ETHEL.  Yes; it’s all over; my guardian has consented.

ALMERIC.  Of course I never worried about it—­but I fancy it will be a weight off the Governor’s mind.  I’ll see that a wire catches him at Naples—­and he’ll be glad to know what became of that arrangement about the convict fellow, too.

ETHEL [very seriously].  Almeric, I think it’s noble to be brave in trouble, but—­

ALMERIC [puzzled].  I say, you know, you’ve really got me!

ETHEL.  I mean that I admire you for your pluck, for seeming unconcerned under disgrace, but—­

ALMERIC. Disgrace?  Why, who’s disgraced—­not even the Governor, as I see it.  You got that chap called off, didn’t you?

ETHEL.  Whom do you mean?

ALMERIC.  Why, that convict chap—­didn’t you send him away?  You bought him off, didn’t you, so that he won’t talk?  Gave him money not to bother us?

ETHEL [rising, and turning on him indignantly].  Why, Heaven pity you!  Do you think that?

ALMERIC.  Oh—­what?—­he wouldn’t agree to be still?  Oh, I say, that’ll be rather a pill for the Governor—­he’ll be a bit worried, you know.

ETHEL.  Don’t you see that it’s time for you to worry a little for yourself?  That you’ve got to begin at once to do something worthy that will obliterate this shame—­to begin a career—­to work—­to work!

ALMERIC [puzzled].  But?  But I mean to say, though—­but what for?  What possible need will there be for an extreme like that?  Don’t you see, in the first place, there’s the settlement—­

ETHEL [aghast].  Settlement!  You talk of settlement, now.

LADY CREECH [angrily].  Settlement, certainly there’s the settlement!

ETHEL.  What for?

LADY CREECH.  Why, don’t you understand—­you’re to be the Countess of
Hawcastle, aren’t you?

ALMERIC.  Why—­hasn’t he told you?—­the only obstacle on earth between us was this fellow’s consent to the settlement, and he’s just given it.

ETHEL [dazed and angry].  Do you mean to say he’s consented to that!

ALMERIC.  Why, to be sure—­he’s just consented with his own lips—­didn’t you?

PIKE [gravely].  I did.

LADY CREECH.  Don’t you see, don’t you hear that—­he’s consented?  He didn’t mumble his words—­don’t you hear him?

ETHEL.  I do, and disbelieve my own ears.  Yesterday, when I wanted something I thought of value—­and that was a name—­he refused to let me buy it—­to-day, when I know that that name is less than nothing, worse than nothing—­he bids me give my fortune for it.  What manner of man is this!  And you [to LADY CREECH and ALMERIC], what are you that after last night you come to me and ask a settlement?

LADY CREECH [angrily].  Certainly we do—­would you expect to enter a family like this and bring nothing?

ALMERIC. I can’t see that the situation has changed since yesterday.  I don’t stick out for the precise amount the Governor said.  If it ought to be less on account of that little affair last night—­why, we should be the last people in the world to haggle over a few thousand pounds—­