[MURIEL joins the group; SOPHY slips away and disappears.

LADY OWBRIDGE.

[To the DUCHESS.] Shall we go in?

[LADY OWBRIDGE and the DUCHESS, and MRS. EDEN and MURIEL, ascend the steps and go towards the house.  Instead, of following the ladies, QUEX turns sharply and comes forward with an angry, sullen look upon his face.

FRAYNE.

[Looking round for QUEX.] Hallo, Harry! [Coming to QUEX.] Aren’t you—?

QUEX.

Hang dinner!  I don’t want to eat.

FRAYNE.

Anything wrong, old man? anything I—?

QUEX.

[Shaking himself up.] No, no; nothing—­the hot weather.  Come along; we mustn’t be late for grace. [Boisterously.] At any rate, a glass of champagne—­[slapping FRAYNE on the back] a glass or two of Felix Poubelle, hey?  Felix Poubelle, Carte d’Or! ha, ha, ha!

[As they turn to go, they see SOPHY on the other side of the low hedge, looking at them steadily.

QUEX.

[To FRAYNE, quietly.] Wait!

[They stand still, while SOPHY very demurely walks to the steps, ascends them, and disappears.

QUEX.

[In an altered tone.] Chick—­you see that hussy?

FRAYNE.

Miss Fullgarney?

QUEX.

I can’t make her out.  I believe she wants to play some trick on me.

FRAYNE.

Trick?

QUEX.

’Pon my soul, I believe she’s prying—­spying on me.

FRAYNE.

That nice gal!

QUEX.

Oh, I daresay I’m wrong.  But if I found it so, I—­I’d wring her neck.

FRAYNE.

[Wistfully.] It’s an alluring neck.

QUEX.

Possibly.  But I’d wring it—!

[They go up the steps together.

END OF THE SECOND ACT.

THE THIRD ACT

The scene represents two rooms—­a bedroom and a boudoir—­separated by an arched opening across which a portiere is hung.  The portiere is, however, drawn aside, and the bedroom, in which is a bed with an elaborate canopy, is partly revealed.  The boudoir is nearest to the spectator.  Above the fireplace, with bare hearth, on the right, is a broad window running obliquely towards the centre, concealed by heavy curtains.  On the left of the window, facing the audience, is a door admitting to a long, narrow passage in which a hanging lamp is burning; and on the left of this door is the arched opening dividing the bedroom from the boudoir.  Another door opens into the boudoir on the opposite side from a corridor or landing.  Beyond this door, against the wall, is a cabinet, on the top of which is a clock.  A chair stands at each end of this cabinet.  On the left of the arched opening—­placed obliquely,