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him into doing his duty by a single glance. I wouldn't be in his place!" _Miss Ramsey_: "I shall not give him a glance. I shall not see him when he comes. That will be simpler still." To Nora, at the door: "What is it, Nora?" II NORA, MISS RAMSEY, MISS GARNETT _Nora_: "Mr. Ashley, Miss Ramsey." _Miss Ramsey_, with a severity not meant for Nora: "Ask him to sit down in the reception-room a moment." _Nora_: "Yes, Miss Ramsey." III MISS RAMSEY, MISS GARNETT _Miss Garnett_, rising and seizing Miss Ramsey's hands: "Oh, Isobel! But you will be equal to it! Oh! Oh!" _Miss Ramsey_, with state: "Why are you going, Esther? Sit down." _Miss Garnett_: "If I only _could_ stay! If I could hide under the sofa, or behind the screen! Isn't it wonderful--providential--his coming at the very instant? Oh, Isobel!" She clasps her friend convulsively, and after a moment's resistance Miss Ramsey yields to her emotion, and they hide their faces in each other's neck, and strangle their hysteric laughter. They try to regain their composure, and then abandon the effort with a shuddering delight in the perfection of the incident. "What shall you do? Shall you trust to inspiration? Shall you make him show his hand first, and then act? Or shall you tell him at once that you know all, and-- Or no, of course you can't do that. He's not supposed to know that you know. Oh, I can imagine the freezing hauteur that you'll receive him with, and the icy indifference you'll let him understand that he isn't a _persona grata_ with! If I were only as tall as you! He isn't as tall himself, and you can tower over him. Don't sit down, or bend, or anything; just stand with your head up, and glance carelessly at him under your lashes as if nobody was there! Then it will gradually dawn upon him that you know everything, and he'll simply go through the floor." They take some ecstatic turns about the room, Miss Ramsey waltzing as gentleman. She abruptly frees herself. _Miss Ramsey_: "No. It can't be as tacit as all that. There must be something explicit. As you say, I must _do_ something to cure him of his fancy--his perfidy--and make him glad to go back to her." _Miss Garnett_: "Yes! Do you think he deserves it?" _Miss Ramsey_: "I've no wish to punish him." _Miss Garnett_: "How noble you are! I don't wonder he adores you. _I_
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