COLONEL, aghast, 'Good heavens, Alice, again! Amy, what does this
mean?'

AMY, as she runs, insulted and in tears, from the room, 'It means,
father, that I love _you_ very much.'

COLONEL, badgered, 'Won't you explain, Alice?'

ALICE. 'Robert, I am in terror about Amy.'

COLONEL. 'Why?'

ALICE. 'Don't ask me, dear--not now--not till I have spoken to her
again.' She clings to her husband. 'Robert, there can't be anything in
it?'

COLONEL. 'If you mean anything wrong with our girl, there isn't,
memsahib. What great innocent eyes she has.'

ALICE, eagerly, 'Yes, yes, hasn't she, Robert.'

COLONEL. 'All's well with Amy, dear.'

ALICE. 'Of course it is. It was silly of me--My Amy.'

COLONEL. 'And mine.'

ALICE. 'But she seems to me hard to understand.' With her head on his
breast, 'I begin to feel Robert that I should have come back to my