MRS. MORLAND. Your father and I must have a talk with him alone, you see. MARY ROSE. I--I suppose so. He so wants to do the right thing, Mother. MRS. MORLAND. I am sure he does. MARY ROSE. Do you mind my going upstairs into the apple-room and sometimes knocking on the floor? I think it would be a help to him to know I am so near by. MRS. MORLAND. It would be a help to all of us, my sweet. MARY ROSE (_plaintively_). You--you won’t try to put him against me, Daddy? MR. MORLAND. I would try my hardest if I thought I had any chance. (_When she has gone they are a somewhat forlorn pair._) Poor old mother! MRS. MORLAND. Poor old father! There couldn’t be a nicer boy, though. MR. MORLAND. No, but-- (_He has a distressing thought._) MRS. MORLAND (_quietly_). Yes, there’s that. MR. MORLAND. It got me on the quick when she said, ‘You won’t try to put him against me, Daddy’--because that is just what I suppose I have got to do. MRS. MORLAND. He must be told. MR. MORLAND (_weakly_). Fanny, let us keep it to ourselves. MRS. MORLAND. It would not be fair to him. MR. MORLAND. No, it wouldn’t. (_Testily._) He will be an ass if it bothers him. MRS. MORLAND (_timidly_). Yes. (_SIMON comes in, a manly youth of twenty-three in naval uniform. Whether he has changed much since breakfast-time we have no means of determining, but he is sufficiently attractive to make one hope that there will be no further change in the immediate future. He seems younger even than his years because he is trying to look as if a decade or so had passed since the incident of the boat-house and he were now a married man of approved standing. He has come with honeyed words upon his lips, but suddenly finds that he is in the dock. His judges survey him silently, and he can only reply with an idiotic but perhaps ingratiating laugh._) SIMON. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! (_He ceases uncomfortably, like one who has made his statement._) MR. MORLAND. You will need to say more than that, you know, Simon, to justify your conduct. MRS. MORLAND. Oh, Simon, how could you! SIMON (_with a sinking_). It seems almost like stealing. MR. MORLAND. It is stealing. SIMON (_prudently_). Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! (_From the ceiling there comes a gentle tapping, as from a senior officer who is indicating that England expects her lieutenant this day to do his duty. SIMON inflates._) It is beastly hard on you, of course; but if you knew what Mary Rose is! MRS. MORLAND (_pardonably_). We feel that even we know to some extent what Mary Rose is. SIMON (_tacking_). Yes, rather; and so you can see how it has come about. (_This effort cheers him._) I would let myself be cut into little chips for her; I should almost like it. (_With a brief glance at his misspent youth._) Perhaps you have thought that I was a rather larky sort in the past? MRS. MORLAND (_sarcastically_). We see an extraordinary change in you, Simon.