VIVIE [sharply] My no is final.  I won’t go back from it.

[Crofts is not impressed.  He grins; leans forward with his elbows on his knees to prod with his stick at some unfortunate insect in the grass; and looks cunningly at her.  She turns away impatiently.]

CROFTS.  I’m a good deal older than you.  Twenty-five years:  quarter of a century.  I shan’t live for ever; and I’ll take care that you shall be well off when I’m gone.

VIVIE.  I am proof against even that inducement, Sir George.  Don’t you think youd better take your answer?  There is not the slightest chance of my altering it.

CROFTS [rising, after a final slash at a daisy, and coming nearer to her] Well, no matter.  I could tell you some things that would change your mind fast enough; but I wont, because I’d rather win you by honest affection.  I was a good friend to your mother:  ask her whether I wasn’t.  She’d never have make the money that paid for your education if it hadnt been for my advice and help, not to mention the money I advanced her.  There are not many men who would have stood by her as I have.  I put not less than forty thousand pounds into it, from first to last.

VIVIE [staring at him] Do you mean to say that you were my mother’s business partner?

CROFTS.  Yes.  Now just think of all the trouble and the explanations it would save if we were to keep the whole thing in the family, so to speak.  Ask your mother whether she’d like to have to explain all her affairs to a perfect stranger.

VIVIE.  I see no difficulty, since I understand that the business is wound up, and the money invested.

CROFTS [stopping short, amazed] Wound up!  Wind up a business thats paying 35 per cent in the worst years!  Not likely.  Who told you that?

VIVIE [her color quite gone] Do you mean that it is still—? [She stops abruptly, and puts her hand on the sundial to support herself.  Then she gets quickly to the iron chair and sits down].

What business are you talking about?

CROFTS.  Well, the fact is it’s not what would considered exactly a high-class business in my set—­the country set, you know—­o u r set it will be if you think better of my offer.  Not that theres any mystery about it:  don’t think that.  Of course you know by your mother’s being in it that it’s perfectly straight and honest.  I’ve known her for many years; and I can say of her that she’d cut off her hands sooner than touch anything that was not what it ought to be.  I’ll tell you all about it if you like.  I don’t know whether you’ve found in travelling how hard it is to find a really comfortable private hotel.

VIVIE [sickened, averting her face] Yes:  go on.