creesh--she ask you would speak with her a few minutes?

PIKE. All right! Where is she?

MARIANO. Here, sir.

PIKE. Come right in, ma'am!

[LADY CREECH enters.]

LADY CREECH [frigidly]. I need scarcely inform you that this interview
is not of my seeking. [She sits stiffly.] On the contrary, it is
intensely disagreeable to me. My brother-in-law feels that some one well
acquainted with Miss Granger-Simpson's ambitions and her inner nature
should put the case finally to you before we proceed to extremities.

PIKE. Yes, ma'am!

LADY CREECH [crossly]. Don't mumble your words if you expect me to
listen to you.

PIKE [cordially]. Go on, ma'am!

LADY CREECH. My brother-in-law has made us aware of the state of
affairs, and we are quite in sympathy with my brother-in-law's attitude
as to what should be done to you.

PIKE [in a tone of genial inquiry]. Yes, ma'am; and what do you think
ought to be done to me?

LADY CREECH. If, in the kindness of our hearts, we condone your offence,
we insist upon your accession to our reasonable demands.

PIKE [sardonically]. By ten o'clock!

LADY CREECH. Quite so.

PIKE. You say he told all of you? Has he told Miss Ethel?

LADY CREECH. It hasn't been thought proper. Young girls should be
shielded from everything disagreeable.

PIKE. Yes, ma'am; that's the idea that got me into this trouble.

LADY CREECH. I say, this young lady, who seems to be technically your
ward, is considered, by all of us who understand her, infinitely more
_my_ ward.

PIKE. Yes, ma'am! Go on.

LADY CREECH [loftily]. She came to me something more than a year ago--

PIKE [simply]. Did you advertise?

LADY CREECH [stung]. I suppose it is your intention to be offensive.

PIKE [protesting]. No, ma'am; I didn't mean anything. But, you see,
I've handled all her accounts, and her payments to you--

LADY CREECH [crushingly]. We will omit tradesman-like references! What
Lord Hawcastle wished me to impress on you is not only that you will
ruin yourself,