ir she sweeps into the vestibule and
follows_ SIR RANDLE _and_ LADY FILSON _out on to the
landing._ BERTRAM _closes the vestibule door, and
immediately afterwards the outer door slams._

ROOPE.

[_To_ PHILIP, _in an agony._] No, no, Phil! It mustn't end like this!
Good lord, man, reflect--consider what you're chucking away! You're
mad--absolutely mad! [PHILIP _calmly presses a bell-push at the side of
the fireplace._] I'll go after 'em--and talk to her. I'll talk to her.
[_Running to the vestibule door and opening it._] Don't wait for me.
[_Going into the vestibule and grabbing his hat and overcoat._] It's a
tiff--a lovers' tiff! It's nothing but a lovers' tiff! [_Shutting the
vestibule door, piteously._] Oh, my dear excellent friend----!

[JOHN _appears, opening one of the big doors a little
way. Again the outer door slams._

PHILIP.

[_To_ JOHN, _sternly._] Dinner.

JOHN.

[_Looking for the guests--dumbfoundered_] D-d-dinner, sir?

PHILIP.

Serve dinner.

JOHN.

[_His eyes bolting._] The--the--the ladies and gentlemen have gone,
sir!

PHILIP.

Yes. I'm dining alone.

[JOHN _vanishes precipitately; whereupon_ PHILIP
_strides to the big doors, thrusts them wide open with a
blow of his fists, and sits at the dining-table._

END OF THE THIRD ACT

THE FOURTH ACT

_The scene is the same, the light that of a fine winter morning. The
big doors are open, and from the dining-room windows, where the
curtains are now drawn back, there is a view of some buildings opposite
and, through a space between the buildings, of the tops of the bare
trees in Gray's Inn garden._

_Save for a chair with a crumpled napkin upon it which stands at the
dining-table before the remains of_ PHILIP_'s breakfast, the
disposition of the furniture is as when first shown._

_A fire is burning in the nearer room._

[PHILIP, _dressed as at the opening of the preceding
act, is seated on the settee on the right, moodily
puffing at his pipe._ ROOPE _faces him, in the chair by
the smoking-table, with a mournful air._ ROOPE _is in
his overcoat and is nursi