ALICE. ‘Amy said she had a headache and went to bed. I spoke to her through the door before I came out, but she wouldn’t answer.’
COLONEL. ‘Why didn’t you go in, memsahib?’
ALICE. ‘I did venture to think of it, but she had locked the door. Robert, I really am worried about Amy. She seems to me to behave oddly. There can’t be anything wrong?’
COLONEL. ‘Of course not, Alice—eh, Steve?’
STEVE. ‘Bless you, no.’
ALICE, smiling, ‘It’s much Steve knows about women.’
STEVE. ‘I’m not so unattractive to women, Alice, as you think.’
ALICE. ‘Listen to him, Robert!’
COLONEL. ‘What he means, my dear, is that you should see him with elderly ladies.’
ALICE. ‘Steve, this to people who know you.’ Here something happens to Amy’s skirt. She has opened the door to hear, then in alarm shut it, leaving a fragment of skirt caught in the door. There, unseen, it bides its time.