Essie.  Yes.

Judith (again displeased).  I am afraid you say Yes and No without thinking very deeply.

Essie.  Yes.  At least I mean—­

Judith (severely).  What do you mean?

Essie (almost crying).  Only—­my father was a smuggler; and—­
(Someone knocks.)

Judith.  They are beginning to come.  Now remember your aunt’s directions, Essie; and be a good girl. (Christy comes back with the stand of stuffed birds under a glass case, and an inkstand, which he places on the table.) Good morning, Mr. Dudgeon.  Will you open the door, please:  the people have come.

Christy.  Good morning. (He opens the house door.)

The morning is now fairly bright and warm; and Anderson, who is the first to enter, has left his cloak at home.  He is accompanied by Lawyer Hawkins, a brisk, middleaged man in brown riding gaiters and yellow breeches, looking as much squire as solicitor.  He and Anderson are allowed precedence as representing the learned professions.  After them comes the family, headed by the senior uncle, William Dudgeon, a large, shapeless man, bottle-nosed and evidently no ascetic at table.  His clothes are not the clothes, nor his anxious wife the wife, of a prosperous man.  The junior uncle, Titus Dudgeon, is a wiry little terrier of a man, with an immense and visibly purse-proud wife, both free from the cares of the William household.

Hawkins at once goes briskly to the table and takes the chair nearest the sofa, Christy having left the inkstand there.  He puts his hat on the floor beside him, and produces the will.  Uncle William comes to the fire and stands on the hearth warming his coat tails, leaving Mrs. William derelict near the door.  Uncle Titus, who is the lady’s man of the family, rescues her by giving her his disengaged arm and bringing her to the sofa, where he sits down warmly between his own lady and his brother’s.  Anderson hangs up his hat and waits for a word with Judith.

Judith.  She will be here in a moment.  Ask them to wait. (She taps at the bedroom door.  Receiving an answer from within, she opens it and passes through.)

Anderson (taking his place at the table at the opposite end to Hawkins).  Our poor afflicted sister will be with us in a moment.  Are we all here?

Christy (at the house door, which he has just shut).  All except Dick.

The callousness with which Christy names the reprobate jars on the moral sense of the family.  Uncle William shakes his head slowly and repeatedly.  Mrs. Titus catches her breath convulsively through her nose.  Her husband speaks.

Uncle Titus.  Well, I hope he will have the grace not to come.  I hope so.

The Dudgeons all murmur assent, except Christy, who goes to the window and posts himself there, looking out.  Hawkins smiles secretively as if he knew something that would change their tune if they knew it.  Anderson is uneasy:  the love of solemn family councils, especially funereal ones, is not in his nature.  Judith appears at the bedroom door.