BEMIS: "And the other tore my watch out of my pocket."
MRS. ROBERTS: "EDWARD"S--"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Agnes, I"m thoroughly ashamed of you. WILL you stop interrupting?"
BEMIS: "And left me lying in the snow."
MRS. ROBERTS: "And then he ran after them, and s.n.a.t.c.hed his watch away again in spite of them all; and he didn"t call for the police, or anything, because it was their first offence, and he couldn"t bear to think of their suffering families."
BEMIS, with a stare of profound astonishment: "Who?"
MRS. ROBERTS: "Edward. Didn"t I SAY Edward, all the time?"
BEMIS: "I thought you meant me. I didn"t think of pursuing them; but you may be very sure that if there had been a policeman within call--of course there wasn"t one within cannon-shot--I should have handed the scoundrels over without the slightest remorse."
ROBERTS: "Oh!" He sinks into a chair with a slight groan.
WILLIS: "What is it?"
ROBERTS: ""Sh! Don"t say anything. But--stay here. I want to speak with you, Willis."
BEMIS, with mounting wrath: "I should not have hesitated an instant to give the rascal in charge, no matter who was dependent upon him-- no matter if he were my dearest friend, my own brother."
ROBERTS, under his breath: "Gracious powers!"
BEMIS: "And while I am very sorry to disagree with Mr. Roberts, I can"t help feeling that he made a great mistake in allowing the ruffians to escape."
MRS. CRASHAW, with severity: "I think you are quite right, Mr.
Bemis."
BEMIS: "Probably it was the same gang attacked us both. After escaping from Mr. Roberts they fell upon me."
MRS. CRASHAW: "I haven"t a doubt of it."
ROBERTS, sotto voce to his brother-in-law: "I think I"ll ask you to go with me to my room, Willis. Don"t alarm Agnes, please. I--I feel quite faint."
MRS. ROBERTS, crestfallen: "I can"t feel that Edward was to blame.
Ed--Oh, I suppose he"s gone off to make himself presentable. But Willis--Where"s Willis, Aunt Mary?"
MRS. CRASHAW: "Probably gone with him to help him."
MRS. ROBERTS: "Oh, he SAW how unstrung poor Edward was! Mr. Bemis, I think you"re quite prejudiced. How could Edward help their escaping? I think it was quite enough for him, single-handed, to get his watch back." A ring at the door, and then a number of voices in the anteroom. "I do believe they"re all there! I"ll just run out and prepare your son. He would be dreadfully shocked if he came right in upon you." She runs into the anteroom, and is heard without: "Oh, Dr. Lawton! Oh, Lou dear! OH, Mr. Bemis! How can I ever tell you? Your poor father! No, no, I CAN"T tell you! You mustn"t ask me! It"s too hideous! And you wouldn"t believe me if I did."
Chorus of anguished voices: "What? what? what?"
MRS. ROBERTS: "They"ve been robbed! Garotted on the Common! And, OH, Dr. Lawton, I"m so glad YOU"VE come! They"re both injured internally, but I WISH you"d look at Edward first."
BEMIS: "Good heavens! Is that Mrs. Roberts"s idea of preparing my son? And his poor young wife!" He addresses his demand to Mrs.
Crashaw, who lifts the hands of impotent despair.
PART SECOND
SCENE I: MR. ROBERTS; MR. CAMPBELL
In Mr Roberts"s dressing-room, that gentleman is discovered tragically confronting Mr. Willis Campbell, with a watch uplifted in either hand.
WILLIS: "Well?"
ROBERTS, gasping: "My--my watch!"
WILLIS: "Yes. How comes there to be two of it?"
ROBERTS: "Don"t you understand? When I went out I--didn"t take my watch--with me. I left it here on my bureau."
WILLIS: "Well?"
ROBERTS: "Oh, merciful heavens! don"t you see? Then I couldn"t have been robbed!"
WILLIS: "Well, but whose watch did you take from the fellow that didn"t rob you, then?"
ROBERTS: "His own!" He abandons himself powerlessly upon a chair.
"Yes; I left my own watch here, and when that person brushed against me in the Common, I missed it for the first time. I supposed he had robbed me, and ran after him, and--"
WILLIS: "Robbed HIM!"
ROBERTS: "Yes."
WILLIS: "Ah, ha, ha, ha! I, hi, hi, hi! O, ho, ho, ho!" He yields to a series of these gusts and paroxysms, bowing up and down, and stamping to and fro, and finally sits down exhausted, and wipes the tears from his cheeks. "Really, this thing will kill me. What are you going to do about it, Roberts?"
ROBERTS, with profound dejection and abysmal solemnity: "I don"t know, Willis. Don"t you see that it must have been--that I must have robbed--Mr. Bemis?"
WILLIS: "Bemis!" After a moment for tasting the fact. "Why, so it was! Oh, Lord! oh, Lord! And was poor old Bemis that burly ruffian? that bloodthirsty gang of giants? that--that--oh, Lord! oh, Lord!" He bows his head upon his chair-back in complete exhaustion, demanding, feebly, as he gets breath for the successive questions, "What are you going to d-o-o-o? What shall you s-a-a-a-y? How can you expla-a-ain it?"
ROBERTS: "I can do nothing. I can say nothing. I can never explain it. I must go to Mr. Bemis and make a clean breast of it; but think of the absurdity--the ridicule!"
WILLIS, after a thoughtful silence: "Oh, it isn"t THAT you"ve got to think of. You"ve got to think of the old gentleman"s sense of injury and outrage. Didn"t you hear what he said--that he would have handed over his dearest friend, his own brother, to the police?"
ROBERTS: "But that was in the supposition that his dearest friend, his own brother, had intentionally robbed him. You can"t imagine, Willis--"
WILLIS: "Oh, I can imagine a great many things. It"s all well enough for you to say that the robbery was a mistake; but it was a genuine case of garotting as far as the a.s.sault and taking the watch go. He"s a very pudgicky old gentleman."