Oh, I should like to take you by the neck and strangle you.

Parker-Jennings.

Look out.

[They all stop for a moment in a state of breathless expectation. Lady Wanley comes in with Mrs. Withers. She gasps as she sees Jack Straw.

Lady Wanley.

Oh, I thought you’d gone.

[She is immediately followed by Adrian von Bremer. Jack Straw goes up to him very cordially.

Jack Straw.

Ah, my dear friend, I’ve been expecting you all the morning.

[They all start. As the scene proceeds there is in every one increasing astonishment and perplexity.