OLIVE. [_From a little distance._] Yes. JOHN. Who is it? OLIVE. Olive. JOHN. [_Sternly._] Well? OLIVE. Are you by yourself? JOHN. Yes. [_After a pause._] Come in. _He draws back to allow her to pass him. After a short delay she enters, and, without looking at him, comes right into the room. He closes the window, but remains at that end of the room._ OLIVE ALLINGHAM _is a fashionably and richly dressed woman of a little over thirty years of age—pale, worn red-eyed, but still handsome. In manner she is alternately beseeching and gentle, angry and imperious. The twilight now gradually deepens into dusk._ OLIVE. You have some men here? JOHN. Shafto and Peter Elphick. I asked them to clear out for a moment. OLIVE. What will they think? JOHN. [_With a shrug of the shoulder._] They can scarcely know what to think. OLIVE. [_Walking to the mantelpiece._] What do you think yourself, of my humbling myself in this fashion? [_Turning to him._] What do you——? [_As she has crossed to the left of the room, he, still at a distance, has moved over to the right. Speaking with a catch in her breath._] Oh, don’t do that! I’m not poisonous, John. [_He approaches stiffly and silently. She advances towards him plaintively._] John, I am quite worn out—[_putting her hand to her bosom_]—burnt out here. This desperate lawsuit has been my last bolt. I’m finished—spent. I know my regrets won’t avail us much at this time of day; the future has a most melancholy look-out for both of us; but I want to tell you I am truly conscious, at last, of the evil my jealousy has wrought. [_Sitting weakly._] Yes, John, I—I am quite reasonable at last. [QUAIFE _enters_. QUAIFE. Dinner is s—— [_He breaks off, staring at_ OLIVE. OLIVE. Good evening, Quaife. QUAIFE. [_Aghast._] Good evening, ma’am. JOHN. [_To_ QUAIFE.] Tell Mrs. Quaife to delay dinner for—for—— OLIVE. [_Rising and turning away—in an altered tone._] Oh, five minutes—ten at the outside. JOHN. For a quarter of an hour. [_Sharply._] The lamps. [QUAIFE _withdraws, as if in a dream_. OLIVE. [_Bitterly._] I much regret keeping you and your friends from your dinner. It’s an exceptionably elaborate entertainment to-night, I suppose?