Hale. And I love you and always will so long as a heart beats in my body. (He wishes to embrace her.)
Alice. No!
(She draws back her head, her eyes blazing, she is momentarily insane with fear and grief, anger and love. Hale bows his head and slowly goes from the room. Alice, with a faint heartbroken cry, sinks limply to the floor, her father hurrying to her as the curtain falls.)
This is the close of Act III.
Fitzroy. Look!
(And he bends Alice’s head back upon his shoulder to kiss her on the lips.)
Hale. Blackguard!
(With a blow of his right arm he knocks Cunningham on the head, who, falling, hits his head against the pillar of the porch and is stunned. Meanwhile, the moment he has hit Cunningham, Hale has sprung upon Fitzroy, and with one hand over his mouth has bent his head back with the other until he has released Alice. Hale then throws Fitzroy down and seizing Alice about the waist dashes off with her to the right, where his horse is. Fitzroy rises and runs to Cunningham, kicks him to get his gun, which has fallen under him.)
Fitzroy. Get up! Get up! You fool!