Alice Sit-By-The-Fire Part 23

ALICE. 'Need you ask?'

STEVE. 'Poor old boy. I suppose he wishes me to stay away from your house now.'

ALICE. 'Is it unreasonable?'

STEVE. 'No, of course not, but--'

ALICE. 'Will it be terribly hard to you, St--Mr. Rollo?'

STEVE. 'It isn't that. You see I'm fond of the Colonel, I really am, and it hurts me to think he thinks that I--It wasn't my fault, was it?'

AMY. 'Ungenerous.'

ALICE. 'He quite understands that it was I who lost my head.'

Steve is much moved by the generosity of this. He lowers his voice.

STEVE. 'Of course I blame myself now; but I a.s.sure you honestly I had no idea of it until to-night. I had thought you were only my friend.

It dazed me; but as I ransacked my mind many little things came back to me. I remembered what I hadn't noticed at the time--'

AMY. 'Louder, please.'

STEVE. 'I remembered--'

AMY. 'Is this necessary?'

ALICE. 'Please, Amy, let me know what he remembered.'

STEVE. 'I remembered that your voice was softer to me than when you were addressing other men.'

ALICE. 'Let me look long at you, Mr. Rollo.' She looks long at him.

AMY. 'Mother, enough.'

ALICE. 'What more do you remember?'

STEVE. 'It is strange to me now that I didn't understand your true meaning to-day when you said I was the only man you couldn't flirt with; you meant that I aroused deeper feelings.'

ALICE. 'How you know me.'

AMY. 'Not the best of you, mother.'

ALICE. 'No, not the best, Amy.'

STEVE. 'I can say that I never thought of myself as possessing dangerous qualities. I thought I was utterly unattractive to women.'

ALICE. 'You _must_ have known about your eyes.'

STEVE, eagerly, 'My eyes? On my soul I didn't.'

Amy wonders if this can be true. Alice rises. She feels that she cannot control herself much longer.

ALICE. 'Steve, if you don't go away at once I shall scream.'

STEVE, really unhappy, 'Is it as bad as that?'

AMY, rising, 'You heard what Mrs. Grey said. This is very painful to her. Will you please say good-bye.'

In the novel circ.u.mstances he does not quite know how this should be carried out.

ALICE, also shy, 'How shall we do it, Amy? On the brow?'

AMY. 'No, mother--with the hand.'

They do it with the hand, and it is thus that the Colonel finds them.

He would be unable to keep his countenance were it not for a warning look from Alice.

COLONEL, one of the men who have a genius for saying the right thing, 'Ha.'

STEVE. 'I am going, Colonel. I am very sorry that you----At the same time I wish you to understand that the fault is entirely mine.'

COLONEL, guardedly, 'Ha.'

AMY, putting an arm round her mother, who hugs it, 'Father, he came only to say goodbye. He is not a bad man, and mother has behaved magnificently.'

COLONEL, cleverly, 'Ha.'

AMY. 'You must not, you shall not, be cruel to her.'

ALICE. 'Darling Amy.'

COLONEL, truculently, 'Oh, mustn't I. We shall see about that.'

STEVE. 'Come, come, Colonel.'

COLONEL, doing better than might have been expected, 'Hold your tongue, sir.'

AMY. 'I know mother as no other person can know her. I begin to think that you have no proper appreciation of her, father.'

ALICE, basely, 'Dear, dear Amy.'

AMY. 'I daresay she has often suffered in the past--'

ALICE. 'Oh, Amy, oh.'

AMY. 'By your--your callousness--your want of sympathy--your neglect.'

ALICE. 'My beloved child.'