’Such is the state of affairs at the opening of the Second Act.

’The entrance of the Countess suddenly disturbs the Baron’s reflections.  She is in a state bordering on frenzy.  Incoherent expressions of rage burst from her lips:  it is some time before she can sufficiently control herself to speak plainly.  She has been doubly insulted—­ first, by a menial person in her employment; secondly, by her husband.  Her maid, an Englishwoman, has declared that she will serve the Countess no longer.  She will give up her wages, and return at once to England.  Being asked her reason for this strange proceeding, she insolently hints that the Countess’s service is no service for an honest woman, since the Baron has entered the house.  The Countess does, what any lady in her position would do; she indignantly dismisses the wretch on the spot.

’My Lord, hearing his wife’s voice raised in anger, leaves the study in which he is accustomed to shut himself up over his books, and asks what this disturbance means.  The Countess informs him of the outrageous language and conduct of her maid.  My Lord not only declares his entire approval of the woman’s conduct, but expresses his own abominable doubts of his wife’s fidelity in language of such horrible brutality that no lady could pollute her lips by repeating it.  “If I had been a man,” the Countess says, “and if I had had a weapon in my hand, I would have struck him dead at my feet!”

’The Baron, listening silently so far, now speaks.  “Permit me to finish the sentence for you,” he says.  “You would have struck your husband dead at your feet; and by that rash act, you would have deprived yourself of the insurance money settled on the widow—­ the very money which is wanted to relieve your brother from the unendurable pecuniary position which he now occupies!”

’The Countess gravely reminds the Baron that this is no joking matter.  After what my Lord has said to her, she has little doubt that he will communicate his infamous suspicions to his lawyers in England.  If nothing is done to prevent it, she may be divorced and disgraced, and thrown on the world, with no resource but the sale of her jewels to keep her from starving.

’At this moment, the Courier who has been engaged to travel with my Lord from England crosses the stage with a letter to take to the post.  The Countess stops him, and asks to look at the address on the letter.  She takes it from him for a moment, and shows it to her brother.  The handwriting is my Lord’s; and the letter is directed to his lawyers in London.

’The Courier proceeds to the post-office.  The Baron and the Countess look at each other in silence.  No words are needed.  They thoroughly understand the position in which they are placed; they clearly see the terrible remedy for it.  What is the plain alternative before them?  Disgrace and ruin—­or, my Lord’s death and the insurance money!

’The Baron walks backwards and forwards in great agitation, talking to himself.  The Countess hears fragments of what he is saying.  He speaks of my Lord’s constitution, probably weakened in India—­ of a cold which my Lord has caught two or three days since—­ of the remarkable manner in which such slight things as colds sometimes end in serious illness and death.