MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Knock him down? Of course he did.’ MRS. CRASHAW: ‘Agnes, _will_ you hold your tongue, and let the men alone?’ MRS. ROBERTS, whimpering: ‘I can’t, Aunt Mary. And you couldn’t, if it was yours.’ ROBERTS: ‘I pulled him over backwards.’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘There, Willis!’ WILLIS: ‘And grabbed your watch from him?’ ROBERTS: ‘I was in quite a frenzy; I really hardly knew what I was doing—’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘And he didn’t call for the police, or anything—’ WILLIS: ‘Ah, that showed presence of mind! He knew it wouldn’t have been any use.’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘And when he had got his watch away from them, he just let them go, because they had families dependent on them.’ WILLIS: ‘I should have let them go in the first place, but you behaved handsomely in the end, Roberts; there’s no denying that. And when you came in she gave you cologne to drink, and poured brandy on your head. It must have revived you. I should think it would wake the dead.’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘I was all excitement, Willis—’ WILLIS: ‘No, I should think from the fact that you had set the decanter here on the hearth, and put your cologne into the wood-box, you were perfectly calm, Agnes.’ He takes them up and hands them to her. ‘Quite as calm as usual.’ The door-bell rings. MRS. CRASHAW: ‘Willis, _will_ you let that ridiculous man go away and make himself presentable before people begin to come?’ The bell rings violently, peal upon peal. MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Oh, my goodness, what’s that? It’s the garotters—I know it is; and we shall all be murdered in our beds!’ MRS. CRASHAW: ‘What in the world can it—’ WILLIS: ‘Why don’t your girl answer the bell, Agnes? Or I’ll go myself.’ The bell rings violently again. MRS. ROBERTS: ‘_No_, Willis, you sha’n’t! Don’t leave me, Edward! Aunt Mary!—Oh, if we _must_ die, let us all die together! Oh, my poor children! Ugh! What’s that?’ The servant-maid opens the outer door, and uttering a shriek, rushes in through the drawing-room _portière_. BELLA THE MAID: ‘Oh, my goodness! Mrs. Roberts, it’s Mr. Bemis!’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Which Mr. Bemis?’ ROBERTS: ‘What’s the matter with him?’ MRS. CRASHAW: ‘Why doesn’t she show him in?’ WILLIS: ‘Has _he_ been garotting somebody too?’ SCENE IV: MR. BEMIS, MR. CAMPBELL, MR. AND MRS. ROBERTS BEMIS, appearing through the _portière_: ‘I—I beg your pardon, Mrs. Roberts. I oughtn’t to present myself in this state—I— But I thought I’d better stop on my way home and report, so that my son needn’t be alarmed at my absence when he comes. I—’ He stops, exhausted, and regards the others with a wild stare, while they stand taking note of his disordered coat, his torn vest, and his tumbled hat. ‘I’ve just been robbed—’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Robbed? Why, _Edward_ has been robbed too.’ BEMIS: ‘—coming through the Common—’ MRS. ROBERTS: ‘Yes, _Edward_ was coming through the Common.’ BEMIS: ‘—of my watch—’