GEORGE.

I haven't dared to look. The placards are awful.

CARBERY.

Why, what do they say?

GEORGE.

Can't you imagine? "Gentleman charged with forgery." "County gentleman at the Old Bailey." And all the rest of it. d.a.m.n them! d.a.m.n them!

LADY KELSEY.

It may be all over by now.

GEORGE.

I feel that I shall never sleep again. I couldn't close my eyes last night. To think that one's own father....

LADY KELSEY.

For goodness' sake be quiet.

GEORGE.

[_Starting._] There's a ring at the bell.

LADY KELSEY.

I've given orders that no one is to be admitted but d.i.c.k Lomas and Bobbie.

MRS. CROWLEY.

It must be finished by now. It's one or the other of them come to tell you the result.

LADY KELSEY.

Oh, I'm so frightfully anxious.

GEORGE.

Aunt, you don't think....

LADY KELSEY.

No, no, of course not. They _must_ find him not guilty.

[_The_ BUTLER _enters followed by_ d.i.c.k LOMAS, _a clean-shaven dapper man, with a sharp face and good-natured smile. He is between thirty-five and forty, but slim and youthful.

With him comes_ SIR ROBERT BOULGER, LADY KELSEY'S _nephew, a good-looking, spruce youth of twenty-two_.

BUTLER.

Mr. Lomas, Sir Robert Boulger.

GEORGE.

[_Excitedly._] Well, well? For G.o.d's sake tell us quickly.

d.i.c.k.

My dear people, I have nothing to tell.

GEORGE.

Oh!

[_He staggers with sudden faintness and falls to the floor._

d.i.c.k.

Hulloa! What's this?

MRS. CROWLEY.

Poor boy!

[_They crowd round him._

GEORGE.

It's all right. What a fool I am! I was so strung up.

d.i.c.k.

You'd better come to the window.

[_He and_ BOULGER _take the boy's arms and lead him to the window_. GEORGE _leans against the balcony_.

CARBERY.

I'm afraid I must go away. Every Wednesday at four I read _Little Lord Fauntleroy_ to forty charwomen.

LADY KELSEY.

Good-bye. And thanks so much for coming.

MRS. CROWLEY.