AGNES. [After a moment"s pause.] What did Lucas say to you when you--?
ST. OLPHERTS. He said he knew you"d never make that sacrifice for him.
[She pulls herself up rigidly.] So he declined to pain you by asking you to do it.
AGNES. [Crossing swiftly to the settee, and speaking straight into his face.] That"s a lie!
ST. OLPHERTS. Keep your temper, my dear.
AGNES. [Pa.s.sionately.] His love may not last--it won"t!--but at this moment he loves me better than that! He wouldn"t make a mere light thing of me!
ST. OLPHERTS. Wouldn"t he? You try him!
AGNES. What!
ST. OLPHERTS. You put him to the test!
AGNES. [With her hands to her brows.] Oh--!
ST. OLPHERTS. No, no--don"t!
AGNES. [Faintly.] Why?
ST. OLPHERTS. I like you. d.a.m.n him--you deserve to live your hour!
[LUCAS enters with a letter in his hand. AGNES sits.]
LUCAS. [Giving ST. OLPHERTS the letter.] Thanks. [St. OLPHERTS pockets the letter and picks up his cloak, LUCAS a.s.sisting him.]
AGNES. [Outwardly calm.] Oh--Lucas--
LUCAS. Yes?
AGNES. The Duke has been--has been--telling me--
LUCAS. What, dear?
AGNES. The sort of arrangement proposed for your going back to London.
LUCAS. Oh, my brother"s brilliant idea!
AGNES. Acquiesced in by your wife. [ST. OLPHERTS strolls away from them.]
LUCAS. Certainly; as I antic.i.p.ated, she has become intensely dissatisfied with her position.
AGNES. And it would be quite possible, it seems, for you to resume your old career?
LUCAS. Just barely possible--well, for the moment, quite possible.
AGNES. Quite possible.
LUCAS. I haven"t, formally, made a sign to my political friends yet.
It"s a task one leaves to the last. I shall do so now--at once. My people have been busying themselves, it appears, in reporting that I shall return to London directly my health is fully re-established.
AGNES. In the hope--? Oh, yes.
LUCAS. Hoping they"d be able to separate us before it was too--too late.
AGNES. Which hope they"ve now relinquished?
LUCAS. Apparently.
AGNES. They"re prepared to accept a--a compromise, I hear?
LUCAS. Ha!--yes.
AGNES. A compromise in my favour?
LUCAS. [Hesitatingly.] They suggest--
AGNES. Yes, yes, I know. [Looking at him searchingly.] After all, your old career was--a success. You made your mark, as you were saying the other day. You did make your mark. [He walks up and down restlessly, abstractedly, her eyes following him.] You were generally spoken of, accepted, as a Coming Man. The Coming Man, often, wasn"t it?
LUCAS. [With an impatient wave of the hand.] That doesn"t matter!
AGNES. And now you are giving it up--giving it all up.
[He sits on the settee, resting his elbow on his knee, pushing his hand through his hair.]
LUCAS. But--but you believe I shall succeed equally well in this new career of mine?
AGNES. [Stonily.] There"s the risk, you must remember.
LUCAS. Obviously, there"s the risk. Why do you say all this to me now?
AGNES. Because now is the opportunity to--to go back.
LUCAS. [Scornfully.] Opportunity--?
AGNES. An excellent one. You"re so strong and well now.
LUCAS. Thanks to you.
AGNES. [Staring before her.] Well--I did nurse you carefully, didn"t I?
LUCAS. But I don"t understand you. You are surely not proposing to--to --break with me?
AGNES. No--I--I--I was only thinking that you--you might see something in this suggestion of a compromise.
[LUCAS glances at ST. OLPHERTS, whose back is turned to them. ST.