Johnny did, apparently. JANET Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, does it? _(Looks up defiantly. Meets her mother’s eyes full on her)_ Why do you look at me like that, mother? MRS. DE MULLIN Send Johnny away for a little, Janet. I want to speak to you. JANET I’d rather not, mother. He might hurt himself again. MRS. DE MULLIN He will be quite safe. Run away, Johnny. But don’t go too far. JOHNNY All right, grandmother. [_Johnny trots off into the wood. Pause._ JANET _(defiantly)_ Well, mother? MRS. DE MULLIN Janet, why did you never tell us you had met Mr. Bulstead before? JANET When? MRS. DE MULLIN Any time during the last three days, when we were speaking of his engagement. JANET I’d forgotten all about it, mother. MRS. DE MULLIN Indeed? And why didn’t you tell us eight years ago, when you met him at Weymouth, when you were still “Miss De Mullin”? JANET Mother, don’t badger me like this. If you want to ask me anything ask it. MRS. DE MULLIN Janet, Mr. Bulstead is Johnny’s father. JANET Mr. Bulstead? Absurd! MRS. DE MULLIN Then why did you pretend not to have met him? Why did you conceal the fact of your meeting him from us eight years ago? And why has he concealed the fact from Bertha and the Bulsteads? [_Pause._ JANET _(resignedly)_ Very well, mother, if you’re determined to know you must know. Yes, he’s Johnny’s father. MRS. DE MULLIN Oh, Janet! JANET _(irritably)_ Well, mother, if you didn’t want to know you shouldn’t have asked. I told you not to worry me. _(Mrs. De Mullin begins to cry. Remorsefully,)_ There, there, mother! Don’t cry. I’m sorry I was cross to you. Don’t let’s talk any more about it. MRS. DE MULLIN _(snuffling)_ No, Janet, we _must_ talk about it. There’s no use trying to hide things any longer. You must tell me the truth. JANET Much better not, mother. It won’t give you any pleasure to hear. MRS. DE MULLIN Still, I’d rather know, Janet. JANET _(shrugs)_ As you please. What do you want me to tell you? Mrs. De Mullin Everything. How did you come to be at Weymouth? I don’t remember your staying at Weymouth eight years ago. JANET I wasn’t staying there. But Monty was. MRS. DE MULLIN _(shocked)_ Monty! JANET Mr. Bulstead. Oh, what _does_ it matter now? He’d had typhoid and was there to recruit. I’d ridden over on my bicycle... MRS. DE MULLIN _(lamentably)_ Bicycle! I always said it was all through bicycling. JANET _(another shrug)_ He ran into me, or I ran into him. I was rather shaken, and he asked me to come in and rest. It happened close to the house where he was lodging. MRS. DE MULLIN You went in! To his lodgings! A man you had never met before! JANET My dear mother, when you have been thrown off a bicycle, ordinary conventions cease to apply. Besides, as a matter of fact, we _had_ met once before--the day before, in fact. MRS. DE MULLIN Where? JANET