SOPHY.

I'll thank you to be less familiar. Let me out.

QUEX.

Not I.

SOPHY.

You let me out directly.

QUEX.

[_Pointing a finger at her._] You'll gain nothing by raging, my good girl. Ha! now you appreciate the curiously awkward position in which you have placed yourself.

SOPHY.

I've placed myself in no--

QUEX.

Oh, come, come! Taking me at my blackest, I'm not quite the kind of man that a young woman who prides herself upon her respectability desires to be mixed up with in this fashion.

SOPHY.

Mixed up with!

QUEX.

Well--[_stretching out his arms_] here we are, you know.

SOPHY.

Here we are!

QUEX.

You and I, dear Sophy. [_Putting his leg over the arm of his chair._]

Now just sit down--

SOPHY.

I sha'n't.

QUEX.

While I picture to you what will happen in the morning.

SOPHY.

In the morning?

QUEX.

In a few hours' time. In the first place, you will be called in your room. You won't be there.

SOPHY.

Won't I!

QUEX.

No. You won't be there. A little later my man will come to _my_ room. I sha'n't be there. At about the same hour, her Grace will require your attendance. Where will _you_ be? She will then, naturally, desire to return to her own apartments. You are intelligent enough, I fancy, to imagine the rest. [_After a brief pause, she breaks into a peal of soft, derisive laughter._] I am deeply flattered by your enjoyment of the prospect.

SOPHY.

Ha, ha, ha! why, you must take me for a fool!

QUEX.

Why?

SOPHY.

Why, can't you see that our being found together like this, here or anywhere, would do for _you_ as well as for me?

QUEX.

[_Rising._] Of course I see it. [_Advancing to her._] But, my dear Sophy, _I_ am already done for. _You_ provide for that. And so, if I have to part with my last shred of character, I will lose it in a.s.sociation with a woman of your cla.s.s rather than with a lady whom I, with the rest of the world, hold in the highest esteem.

SOPHY.

[_After a pause._] Ho! oh, indeed?

QUEX.

Yes. Yes, indeed.

SOPHY.

[_With a shade less confidence._] Ha, ha! if your lordship thinks to frighten me, you've got hold of the wrong customer. Ha, ha, ha! two or three things you haven't reckoned for, I can a.s.sure you. Here's one--I told Miss Muriel exactly what I heard, between you and your d.u.c.h.ess, in the garden this evening.

QUEX.

[_Grinding his teeth._] You did! [_Involuntarily making a threatening movement towards her._] You did, you--!

SOPHY.