ROSALIE.  Tell the Inspector what happened, dearie. (Putting HELEN in chair front of table R.)

HELEN.  Nothing happened.  That’s the funny part of it.  The minute Mr. Lee understood that I knew about the letters, everything was changed.  I said that unless he gave them to me I’d tell Mr. Crosby about them.  He seemed terribly upset.  He said he hadn’t meant to frighten Helen.  That he loved her, and was desperate.  I thought it was a funny kind of love, but I didn’t tell him that.  Then he gave me the letters.

DONOHUE.  Was this before or after you had tea with him?

HELEN.  Before.

DONOHUE.  Go on.  He gave you the letters?

HELEN (seated in front of table R.).  Yes.  And he seemed terribly unhappy.  He begged me to stay and talk to him for a few minutes, and I did.  He asked me to have some tea with him, and I did that too.

DONOHUE.  How charming!  What did you do after tea?

(ROSALIE is at the back of the chair in the front of the table.)

HELEN.  I came home and gave Helen her letters.

DONOHUE.  And that’s all?

HELEN.  That’s all.

DONOHUE.  Why did you do this?

HELEN.  She’s Billy’s sister.

DONOHUE.  My compliments, young woman.  That was beautifully done.  And she looks so innocent too.

WILLIAM (C).  You don’t believe—­

DONOHUE.  Not a word of it.  Not one word.

ROSALIE.  And why not?

DONOHUE.  That I don’t is sufficient.  Her story is preposterous.  Your daughter’s—­

WILLIAM.  It is the truth.

DONOHUE.  Do you expect me to believe for a minute that a man like Lee would threaten your daughter, and then when a total stranger comes to him and asks for the letters, give them up without a word?  Why, no jury in the world would believe your story.

WILLIAM.  Jury?  You’re not going to arrest her?

DONOHUE.  She is arrested.

ROSALIE.  You ’ave not proof.

DONOHUE (below table R.).  All the proof that I need.  If she was innocent, why didn’t she tell me all this when I first questioned her?  Why did she wait until she knew that I had proof—­that she had been in Spencer Lee’s rooms?

WILLIAM.  She was protecting my sister.

DONOHUE.  Women don’t hang together like that.

ROSALIE (upper end of table R.).  Oh, they do, they do!  The poor creatures!

DONOHUE (down R.).  They do not.  I know them. (He turns to WILLIAM.) She wasn’t protecting your sister.  She was protecting herself.  She went for the letters, of course; and they had tea before she asked for them, not afterwards.

CROSBY (R.C. to L. of WILLIAM).  How do you know that?

DONOHUE.  She couldn’t take tea with a man she’s just killed.

WILLIAM.  Why, damn you—­ (Starts R.)