ALICE, ‘You’re a dear, old donkey, Steve, but I’m glad you came, it has made the place seem more like home. All these years I was looking forward to home; and now I feel that perhaps it is the place I have left behind me.’ The joyous gurgling of Molly draws them to the nursery door; and there they are observed by Amy and Ginevra who enter from the hall. The screen is close to the two girls, and they have so often in the last week seen stage figures pop behind screens that, mechanically as it were, they pop behind this one.
STEVE, who little knows that he is now entering on the gay career, ‘Listen to the infant.’
ALICE. ‘Isn’t it horrid of Robert to get on with her so well. Steve, say Robert’s a brute.’
STEVE, as he bids her good afternoon, ‘Of course he is; a selfish beast.’
ALICE. ‘There’s another kiss to you for saying so.’ The doomed woman presents her cheek again.
STEVE. ‘And you’ll come to me after dinner to-night, Alice? Here, I’ll leave my card, I’m not half a mile from this street.’
ALICE. ‘I mayn’t be able to get away. It will depend on whether my silly husband wants to stay with his wretch of a baby. I’ll see you to the door. Steve, you’re much nicer than Robert.’
With these dreadful words she and the libertine go. Amy and Ginevra emerge white to the lips; or, at least, they feel as white as that.
AMY, clinging to the screen for support, ‘He kissed her.’
GINEVRA, sternly, ‘He called her Alice.’