‘What a deceiver’ Amy is thinking.
COLONEL. ‘Well, sir, still waiting for that interview with my wife before you can say anything?’
STEVE, a desperate fellow, ‘Yes.’
ALICE. ‘You will have every opportunity of explaining, Steve, many opportunities; but in the meantime—just now, please go, leave us alone.’ Stamping her foot: ‘Go, please.’
Steve has had such an evening of it that he clings dizzily to the one amazing explanation, that Alice loves him not wisely but too well. Never will he betray her, never.
STEVE, with a meaning that is lost on her but is very evident to the other lady present,
‘Anything you ask me to do, Alice, anything. I shall go upstairs only, so that if you want me—’
ALICE. ‘Oh, go.’ He goes, wondering whether he is a villain or a hero, which is perhaps a pleasurable state of mind.
COLONEL. ‘You are wondrous lenient to him; I shall have more to say. As for this girl—look at her standing there, she seems rather proud of herself.’
ALICE. ‘It isn’t really hardness, Robert. It is because she thinks that you are hard. Robert, dear, I want you to go away too, and leave Amy to me. Go home, Robert; we shall follow soon.’