Bill. [Stepping forward] I’m ready to make it up to her.

Studdenham.  Keep back, there? [He takes hold of Freda, and looks around him] Well!  She’s not the first this has happened to since the world began, an’ she won’t be the last.  Come away, now, come away!

Taking Freda by the shoulders, he guides her towards the door.

Sir William.  D—–­n ’it, Studdenham!  Give us credit for something!

Studdenham. [Turning his face and eyes lighted up by a sort of smiling snarl] Ah!  I do that, Sir William.  But there’s things that can’t be undone!

He follows Freda Out.  As the door closes, sir William’s Calm gives way.  He staggers past his wife, and sinks heavily, as though exhausted, into a chair by the fire.  Bill, following Freda and Studdenham, has stopped at the shut door.  Lady Cheshire moves swiftly close to him.  The door of the billiard-room is opened, and Dot appears.  With a glance round, she crosses quickly to her mother.

Dot. [In a low voice] Mabel’s just going, mother! [Almost whispering] Where’s Freda?  Is it—­Has she really had the pluck?

Lady Cheshire bending her head for “Yes,” goes out into the billiard-room.  Dot clasps her hands together, and standing there in the middle of the room, looks from her brother to her father, from her father to her brother.  A quaint little pitying smile comes on her lips.  She gives a faint shrug of her shoulders.

The curtain falls.