Come in! It's only us! [To HILLCRIST] Dodo!
HILLCRIST. [Flustered, but making a show of courtesy] Good evening! Won't you sit down?
JILL. Sit down; you're all shaky.
[She makes CHLOE sit down in the armchair, out of which they have risen, then locks the door, and closing the windows, draws the curtains hastily over them.]
HILLCRIST. [Awkward and expectant] Can I do anything for you?
CHLOE. I couldn't bear it he's coming to ask you——
HILLCRIST. Who?
CHLOE. My husband. [She draws in her breath with a long shudder, then seem to seize her courage in her hands] I've got to be quick. He keeps on asking—he knows there's something.
HILLCRIST. Make your mind easy. We shan't tell him.
CHLOE. [Appealing] Oh! that's not enough. Can't you tell him something to put him back to thinking it's all right? I've done him such a wrong. I didn't realise till after—I thought meeting him was just a piece of wonderful good luck, after what I'd been through. I'm not such a bad lot—not really.