--

LADY FILSON.

If it fails?

SIR RANDLE.

[_With conviction._] Yes. [_Walking about._] Yes. We _must_ be just. We
owe it to ourselves to be just to Mr. Mackworth. He is not altogether
devoid of gentlemanlike scruples.

LADY FILSON.

[_Breathlessly._] And--and _she_----?

SIR RANDLE.

I trust--I trust that my child's monstrous infatuation will have cooled
down by the autumn.

LADY FILSON.

[_Supporting herself by the chair at the writing-table, her hand to her
heart--exhausted._] Oh! Oh, dear!

SIR RANDLE.

[_Returning to her._] I conducted the affair with skill and tact,
Winifred?

LADY FILSON.

[_Rallying._] It was masterly--[_kissing him_] masterly----

SIR RANDLE.

[_Proudly._] Ha!

[_She sits at the writing-table again and takes up her
pen as_ SIR RANDLE _stalks to the door on the left._

LADY FILSON.

Masterly!

SIR RANDLE.

[_Opening the door._] Bertram--Bertram, my boy--Bertie----!

[_He disappears._ LADY FILSON _scribbles violently._

END OF THE SECOND ACT

THE THIRD ACT

_The scene represents two rooms, connected by a pair of wide doors, in
a set of residential chambers on the upper floor of a house in Gray's
Inn. The further room is the dining-room, the nearer room a study. In
the wall at the back of the dining-room are two windows; in the
right-hand wall is a door leading to the kitchen; and in the left-hand
wall a door opens from a vestibule, where, opposite this door, there is
another door which gives on to the landing of the common stair._

_In the study, a door in the right-hand wall admits to a bedroom; in
the wall facing the spectator is a door opening into the room from the
vestibule; and beyond the door on the right, in a piece of wall cutting
off the corner of the room, is the fireplace. A bright fire is
burning._

_The rooms are wainscotted to the ceilings and have a decrepit,
old-world air, and the odds and ends of furniture--all characteristic
of the dwelling of a poor literary man of refined taste--are in keeping
with the surroundings. In the dining-room there are half-a-dozen chairs
of various patterns, a si