Peter. (Aside to Looe.) Is he in service here, or what?

Looe.  Mr. Shawn was Mr. Carve’s secretary and companion, not his valet.

Peter. (Puzzled, but accepting the situation.) Ah!  So much the better.  Now, Mr. Shawn, can you tell me authoritatively whether shortly before his death Mr. Carve was engaged to be married under romantic circumstances to a lady of high rank?

Honoria.  Indeed!

Carve.  Who told you that?

Peter.  Then he was!

Carve.  I’ve nothing to say.

Peter.  You won’t tell me her name?

Carve.  I’ve nothing to say.

Peter.  Secondly, I’m instructed to offer something considerable for your signature to an account of Ilam Carve’s eccentric life on the Continent.

Carve.  Eccentric life on the Continent!

Peter.  I shouldn’t keep you half an hour—­three quarters at most.  A hundred pounds.  Cash down, you know.  Bank notes.  All you have to do is to sign.

Carve. (To Janet, exhausted, but disdainful.) I wouldn’t mind signing an order for the fellow’s execution.

Peter.  A hundred and fifty!

Carve.  Or burning at the stake.

Peter. (To Looe.) What does he say?

Looe.  Mr. Shawn is indisposed.  We’ve just been discussing the question of the burial in the Abbey.  I think I may say, if it interests you as an item of news, that Ilam Carve will not be buried in the Abbey.

Peter. (Lightly.) Oh yes he will, Father.  There was a little doubt about it until we got particulars of his will this morning.  But his will settled it.

Looe.  His will?

Peter.  Yes.  Didn’t you know?  No, you wouldn’t.  Well, his estate will come out at about a couple of hundred thousand, and he’s left it practically all for an International Gallery of Modern Art in London.  Very ingenious plan.  None of your Chantrey Bequest business.  Three pictures and one piece of sculpture are to be bought each year in London.  Fixed price L400 each, large or small.  Trustees are to be business men—­bank directors.  But they can’t choose the works.  The works are to be chosen by the students at South Kensington and the Academy Schools.  Works by R.A.’s and A.R.A.’s are absolutely barred.  Works by students themselves absolutely barred, too.  Cute that, eh?  That’s the arrangement for England.  Similar arrangement for France, Italy, and Germany.  He gives the thing a start by making it a present of his own collection—­stored somewhere in Paris.  I don’t mean his own paintings—­he bars those.  Unusually modest, eh?

Honoria.  How perfectly splendid!  We shall have a real live gallery at last.  Surely Anselm, after that—­

Looe.  Quite beside the point.  I shall certainly oppose.