MRS. GWYN. But he thinks he's taking shares in a good—a permanent thing.
LEVER. You can't go into a mining venture without some risk.
MRS. GWYN. Oh yes, I know—but—but Uncle Tom is such a dear!
LEVER. [Stubbornly.] I can't help his being the sort of man he is. I did n't want him to take these shares; I told him so in so many words. Put yourself in my place, Molly: how can I go to him and say, "This thing may turn out rotten," when he knows I got you to put your money into it?
[But JOY, the lost shadow, has come back. She moves forward resolutely. They are divided from her by the hollow tree; she is unseen. She stops.]
MRS. GWYN. I think he ought to be told about the selling; it 's not fair.
LEVER. What on earth made him rush at the thing like that? I don't understand that kind of man.
MRS. GWYN. [Impulsively.] I must tell him, Maurice; I can't let him take the shares without——
[She puts her hand on his arm.]
[Joy turns, as if to go back whence she came, but stops once
more.]