[_He hurries out. MR. POSKET rapidly retires into the window recess. AGATHA POSKET and CHARLOTTE enter, pale, red-eyed, and agitated. POPHAM goes out._ AGATHA POSKET AND CHARLOTTE. [_Falling on to MR. BULLAMY'S shoulders._] O--o--h--h! MR. BULLAMY. My dear ladies! AGATHA POSKET. Preserver! CHARLOTTE. Friend! AGATHA POSKET. How is my boy? MR. BULLAMY. Never better. AGATHA POSKET. And the man who condemned his wife and sister-in-law to the miseries of a jail! MR. BULLAMY. Ahem! Posket--oh--he---- AGATHA POSKET. Is he well enough to be told what that wife thinks of him? MR. BULLAMY. It might cause a relapse! AGATHA POSKET. It is my duty to risk that. CHARLOTTE. [_Raising the covers of the dishes on the table._] Food! AGATHA POSKET. Ah! [_AGATHA POSKET and CHARLOTTE begin to devour a teacake voraciously._ MR. POSKET. [_Advancing with an attempt at dignity._] Agatha Posket. AGATHA POSKET. [_Rising, with her mouth full, and a piece of teacake in her hand._] Sir! [_CHARLOTTE takes the tray and everything on it from the table and goes towards the door._ MR. BULLAMY. [_Going to the door._] There's going to be an explanation. CHARLOTTE. [_At the door._] There's going to be an explanation. [_CHARLOTTE and MR. BULLAMY go out quietly._ MR. POSKET. How dare you look me in the face, madam? AGATHA POSKET. How dare you look at anybody in any position, sir? You send your wife to prison for pushing a mere policeman. MR. POSKET. I didn't know what I was doing. AGATHA POSKET. Not when you requested two ladies to raise their veils and show their faces in the dock? We shouldn't have been discovered but for that. MR. POSKET. It was my duty. AGATHA POSKET. Duty! You don't go to the police court again alone! I guess now, Æneas Posket, why you clung to a single life so long. _You liked it!_ MR. POSKET. I wish I had. AGATHA POSKET. Why didn't you marry till you were fifty? MR. POSKET. Perhaps I hadn't met a widow, madam. AGATHA POSKET. Paltry excuse. You revelled in a dissolute bachelorhood! MR. POSKET. Hah! Whist every evening! AGATHA POSKET. You can't play whist _alone._ You're an expert at hiding too! MR. POSKET. If I were I should thrash your boy! AGATHA POSKET. When you wished to conceal yourself last night, you selected a table with a lady under it. MR. POSKET. Ah, did you pinch me, or did Charlotte? AGATHA POSKET. I did--Charlotte's a single girl. MR. POSKET. I fancy, madam, you found my conduct under that table perfectly respectful? AGATHA POSKET. I don't know--I was too agitated to notice. MR. POSKET. Evasion--you're like all the women. AGATHA POSKET. Profligate! You oughtn't to know that! MR. POSKET. No wife of mine sups, unknown to me, with dissolute military men; we will have a judicial separation, Mrs. Posket. AGATHA POSKET. Certainly--I suppose you'll manage that at your police court, too? MR. POSKET. I shall send for my solicitor at once. AGATHA POSKET.