ALMERIC. Mariano, Mariano--I say, Mariano! I say, Aunty, ain't he rippin'? Lucky I got there just as I did--a bounder wanted to buy him five minutes later.

[MARIANO enters from hotel.]

Mariano, do you think you could be trusted to wash him?

MARIANO. Wash him!

ALMERIC. Tepid water, you know; and mind he doesn't take cold; and just a little milk afterward--nothing else but milk, you understand. You be deuced careful, I mean to say.

MARIANO [with dignity]. I will give him to the porter.

[He carries the animal into the hotel.]

LADY CREECH. Almeric, really, there are more important things, you know.

ALMERIC. But you don't seem to realize I might have missed him altogether. I think I'm rather to be congratulated, you know. What?

PIKE. I think you are, my son. I have given my consent.

ALMERIC. Rippin'!

LADY CREECH. And the settlement?

PIKE. The settlement also--everything!

[ETHEL enters from the hotel, followed by HORACE.]

LADY CREECH [greatly relieved and overjoyed, starting toward ETHEL].

Ethel, my dear!

ALMERIC [cheerfully]. I told you it would all be plain sailing, Aunty.

There was nothing to worry about.

LADY CREECH [continuing, to ETHEL]. All shall be forgiven, my child. I am too pleased, too overjoyed in your good-fortune to remember any little bickerings between us. The sky has cleared wonderfully.

Everything is settled.

ETHEL. Yes; it's all over; my guardian has consented.

ALMERIC. Of course _I_ never worried about it--but I fancy it will be a weight off the Governor's mind. I'll see that a wire catches him at Naples--and he'll be glad to know what became of that arrangement about the convict fellow, too.

ETHEL [very seriously]. Almeric, I think it's n.o.ble to be brave in trouble, but--

ALMERIC [puzzled]. I say, you know, you've really _got_ me!

ETHEL. I mean that I admire you for your pluck, for seeming unconcerned under disgrace, but--

ALMERIC. _Disgrace_? Why, who's disgraced--not even the Governor, as I see it. You got that chap called off, didn't you?

ETHEL. Whom do you mean?

ALMERIC. Why, that convict chap--didn't you send him away? You bought him off, didn't you, so that he won't talk? Gave him money not to bother us?

ETHEL [rising, and turning on him indignantly]. Why, Heaven pity you! Do you think that?

ALMERIC. Oh--what?--he wouldn't agree to be still? Oh, I say, that'll be rather a pill for the Governor--he'll be a bit worried, you know.

ETHEL. Don't you see that it's time for you to worry a little for yourself? That you've got to begin at once to do something worthy that will obliterate this shame--to begin a career--to work--to work!

ALMERIC [puzzled]. But? But I mean to say, though--but what _for_? What possible need will there be for an extreme like that? Don't you see, in the first place, there's the settlement--

ETHEL [aghast]. Settlement! You talk of settlement, _now_.

LADY CREECH [angrily]. Settlement, _certainly_ there's the settlement!

ETHEL. What for?

LADY CREECH. Why, don't you understand--you're to be the Countess of Hawcastle, aren't you?

ALMERIC. Why--hasn't he told you?--the only obstacle on earth between us was this fellow's consent to the settlement, and he's just given it.

ETHEL [dazed and angry]. Do you mean to say he's consented to that!

ALMERIC. Why, to be sure--he's just consented with his own lips--didn't you?

PIKE [gravely]. I did.

LADY CREECH. Don't you see, don't you hear that--he's consented? He didn't mumble his words--don't you hear him?

ETHEL. I do, and disbelieve my own ears. Yesterday, when I wanted something I thought of value--and that was a name--he refused to let me buy it--to-day, when I know that that name is less than nothing, worse than nothing--he bids me give my fortune for it. What manner of man is this! And _you_ [to LADY CREECH and ALMERIC], what are you that after last night you come to me and ask a settlement?

LADY CREECH [angrily]. Certainly we do--would you expect to enter a family like this and bring nothing?

ALMERIC. _I_ can't see that the situation has changed since yesterday. I don't stick out for the precise amount the Governor said. If it ought to be less on account of that little affair last night--why, we should be the last people in the world to haggle over a few thousand pounds--

ETHEL [with a cry of rage and relief]. Oh! That is the final word of my humiliation! I felt that you were in shame and dishonor, and, because of that, I was ready to keep my word--to stand by you, to help you make yourself into something like a man--to give my life to you. That you permitted the sacrifice was enough! Now you ask me to PAY for the privilege of making it, I am released! I am free! _I am not that man's property to give away!_

LADY CREECH [violently]. You're beside yourself. Isn't this what we've been wanting all the time?

ALMERIC. But slow up a bit--didn't you say you'd stick?

ETHEL. Any promise I ever made to you is a thousand times cancelled.

This is final!

[With concentrated rage, turning to PIKE.]

And as for you--never presume to speak to me again!

ALMERIC [to LADY CREECH]. Most extraordinary girl--she's rather dreadful, _isn't_ she?