'I decline.'
ALICE. 'Take care, Amy, or I shall begin to believe that your father was right. What do you think would happen if I were to leave you to him!'
AMY. 'Poor father.'
ALICE. 'Poor indeed with such a daughter.'
AMY. 'He has gone, mother; so do you really think you need keep up this pretence before me?'
ALICE. 'Amy, what you need is a whipping.'
AMY, 'You ought to know what I need.'
The agonised mother again tries to envelop her unnatural child.
ALICE. 'Amy, Amy, it was all Steve's fault.'
AMY, struggling as with a boa constrictor, 'You needn't expect me to believe that.'
ALICE. 'No doubt you thought at the beginning that he was a gallant gentleman.'
AMY. 'Not at all; I knew he was depraved from the moment I set eyes on him.'
ALICE. 'My Amy! Then how--how--'
AMY. 'Ginevra knew too.'
ALICE. 'She knew!'
AMY. 'We planned it together--to treat him in the same way as Sir Harry Paskill and Ralph Devereux.'
ALICE. 'Amy, you are not in your senses. You don't mean that there were others?'
AMY. 'There was Major--Major--I forget his name, but he was another.'
ALICE, shaking her, 'Wretched girl.'
AMY. 'Leave go.'
ALICE. 'How did you get to know them?'
AMY. 'To know them? They are characters in plays.'
ALICE, bereft, 'Characters in plays? Plays!'
AMY. 'We went to five last week.'
Wild hopes spring up in Alice's breast.
ALICE. 'Amy, tell me quickly, when did you see Steve for the first time?'
AMY. 'When you were saying good-bye to him this afternoon.'
ALICE. 'Can it be true!'
AMY. 'Perhaps we shouldn't have listened; but they always listen when there is a screen.'
ALICE. 'Listened? What did you hear?'
AMY. 'Everything, mother! We saw him kiss you and heard you make an assignation to meet him here.'
ALICE. 'I shall whip you directly, but go on, darling.'
AMY, childishly, 'You shan't whip me.' Then once more heroic, 'As in a flash Ginevra and I saw that there was only one way to save you. I must go to his chambers, and force him to return the letters.'
ALICE, inspired, 'My letters?'
AMY. 'Of course. He behaved at first as they all do--pretended that he did not know what I was talking about. At that moment, a visitor; I knew at once that it must be the husband; it always is, it was; I hid. Again a visitor. I knew it must be you, it was; oh, the agony to me in there. I was wondering when he would begin to suspect, for I knew the time would come, and I stood ready to emerge and sacrifice myself to save you.'
ALICE. 'As you have done, Amy?'
AMY. 'As I have done.'
Once more the arms go round her.
'I want none of that.'
ALICE. 'Forgive me.' A thought comes to Alice that enthralls her. 'Steve! Does he know what you think--about me?'
AMY. 'I had to be open with him.'
ALICE. 'And Steve believes it? He thinks that I--I--Alice Grey--oh, ecstasy!'
AMY. 'You need not pretend.'
ALICE. 'What is to be done?'
AMY. 'Though I abhor him I must marry him for aye. Ginevra is to be my only bridesmaid. We are both to wear black.'
ALICE, sharply, 'You are sure you don't rather like him, Amy?'
AMY. 'Mother!'
ALICE. 'Amy, weren't you terrified to come alone to the rooms of a man you didn't even know? Some men--'
AMY. 'I was not afraid. I am a soldier's daughter; and Ginevra gave me this.'
She produces a tiny dagger. This is altogether too much for Alice.
ALICE. 'My darling!'
She does have the babe in her arms at last, and now Amy clings to her. This is very sweet to Alice; but she knows that if she tells Amy the truth at once its first effect will be to make the dear one feel ridiculous. How can Alice hurt her Amy so, Amy who has such pride in having saved her? 'You do love me a little, Amy, don't you?'
AMY. 'Yes, yes.'
ALICE. 'You don't think I have been really bad, dear?'
AMY. 'Oh, no, only foolish.'
ALICE. 'Thank you, Amy.'
AMY, nestling still closer, 'What are we to do now, dear dear mother?'
Alice has a happy idea; but that, as the novelists say, deserves a chapter to itself.