HESTER _(fiercely)_ Please don’t interfere, Aunt Harriet. I suppose I can be trusted to speak to my mother properly by this time. MRS. CLOUSTON You certainly ought to, my dear. You are quite old enough. HESTER Very well then. Perhaps you will be good enough not to dictate to me in future. What was it you were discussing, father? JANET I’ll tell you, Hester. Father wanted to adopt Johnny. He wanted me to come down here to live altogether. HESTER Indeed? Well, father, understand, please, that if Janet comes down here to live _I go!_ MRS. DE MULLIN Hester! HESTER I will not live in the same house with Janet. Nothing shall induce me. I would rather beg my bread. JANET That settles it then. Thanks, Hester. I’m glad you had the pluck to say that. You are right. Quite right. HESTER I can do without _your_ approval, Janet. JANET _(recklessly)_ Of course you can. But you can have it all the same. You never wanted me down here. You always disapproved of my being sent for. I ought never to have come. I wish I hadn’t come. My coming has only done harm to Hester, as she knew it would. DE MULLIN How harm? JANET Mr. Brown would have asked Hester to marry him if I hadn’t come. He meant to; I’m sure of it. MRS. DE MULLIN But he said... JANET I know. But that was only an excuse. Young men aren’t so considerate of their future fathers-inlaw as all that nowadays. No. Mr. Brown heard some story about me from Miss Deanes. Or perhaps the Vicar put him on his guard. Isn’t it so, Hester? [_Hester nods._ MRS. DE MULLIN But as your father would never have consented, dear... HESTER _(slowly)_ Still, I’d rather he had asked me, mother. JANET Quite right, Hester! I’m glad you’ve got some wholesome feminine vanity left in your composition. And you’d have said “yes,” like a sensible woman. HESTER Oh, you’re always sneering! JANET Yes. But I’m _going_, Hester, _going! That’s_ great thing! Keep your eyes fixed steadily on that and you’ll be able to bear anything else. That reminds me. _(Goes to door, l., and calls loudly into the hall.)_ Johnny! Johnny! MRS. CLOUSTON Really, Janet! JANET Oh, I forgot. It’s not genteel to call into the passage, is it? I ought to have rung. I apologise, Aunt Harriet. _(Calls again)_ Johnny! MRS. DE MULLIN Why are you calling Johnny? JANET To tell him to put on his hat and coat, mother dear. I’m going to the station. DE MULLIN You’re going to-night? JANET Yes, father, to-night. I’ve done harm enough down here. I’m going away. JOHNNY _(entering l.)_ Do you want me, Mummie? JANET Yes. Run and put on your things and say goodbye to Cook and Ellen and tell Robert to put in the pony. Mother’s going back to London. JOHNNY Are we going now, Mummie? JANET _(nods)_ As fast as the train can carry us. And tell Ellen to lock my trunk for me and give you the key. Run along. _[Exit Johnny, l._ DE MULLIN