No, father, that’s not possible. For Johnny’s sake, as well as my own, it would be madness for us to live down here. DE MULLIN For Johnny’s sake? JANET Yes, Johnny’s. In London we’re not known, he and I. There he’s simply Johnny Seagrave, the son of a respectable widow who keeps a hat-shop. Here he is the son of Janet De Mullin who ran away from home one night eight years ago and whose name was never mentioned again by her parents until one fine day she turned up with an eight-year-old boy and said she was married. How long would they take to see through _that_ story down here, do you think? MRS. CLOUSTON _(tartly)_ Whose fault is that? JANET Never mind whose fault it is, Aunt Harriet. The question is, will they see through it or will they not? Of course, they _know_ nothing so far, but I’ve no doubt they suspect. What else have people to do down here but suspect other people? Miss Deanes murmurs her doubts to Mrs. Bulstead and Mrs. Bulstead shakes her head to Miss Deanes. Mrs. Bulstead! What right has _she_ to look down that huge nose of hers at _me!_ She’s had _ten_ children! MRS. DE MULLIN JANET! She’s married. JANET To Mr. Bulstead! That vulgar animal! You don’t ask me to consider that a _merit_, do you? No, Mrs. Bulstead shan’t have the chance of sneering at Johnny if _I_ can help it. Or at me either. MRS. DE MULLIN Janet, listen to me. You don’t understand how your father feels about this or how much it means to him. Johnny is his only grandchild--our only descendant. He would adopt him and call him De Mullin, and then the name would not die out. You know how much your father thinks of that and how sorry he has always been that I never had a son. JANET _(more gently)_ I know, mother. But when Hester marries... HESTER? DE MULLIN JANET Yes. DE MULLIN _(turning angrily to his wife)_ But whom is Hester going to marry? Is she going to marry? I have heard nothing about this. What’s this, Jane? Has something been kept from me? MRS. DE MULLIN No, no, Hugo. Nothing has been kept from you. It’s only some fancy of Janet’s. She thinks Mr. Brown is going to propose to Hester. There’s nothing in it, really. DE MULLIN Mr. Brown! Impossible! MRS. CLOUSTON Quite impossible! JANET _(calmly)_ Why impossible, father? DE MULLIN He would never dare to do such a thing. _Mr. Brown_ to have the audacity to propose to _my_ daughter! JANET _(quietly)_ Why not, father? DE MULLIN _(bubbling with rage)_ Because he is not of a suitable position. Because the _De Mullins_ cannot be expected to marry people of _that_ class. Because... JANET _(shrugs)_ I dare say Mr. Brown won’t think of all that. Anyhow, I hope he won’t. I hope he’ll propose to Hester and she’ll accept him and then when they’ve a whole herd of little Browns you can select one of them and make a De Mullin of him, poor little wretch. _[At this moment Hester enters from the garden. An uncomfortable silence falls_.