WEDGECROFT. [Settling this part of the matter.] Well, Farrant, to all intents and purposes he didn’t know and he’d have stopped it if he could.

FARRANT.  Yes, I believe that.  But what makes you so sure?

WEDGECROFT.  I asked him and he told me.

FARRANT.  That’s no proof.

WEDGECROFT.  You read the letter that he sent her ... unless you think it was written as a blind.

FARRANT.  Oh ... to be sure ... yes.  I might have thought of that.

      He settles down again.  Again no one has anything to say.

CANTELUPE.  What is to be said to Mr. O’Connell when he comes?

HORSHAM.  Yes ... what exactly do you propose we shall say to O’Connell,
Wedgecroft?

WEDGECROFT.  Get him to open his oyster of a mind and....

FARRANT.  So it is and his face like a stone wall yesterday.  Absolutely refused to discuss the matter with me!

CANTELUPE.  May I ask, Cyril, why are we concerning ourselves with this wickedness at all?

HORSHAM.  Just at this moment when we have official weight without official responsibility, Charles....

WEDGECROFT.  I wish I could have let Percival out of bed, but these first touches of autumn are dangerous to a convalescent of his age.

HORSHAM.  But you saw him, Farrant ... and he gave you his opinion, didn’t he?

FARRANT.  Last night ... yes.

HORSHAM.  I suppose it’s a pity Blackborough hasn’t turned up.

FARRANT.  Never mind him.

HORSHAM.  He gets people to agree with him.  That’s a gift.

FARRANT.  Wedgecroft, what is the utmost O’Connell will be called upon to do for us ... for Trebell?

WEDGECROFT.  Probably only to hold his tongue at the inquest to-morrow.  As far as I know there’s no one but her maid to prove that Mrs. O’Connell didn’t meet her husband some time in the summer.  He’ll be called upon to tell a lie or two by implication.

FARRANT.  Cantelupe ... what does perjury to that extent mean to a Roman
Catholic?

      CANTELUPE’S face melts into an expression of mild amazement.

CANTELUPE.  Your asking such a question shows that you would not understand my answer to it.

FARRANT. [Leaving the fellow to his subtleties.] Well, what about the maid?

WEDGECROFT.  She may suspect facts but not names, I think.  Why should they question her on such a point if O’Connell says nothing?

HORSHAM.  He’s really very late.  I told ... [He stops.] Charles, I’ve forgotten that man’s name again.

CANTELUPE.  Edmunds, you said it was.

HORSHAM.  Edmunds.  Everybody’s down at Lympne ...  I’ve been left with a new man here and I don’t know his name. [He is very pathetic.] I told him to put O’Connell in the library there.  I thought that either Farrant or I might perhaps see him first and—­