GEORGIANA. [Sweetly.] Yes?  Do you want me for anything, dear?

[LOUISE repeats the gesture, unnoticed by GEORGIANA.

MRS. CARLEY.  Oh, no.

GEORGIANA.  If you want me—­

MRS. CARLEY.  No.

GEORGIANA.  Louise, I told Bella Shindle I’d help her get up an article this morning on the drawing-room and dining room for her sister,—­you know—­who has a friend who writes for the weekly papers.  You don’t mind, do you?

LOUISE.  No.

GEORGIANA.  Of course, if you do mind—­

LOUISE.  But I don’t, not the least in the world.

GEORGIANA. [Smiling.] Bella says it will be a great thing for her sister’s reputation—­what she calls such a “select” house as ours—­and buy her a new hat besides.  So I thought we’d better.

[She goes out Right.

MRS. CARLEY.  Did you ever know any one so changed?  She hasn’t been horrid to me once since he died.  It makes me feel perfectly dreadful to have her treat me so nice.

[Almost crying, crosses to Left.

LOUISE.  Mother, you know Mrs. Coleman sent for me just now.

MRS. CARLEY.  Yes?

LOUISE.  Well, why, do you suppose?

MRS. CARLEY.  I don’t know, but I hope you’ll tell me that, too, sometime—­what about Steve?

LOUISE.  That must wait, mother—­Dick Coleman—­

MRS. CARLEY.  What?  Don’t tell me he made another will, and didn’t leave
Georgiana his money.

LOUISE.  No, it’s good news for Georgiana.  I’m almost as afraid to tell you as to tell her. [Whispers.] Dick Coleman may be alive, after all.

MRS. CARLEY.  Louise!

LOUISE.  It is possible he was one of the three men who arrived at San
Francisco nearly a week ago.

MRS. CARLEY.  Who were taken prisoners by the Ladrones and escaped?

LOUISE.  Yes!  The three men who got away from Cebu in a boat and were picked up by a German steamer.  It seems more than probable.  They got one name wrong in the despatches, making it “Richard Cotten”—­who was also missing—­instead of “Richard Coleman.”

MRS. CARLEY.  But how did you find out all this?

LOUISE.  From Mrs. Coleman.  And it’s all in the morning paper, and we never took the trouble to look!

MRS. CARLEY.  I read the society notes—­it wasn’t in there.

LOUISE.  Well, the Colemans saw it and telegraphed at once to Washington for confirmation.

MRS. CARLEY.  Did they get it?

LOUISE.  Not yet.  But we’re all in the greatest hopes!

MRS. CARLEY.  But if Dick Coleman was with those other men in San
Francisco, why didn’t he telegraph home?

LOUISE.  That’s the one thing that makes still a dreadful doubt. [Rises and rings the bell.] The Colemans are nearly mad waiting for their reply from Washington.

MRS. CARLEY.  Shall you tell Georgiana?