Steve has to make the best of it.
STEVE. ‘You told him, then, about your feelings for me?’
ALICE, studying the carpet, ‘He knows now exactly what are my feelings for you.’
STEVE, huskily, ‘How did he take it?’
ALICE. ‘Need you ask?’
STEVE. ‘Poor old boy. I suppose he wishes me to stay away from your house now.’
ALICE. ‘Is it unreasonable?’
STEVE. ‘No, of course not, but—’
ALICE. ‘Will it be terribly hard to you, St—Mr. Rollo?’
STEVE. ‘It isn’t that. You see I’m fond of the Colonel, I really am, and it hurts me to think he thinks that I—It wasn’t my fault, was it?’