The blinds are down. Ashes fill the grate.
Time.--Early the next morning.
The door opens softly. Newte steals in. He fumbles his way across to the windows, draws the blinds. The morning sun streams in. He listens--no one seems to be stirring. He goes out, returns immediately with a butler's tray, containing all things necessary for a breakfast and the lighting of a fire. He places the tray on table, throws his coat over a chair, and is on his knees busy lighting the fire, when enter the Misses Wetherell, clad in dressing-gowns and caps: yet still they continue to look sweet. They also creep in, hand in hand. The crouching Newte is hidden by a hanging fire- screen. They creep forward till the coat hanging over the chair catches their eye. They are staring at it as Robinson Crusoe might at the footprint, when Newte rises suddenly and turns. The Misses Wetherell give a suppressed scream, and are preparing for flight.
NEWTE [he stays them]. No call to run away, ladies. When a man's travelled--as I have--across America, in a sleeping-car, with a comic-opera troop, there's not much left for him to know. You want your breakfast! [He wheedles them to the table.] We'll be able to talk cosily--before anybody else comes.
They yield themselves. He has a way with him.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. We haven't slept all night.
Newte answers with a sympathetic gesture. He is busy getting ready the breakfast.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. There's something we want to tell dear Vernon--before he says anything to Fanny.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. It's something very important.
NEWTE. We'll have a cup of tea first--to steady our nerves.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. It's so important that we should tell him before he sees Fanny.
NEWTE. We'll see to it. [He makes the tea.] I fancy they're both asleep at present.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. Poor boy!
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. If she only hadn't -Dr. Freemantle has entered.
DR. FREEMANTLE. I thought I heard somebody stirring -NEWTE. Hush! [He indicates doors, the one leading to her ladyship's apartments, the other to his lordship's.]
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL [turning and greeting him]. It was so kind of you not to leave us last night.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. We were so upset.
Dr. Freemantle pats their hands.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. We hope you slept all right.
DR. FREEMANTLE. Excellently. Shall be glad of a shave, that's all.
[Laughs. Both he and Newte suggest the want of one.]
NEWTE [who has been officiating]. Help yourself to milk and sugar.
DR. FREEMANTLE [who has seated himself]. Have the Bennets gone?
NEWTE. Well, they had their notice all right.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL [they have begun to cry]. It has been so wrong and foolish of us. We have never learnt to do anything for ourselves.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. We don't even know where our things are.
DR. FREEMANTLE. They can't all have gone--the whole twenty-three of them, at a couple of hours' notice. [To Newte] Haven't seen any of them, have you?
NEWTE. No sign of any of them downstairs.
DR. FREEMANTLE. Oh, they must be still here. Not up, I suppose. It isn't seven o'clock yet.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. But they have all been discharged. We can't ask them to do anything.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL [to her sister]. And the Grimstones are coming to lunch with the new curate. Vernon asked them on Sunday.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. Perhaps there's something cold.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. Vernon so dislikes a cold lunch.
DR. FREEMANTLE [to Newte]. Were you able to get hold of Vernon last night?
NEWTE. Waited up till he came in about two o'clock. Merely answered that he wasn't in a talkative mood--brushed past me and locked himself in.
DR. FREEMANTLE. He wouldn't say anything to me either. Rather a bad sign when he won't talk.
NEWTE. What's he likely to do?
DR. FREEMANTLE. Don't know. Of course it will be all over the county.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. And dear Vernon is so sensitive.
DR. FREEMANTLE. It had to come--the misfortune IS -NEWTE. The misfortune IS that people won't keep to their own line of business. Why did he want to come fooling around her? She was doing well for herself. She could have married a man who would have thought more of her than all the damn fools in the county put together. Why couldn't he have left her alone?
DR. FREEMANTLE [he is sitting at the head of the table, between Newte on his right and the Misses Wetherell on his left. He lays his hand on Newte's sleeve--with a smile]. I'm sure you can forgive a man-- with eyes and ears in his head--for having fallen in love with her.
NEWTE. Then why doesn't he stand by her? What if her uncle is a butler? If he wasn't a fool, he'd be thanking his stars that 'twas anything half as respectable.
DR. FREEMANTLE. I'm not defending him--we're not sure yet that he needs any defence. He has married a clever, charming girl of--as you say--a better family than he'd any right to expect. The misfortune is, that--by a curious bit of ill-luck--it happens to be his own butler.
NEWTE. If she takes my advice, she'll return to the stage. No sense stopping where you're not wanted.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. But how can she?
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. You see, they're married!
DR. FREEMANTLE [to change the subject]. You'll take an egg?
Newte has been boiling some. He has just served them.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL [rejecting it]. Thank you.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. We're not feeling hungry.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. He was so fond of her.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. She was so pretty.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. And so thoughtful.
THE YOUNGER MISS WETHERELL. One would never have known she was an actress.
THE ELDER MISS WETHERELL. If only she hadn't -Bennet has entered. Newte is at fireplace. The old ladies have their backs to the door. Dr. Freemantle, who is pouring out tea, is the first to see him. He puts down the teapot, staring. The old ladies look round. A silence. Newte turns. Bennet is again the perfect butler. Yesterday would seem to have been wiped out of his memory.
