(_Mrs. Curtis stands dumbfounded for a moment; and then, controlling a tendency to laugh immoderately, she turns to examine a print on the left wall as Mr. Briggs’s mother enters from the right. Mrs. Briggs is a handsome woman of forty-five or fifty, not now in a gracious mood. She comes in decisively, halts, and stares at Mrs. Curtis’ back. Then she looks over the room in an annoyed and puzzled manner. Mr. Briggs’s sister Jessie comes in from the left. She is a pretty girl of about twenty, but her expression is now rather cross. Her dress and equipment show that she has just come in from the golf course._) JESSIE (_calling as she comes in_) Lancelot! (_She halts, puzzled, and looks inquiringly at her mother._) Mamma, where’s Lancelot? I was sure I saw him in here just a second ago. MRS. BRIGGS (_grimly_) So was I. (_After looking at each other, they turn their heads simultaneously and stare at Mrs. Curtis, who appears to be interested in the print._) It’s very odd! JESSIE Yes, very. (_The two again look at each other, and at a little distance appear to consult telepathically, without any change of expression; then they turn once more to look at Mrs. Curtis._) MRS. BRIGGS I beg your pardon, but I’m under the impression that you have met my son. MRS. CURTIS (_turning_) Yes? JESSIE Wasn’t he here just now? MRS. CURTIS Yes, he was. MRS. BRIGGS Would you be good enough to tell me, did he leave here to go to his room? MRS. CURTIS (_casually_) I don’t think so; he didn’t say so. (_She gives them a little nod, smiling politely, and goes out at the left. They stare after her._) JESSIE (_still staring after Mrs. Curtis_) She’s a very bold type. MRS. BRIGGS (_seating herself on the settee_) Very. JESSIE (_turning to her_) I don’t see how that little goose got away. You were coming from that direction and I from just yonder. I suppose he thought we’d say something that would embarrass him before her. MRS. BRIGGS I suppose she’s thirty-five. I’ve heard of such people, but I never saw one before. JESSIE I regard her as distinctly the dangerous type of adventuress. MRS. BRIGGS Certainly. In the first place, her not having told the child frankly that she’s a widow. One of the clerks told _me_ she _was_. JESSIE Oh, she did that to flatter him into believing he’s a real grown-up “man of the world” having an “affair”! MRS. BRIGGS So that when he’s sufficiently entangled she can tell him she’s a widow--and by that time we don’t know _what_ he’d do! A country justice of the peace probably! JESSIE Last night, when we were trying to teach him a little common sense about strange people in hotels, what was it he said she was? “An angel!”--oh, yes!--“One of heaven’s highest angels.” MRS. BRIGGS (_grimly_)