ALICE. ‘You don’t think I have been really bad, dear?’
AMY. ‘Oh, no, only foolish.’
ALICE. ‘Thank you, Amy.’
AMY, nestling still closer, ‘What are we to do now, dear dear mother?’
Alice has a happy idea; but that, as the novelists say, deserves a chapter to itself.
III
We are back in the room of the diary. The diary itself is not visible; it is tucked away in the drawer, taking a nap while it may, for it has much to chronicle before cockcrow. Cosmo also is asleep, on an ingenious arrangement of chairs. Ginevra is sitting bolt upright, a book on her knee, but she is not reading it. She is seeing visions in which Amy plays a desperate part. The hour is late; every one ought to be in bed.
Cosmo is perhaps dreaming that he is back at Osborne, for he calls out, as if in answer to a summons, that he is up and nearly dressed. He then raises his head and surveys Ginevra.