II.



In the interior of the elevator are seated MRS. ROBERTS'S AUNT MARY
(MRS. CRASHAW), MRS. CURWEN, and MISS LAWTON; MR. MILLER and MR.
ALFRED BEMIS are standing with their hats in their hands. They are
in dinner costume, with their overcoats on their arms, and the
ladies' draperies and ribbons show from under their outer wraps,
where they are caught up, and held with that caution which
characterizes ladies in sitting attitudes which they have not been
able to choose deliberately. As they talk together, the elevator
rises very slowly, and they continue talking for some time before
they observe that it has stopped.

MRS. CRASHAW: "It's very fortunate that we are all here together. I
ought to have been here half an hour ago, but I was kept at home by
an accident to my finery, and before I could be put in repair I heard
it striking the quarter past. I don't know what my niece will say to
me. I hope you good people will all stand by me if she should be
violent."

MILLER: "In what a poor man may with his wife's fan, you shall
command me, Mrs. Crashaw." He takes the fan out, and unfurls it.

MRS. CRASHAW: "Did she send you back for it?"

MILLER: "I shouldn't have had the pleasure of arriving with you if
she hadn't."