best.' She goes to Amy to protect her. 'But Amy is still my child.'

'What a deceiver' Amy is thinking.

COLONEL. 'Well, sir, still waiting for that interview with my wife
before you can say anything?'

STEVE, a desperate fellow, 'Yes.'

ALICE. 'You will have every opportunity of explaining, Steve, many
opportunities; but in the meantime--just now, please go, leave us
alone.' Stamping her foot: 'Go, please.'

Steve has had such an evening of it that he clings dizzily to the one
amazing explanation, that Alice loves him not wisely but too well.
Never will he betray her, never.

STEVE, with a meaning that is lost on her but is very evident to the
other lady present,

'Anything _you_ ask me to do, Alice, anything. I shall go upstairs only,
so that if you want me--'

ALICE. 'Oh, go.' He goes, wondering whether he is a villain or a hero,
which is perhaps a pleasurable state of mind.

COLONEL. 'You are wondrous lenient to him; I shall have more to say.
As for this girl--look at her standing there, she seems rather proud
of herself.'