Her face is paler. There is a bright spot in each cheek. Her eyes are
very bright.

* * * * *

There follows the well-known supper scene. Lady Cicely is very gay. She
pours champagne into Mr. Harding's glass. They both drink from it. She
asks him if he is a happy boy now. He says he is. She runs her fingers
through his hair. He kisses her on the bare shoulder. This is also
symbolic.

Lady Cicely rattles on about Amalfi and Fiesole. She asks Mr. Harding if
he remembers that night in the olive trees at Santa Clara, with just one
thrush singing in the night sky. He says he does. He remembers the very
thrush. You can see from the talk that they have been all over
Baedeker's guide to the Adriatic.

At times Lady Cicely's animation breaks. She falls into a fit of
coughing and presses her hand to her side. Mr. Harding looks at her
apprehensively. She says, "It is nothing, silly boy, it will be gone
in a moment." It is only because she is so happy.

[Illustration: He kisses her on the bare shoulder.]

Then, quite suddenly, she breaks down and falls at Mr. Harding's knees.

"Oh, Jack, Jack, I can't stand it! I can't stand it any longer. It is
choking me!"

"My darling, what is it?"

"This, all this, it is choking me--this apartment, these pictures, the
French maid, all of it. I can't stand it. I'm being suffocated. Oh,
Jack, take me away--take me somewhere where it is quiet, take me to
Norway to the great solemn hills and the fjords----"

* * * * *

Then suddenly Mr. Harding sees the letter in its light blue envelope
lying on the supper table. It has been lying right beside him for ten
minutes. Everybody in the theater could see it and was getting
uncomfortable about it. He clutches it and tears it open. There is a
hunted look in his face as he reads.

"What is it?"

"My mother--good God, she is coming. She is at the Bristol and is
coming here. What can I do?"

Lady Cicely is quiet now.

"Does she know?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"How did she find you?"

"I don't know. I can't imagine. I knew when I saw in the papers that my
father was dead that she would come home. But I kept back the address. I
told the solicitors, curse them, to keep it secret."

Mr. Harding paces the stage giving an imitation of a weak man trapped.
He keeps muttering, "What can I do?"

Lady Cicely speaks very firmly and proudly. "Jack."

"What?"

"There is only one thing