JANE (surprised).  But she’s bound to know.

BOBBY.  We won’t tell anybody.

JANE (eagerly).  Bobby!

BOBBY (nodding).  Just you and me.  Nobody else for a long time.  A little private secret.

JANE.  Bobby!

BOBBY (coming to her).  Is it a bargain, Jane?  Because if it’s a bargain——­

JANE (going away from him).  No, no, Bobby.  Not now.  I must go upstairs and tidy myself—­no, I mustn’t, I must wait for Melisande—­no, Bobby, don’t.  Not yet.  I mean it, really.  Do go, dear, anybody might come in.

(BOBBY, who has been following her round the hall, as she retreats nervously, stops and nods to her.)

BOBBY.  All right, darling, I’ll go.

JANE.  You mustn’t say “darling.”  You might say it accidentally in front of them all.

BOBBY (grinning).  All right, Miss Bagot . . .  I am going now, Miss Bagot. (At the windows) Good-bye, Miss Bagot. (JANE blows him a kiss.  He bows) Your favour to hand, Miss Bagot. (He turns and sees MELISANDE coming through the garden) Hallo, here’s Sandy! (He hurries off in the opposite direction.)

MELISANDE.  Oh, Jane, Jane! (She sinks into a chair.)

JANE.  What, dear?

MELISANDE.  Everything.

JANE.  Yes, but that’s so vague, darling.  Do you mean that——­

MELISANDE (dreamily).  I have seen him; I have talked to him; he has kissed me.

JANE (amazed). Kissed you?  Do you mean that he has—­kissed you?

MELISANDE.  I have looked into his eyes, and he has looked into mine.

JANE.  Yes, but who?

MELISANDE.  The true knight, the prince, for whom I have been waiting so long.

JANE.  But who is he?

MELISANDE.  They call him Gervase.

JANE.  Gervase who?

MELISANDE (scornfully).  Did Elaine say, “Lancelot who” when they told her his name was Lancelot?

JANE.  Yes, dear, but this is the twentieth century.  He must have a name.

MELISANDE (dreamily).  Through the forest he came to me, dressed in blue and gold.

JANE (sharply).  Sandy! (Struck with an idea) Have you been out all day without your hat, darling?

MELISANDE (vaguely).  Have I?

JANE.  I mean—­blue and gold.  They don’t do it nowadays.

MELISANDE (nodding to her). He did, Jane.

JANE.  But how?—­Why?  Who can he be?

MELISANDE.  He said he was a humble woodcutter’s son.  That means he was a prince in disguise.  He called me his princess.

JANE.  Darling, how could he be a prince?

MELISANDE.  I have read stories sometimes of men who went to sleep and woke up thousands of years afterwards and found themselves in a different world.  Perhaps, Jane, he lived in those old days, and——­

JANE.  Did he talk like an ordinary person?

MELISANDE.  Oh no, no!