[To Peggy.] Get rid of them soon, or I shall become a gibbering idiot!
MALLORY.
[Slapping Queckett on the back.] Now, then, Queckett. [Queckett goes to the piano. To Peggy.] Will you make me happy, dear Miss Peggy?
PEGGY.
Thank you, Mr. Mallory, I never dance. [Taking his arm.] But I don't mind this once. Uncle!
QUECKETT.
[To himself.] I wash my hands of the entire party! [He plays the first figure of a quadrille, while they dance—Rankling and Dinah, Saunders and Gwendoline, Mallory and Peggy, Ermyntrude and Reginald. They dance with brightness and animation, but whenever Reginald encounters Dinah there is a violent altercation. As the figure ends Jane enters again, and runs to Queckett at the piano. ]
QUECKETT.
What is it?