[Is it Eglantine who enters? There stands something for a moment like a dead thing dressed in a bridegroom's splendour. It is as if some ice-cold hand had plucked at his heart. Yet he is calm; the poise remains true, the subtle artifice is there. But the crushing blow to his pride is in his pale face, and his voice rings bitterly when he says:
Eglantine.. I was.
Clown.. I'm sorry. I might have guessed. I mean, of course I couldn't have guessed ... that any man would be such a fool ... I mean ... oh, gad, I...
Alice.. He never opens his mouth but he puts his foot in it. That's what he's trying to say.
Clown.. But there's time yet. Old Talon can't have paid the money to her lawyers by this. Jeffrey Rake boasted too soon. I'll run to stop it.
Eglantine.. Pray, do nothing of the sort, George.
Clown.. But I will. An't I your friend? What's the address?
Eglantine.. My pistol, Quin.
[The pistol is in his hand.
Clown.. And the fifteen thousand Rake won. Hold it back. We'll call him out and do for him ... one of us.