Hoover. Hold on, Frank—there’s some mistake.
Clayton. Get me a cab—never mind—I’ll take Seelig’s machine. (Disappears.) Here! Doctor Seelig says to take me to—
(He goes out. Door bangs.)
Sutton enters from the dining-room
Sutton. Is Master Dick in danger, sir?
Hoover. (Nervously.) I don’t know, Sutton. Where’s his mother?
Sutton. Opera, sir.
Hoover. With whom?
Sutton. Mr. De Lota.
Because of the emphasis given the libretto in the first quotation, the audience’s suspicions are roused at the same time as Clayton’s and his emotions are theirs. Yet, even in this last scene, note the care of Mr. Thomas to make all absolutely clear. He does not stop when Hoover says “A libretto,” and “Of grand opera,” but he lets the audience see the same libretto which passed from Elinor to De Lota pass from Hoover to Clayton, the latter identifying it in his cry, “Aida.” That there may be absolutely no doubt in the evidence piling up against Elinor, he has Clayton point to the marked place with the words: “I did that myself.”