A grossly offensive book! LADY FILSON. [_Anxiously_.] He--he'll keep his word----? SIR RANDLE. To join us in persuading her to drop him---- LADY FILSON. If it fails? SIR RANDLE. [_With conviction._] Yes. [_Walking about._] Yes. We _must_ be just. We owe it to ourselves to be just to Mr. Mackworth. He is not altogether devoid of gentlemanlike scruples. LADY FILSON. [_Breathlessly._] And--and _she_----? SIR RANDLE. I trust--I trust that my child's monstrous infatuation will have cooled down by the autumn. LADY FILSON. [_Supporting herself by the chair at the writing-table, her hand to her heart--exhausted._] Oh! Oh, dear! SIR RANDLE. [_Returning to her._] I conducted the affair with skill and tact, Winifred? LADY FILSON. [_Rallying._] It was masterly--[_kissing him_] masterly---- SIR RANDLE. [_Proudly._] Ha! [_She sits at the writing-table again and takes up her pen as_ SIR RANDLE _stalks to the door on the left._ LADY FILSON. Masterly! SIR RANDLE. [_Opening the door._] Bertram--Bertram, my boy--Bertie----! [_He disappears._ LADY FILSON _scribbles violently._ END OF THE SECOND ACT THE THIRD ACT _The scene represents two rooms, connected by a pair of wide doors, in a set of residential chambers on the upper floor of a house in Gray's Inn. The further room is the dining-room, the nearer room a study. In the wall at the back of the dining-room are two windows; in the right-hand wall is a door leading to the kitchen; and in the left-hand wall a door opens from a vestibule, where, opposite this door, there is another door which gives on to the landing of the common stair._ _In the study, a door in the right-hand wall admits to a bedroom; in the wall facing the spectator is a door opening into the room from the vestibule; and beyond the door on the right, in a piece of wall cutting off the corner of the room, is the fireplace. A bright fire is burning._