[_Smiling._] So you resolved to give the girls a treat by coming to Lady Kelsey's dance? How nice of you not to disappoint them! [_He turns to_ LUCY _and holds out his hand. They look into one another's eyes. She takes his hand._] I sent you a paper this evening. LUCY. It was very good of you. [CARBERY _comes forward and offers his arm._ CARBERY. I think this is my dance, Miss Allerton. May I take you in? ALEC. Carbery? I saw you in Piccadilly just now! You were darting about just like a young gazelle. I had no idea you could be so active. CARBERY. I didn't see you. ALEC. I observed that you were deeply interested in the shop windows as I passed. How are you? [_He holds out his hand, and for a moment_ CARBERY _hesitates to take it. But_ ALEC'S _steady gaze compels him._ CARBERY. How d'you do? ALEC. [_With an amused smile._] So glad to see you again, old man. [DICK _gives an audible chuckle, and_ CARBERY, _reddening, draws his hand away angrily. He goes to_ LUCY _and offers his arm._ BOULGER. [_To_ MRS. CROWLEY.] Shall I take you back? MRS. CROWLEY. Do! LADY KESLEY. Won't you come, Mr. Mackenzie? ALEC. If you don't mind I'll stay and smoke just one cigarette with Dick Lomas. You know I'm not a dancing man. LADY KELSEY. Very well. [_All go out except_ ALEC _and_ DICK. DICK. I suppose you know we were all beseeching Providence you'd have the grace to stay away to-night? ALEC. [_With a smile._] I suspected it, I confess. I shouldn't have come only I wanted to see Lucy. I've been in the country all day, and I knew nothing about Macinnery's letter till I saw the placards at the station. DICK. Macinnery proposes to make things rather uncomfortable, I imagine. ALEC. [_With a smile._] I made a mistake, didn't I? I ought to have dropped him in the river when I had no further use for him. DICK. What are you going to do? ALEC. It's not easy to clear myself at a dead man's expense. The earth covers his crime and his sins and his weakness. DICK. D'you mean to say that you are going to sit still and let them throw mud at you? ALEC. When George was dead I wrote to Lucy that he died like a brave man. I can't now publish to the whole world that he was a coward and a rogue. I can't rake up again the story of her father's crime. DICK. [_Impatiently._] Surely, that's absolutely quixotic. ALEC. No, it isn't. I tell you I can't do anything else. I'm bound hand and foot. Lucy has talked to me of George's death, and the only thing that has consoled her is the idea that in a manner he had redeemed his father's good name. How can I rob her of that? She placed all her hopes in George. How could she face the world with the knowledge that her brother was rotten to the core, as rotten as her father. DICK. It seems awfully hard. ALEC.