Willis: ‘Like it? Of course I do. Or no! Hold on! Wait! It won’t do! No; you must take the leading part, and I’ll support you, and I’ll come in strong if you break down. That’s the way we have got to work it. You must make the start.’
Roberts: ‘Couldn’t you make it better, Willis? It’s your idea.’
Willis: ‘No; they’d be sure to suspect me, and they can’t suspect you of anything—you’re so innocent. The illusion will be complete.’
Roberts, very doubtfully: ‘Do you think so?’
Willis: ‘Yes. Hurry up. Let me unbutton that collar for you.’
PART THIRD
I
MRS. ROBERTS, DR. LAWTON, MRS. CRASHAW, MR. BEMIS, YOUNG MR. AND MRS. BEMIS
Mrs. Roberts, surrounded by her guests, and confronting from her sofa Mr. Bemis, who still remains sunken in his armchair, has apparently closed an exhaustive recital of the events which have ended in his presence there. She looks round with a mixed air of self-denial and self-satisfaction to read the admiration of her listeners in their sympathetic countenances.
Dr. Lawton, with an ironical sigh of profound impression: ‘Well, Mrs. Roberts, you are certainly the most lavishly hospitable of hostesses. Every one knows what delightful dinners you give; but these little dramatic episodes which you offer your guests, by way of appetizer, are certainly unique. Last year an elevator stuck in the shaft with half the company in it, and this year a highway robbery, its daring punishment and its reckless repetition—what the newspapers will call “A Triple Mystery” when it gets to them—and both victims among our commensals! Really, I don’t know what more we could ask of you, unless it were the foot-padded footpad himself as a commensal. If this sort of thing should become de rigueur in society generally, I don’t know what’s to become of people who haven’t your invention.’
Mrs. Roberts: ‘Oh, it’s all very well to make fun now, Dr. Lawton; but if you had been here when they first came in—’