MRS. CROWLEY.
I suppose your servant plucks them out every morning.
d.i.c.k.
Oh, very rarely. One a month at the outside.
MRS. CROWLEY.
I think I see one on the left temple.
d.i.c.k.
Really! How careless of Charles! I must speak to him.
MRS. CROWLEY.
Let me pluck it out.
d.i.c.k.
I shall allow you to do nothing so familiar.
[GEORGE _comes hurriedly into the room_.
GEORGE.
There"s Alec Mackenzie. He"s just driven up in a cab.
d.i.c.k.
He must have come from the trial. Then it"s all over.
LADY KELSEY.
Quick! Go to the stairs, or Miller won"t let him up.
[GEORGE _runs across the room and opens the door_.
GEORGE.
[_Calling._] Miller, Miller, Mr. Mackenzie"s to come up.
[LUCY ALLERTON, _hearing a commotion, comes in. She is older than George, a tall girl, white now, with eyes heavy from want of sleep. She has lived in the country all her life, and has brought up to London a sort of remoteness from the world. She is beautiful in a very English manner, and her clear-cut features are an index to a character in which the moral notions are peculiarly rigid. Self-control is a quality which she possesses in a marked degree, and one which she enormously admires in others_.
LUCY.
Who is it?
GEORGE.
It"s Alec Mackenzie. He"s come from the trial!
LUCY.
Then it"s finished at last. [_She shakes hands with_ d.i.c.k.] It"s so good of you to come.
BOULGER.
You"re perfectly wonderful, Lucy. How can you be so calm?
LUCY.
Because I"m quite sure of the result. D"you imagine I"d doubt my father for a moment?
d.i.c.k.
Oh, Lucy, for heaven"s sake don"t be so sure. You must be prepared for everything.
LUCY.
Oh, no, I know my father. D"you think I"ve not studied him during these years that I"ve looked after him? He"s a child, with all a child"s thoughtlessness and simplicity. And G.o.d knows, he"s weak. I know his faults better than any one, but it would be impossible for him to do anything criminal.
[_The_ BUTLER _enters, followed by_ ALEC MACKENZIE.
ALEC _is a tall, wiry man, well-knit, with dark hair and a small red moustache and beard, cut close to the face.
He is about five-and-thirty. He has great ease of manner, and there is about him an air as though he were accustomed that people should do as he told them._
BUTLER.
Mr. Mackenzie!
GEORGE.
Is it finished? For G.o.d"s sake tell us quickly, old man.
LUCY.
Why didn"t father come with you? Is he following?
ALEC.
Yes, it"s all over.
LADY KELSEY.
Thank goodness. The suspense was really too dreadful.
GEORGE.