[She goes out].
MRS HUSHABYE. Do sit down, everybody. [She sits down on the
sofa].
They all move except Ellie. Mazzini resumes his seat. Randall
sits down in the window-seat near the starboard door, again
making a pendulum of his poker, and studying it as Galileo might
have done. Hector sits on his left, in the middle. Mangan,
forgotten, sits in the port corner. Lady Utterword takes the big
chair. Captain Shotover goes into the pantry in deep abstraction.
They all look after him: and Lady Utterword coughs consciously.
MRS HUSHABYE. So Billy Dunn was poor nurse's little romance. I
knew there had been somebody.
RANDALL. They will fight their battles over again and enjoy
themselves immensely.
LADY UTTERWORD [irritably]. You are not married; and you know
nothing about it, Randall. Hold your tongue.
RANDALL. Tyrant!
MRS HUSHABYE. Well, we have had a very exciting evening.
Everything will be an anticlimax after it. We'd better all go to
bed.
RANDALL. Another burglar may turn up.
MAZZINI. Oh, impossible! I hope not.
RANDALL. Why not? There is more than one burglar in England.
MRS HUSHABYE. What do you say, Alf?
MANGAN [huffily]. Oh, I don't matter. I'm forgotten. The burglar
has put my nose out of joint. Shove me into a corner and have
done with me.
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