Summary

Scene 5 opens with Bernard reading a speech to Chloe, Gus, and Valentine detailing his evidence that Byron killed Chater in a duel. Hannah excitedly enters the room with something she wants to share with Valentine, but Chloe tells her to wait until Bernard is finished. Bernard picks up his speech but is interrupted occasionally by sarcastic comments from Valentine and Hannah. When Bernard finally ends his speech Hannah criticizes his tendency to select only the facts that support his own imagined theory. Valentine tells him in scientific terms, his theory is incomplete and Bernard protests he is not a scientist. Bernard says he is taking his finds beyond the academic world and planning a press conference.

Bernard then personally insults Hannah’s book, Caro, and her research into the hermit. He tells her she has the wrong man on the cover of her novel. Hannah...