[Taps with fingers on drawing-room door.
Hilda.
[Comes out with a half-teasing smile.] Well—and how is the rainbow-powder getting on, Dr. Herdal?
Dr. Herdal.
[With enthusiasm.] It is getting on simply splendidly. I sent the new assistant out to take a little walk, so that he should not be in the way. There is arsenic in the powder, Hilda, and digitalis too, and strychnine, and the best beetle-killer!
Hilda.
[With happy, wondering eyes.] Lots of beetle-killer. And you will give some of it to her, to make her free and buoyant. I think one really has the right—when people happen to stand in the way——!
Dr. Herdal.
Yes, you may well say so, Hilda. Still—[dubiously]—it does occur to me that such doings may perhaps be misunderstood—by the narrow-minded and conventional.
[They go on the lawn, and sit down.