CROFTS [panting with fury] Do you think I’ll put up with this from you, you young devil?

VIVIE [unmoved] Be quiet.  Some one will answer the bell. [Without flinching a step she strikes the bell with the back of her hand.  It clangs harshly; and he starts back involuntarily.  Almost immediately Frank appears at the porch with his rifle].

FRANK [with cheerful politeness] Will you have the rifle, Viv; or shall I operate?

VIVIE.  Frank:  have you been listening?

FRANK [coming down into the garden] Only for the bell, I assure you; so that you shouldn’t have to wait.  I think I shewed great insight into your character, Crofts.

CROFTS.  For two pins I’d take that gun from you and break it across your head.

FRANK [stalking him cautiously] Pray don’t.  I’m ever so careless in handling firearms.  Sure to be a fatal accident, with a reprimand from the coroner’s jury for my negligence.

VIVIE.  Put the rifle away, Frank:  it’s quite unnecessary.

FRANK.  Quite right, Viv.  Much more sportsmanlike to catch him in a trap. [Crofts, understanding the insult, makes a threatening movement].  Crofts:  there are fifteen cartridges in the magazine here; and I am a dead shot at the present distance and at an object of your size.

CROFTS.  Oh, you needn’t be afraid.  I’m not going to touch you.

FRANK.  Ever so magnanimous of you under the circumstances!  Thank you.

CROFTS.  I’ll just tell you this before I go.  It may interest you, since youre so fond of one another.  Allow me, Mister Frank, to introduce you to your half-sister, the eldest daughter of the Reverend Samuel Gardner.  Miss Vivie:  you half-brother.  Good morning! [He goes out through the gate and along the road].

FRANK [after a pause of stupefaction, raising the rifle] Youll testify before the coroner that it’s an accident, Viv. [He takes aim at the retreating figure of Crofts.  Vivie seizes the muzzle and pulls it round against her breast].

VIVIE.  Fire now.  You may.

FRANK [dropping his end of the rifle hastily] Stop! take care. [She lets it go.  It falls on the turf].  Oh, you’ve given your little boy such a turn.  Suppose it had gone off! ugh! [He sinks on the garden seat, overcome].

VIVIE.  Suppose it had:  do you think it would not have been a relief to have some sharp physical pain tearing through me?

FRANK [coaxingly] Take it ever so easy, dear Viv.  Remember:  even if the rifle scared that fellow into telling the truth for the first time in his life, that only makes us the babes in the woods in earnest. [He holds out his arms to her].  Come and be covered up with leaves again.

VIVIE [with a cry of disgust] Ah, not that, not that.  You make all my flesh creep.

FRANK.  Why, whats the matter?

VIVIE.  Goodbye. [She makes for the gate].

FRANK [jumping up] Hallo!  Stop!  Viv!  Viv! [She turns in the gateway]
Where are you going to?  Where shall we find you?