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MRS TARLETON. [naively looking at the wall for the writing] Whatever are you talking about, young man?

GUNNER. I know what I’m talking about. I went into that Turkish bath a boy: I came out a man.

MRS TARLETON. Good gracious! hes mad. [To Lina] Did John make him take a Turkish bath?

LINA. No. He doesnt need Turkish baths: he needs to put on a little flesh. I dont understand what it’s all about. I found him trying to shoot Mr Tarleton.

MRS TARLETON. [with a scream] Oh! and John encouraging him, I’ll be bound! Bunny: you go for the police. [To Gunner] I’ll teach you to come into my house and shoot my husband.

GUNNER. Teach away. I never asked to be let off. I’m ashamed to be free instead of taking my part with the rest. Women–beautiful women of noble birth–are going to prison for their opinions. Girl students in Russia go to the gallows; let themselves be cut in pieces with the knout, or driven through the frozen snows of Siberia, sooner than stand looking on tamely at the world being made a hell for the toiling millions. If you were not all skunks and cowards youd be suffering with them instead of battening here on the plunder of the poor.

MRS TARLETON. [much vexed] Oh, did you ever hear such silly nonsense? Bunny: go and tell the gardener to send over one of his men to Grayshott for the police.

GUNNER. I’ll go with him. I intend to give myself up. I’m going to expose what Ive seen here, no matter what the consequences may be to my miserable self.

TARLETON.Stop. You stay where you are, Ben. Chickabiddy: youve never had the police in. If you had, youd not be in a hurry to have them in again. Now, young man: cut the cackle; and tell us, as short as you can, what did you see?

GUNNER. I cant tell you in the presence of ladies.

MRS TARLETON. Oh, you are tiresome. As if it mattered to anyone what you saw. Me! A married woman that might be your mother. [To Lina] And I’m sure youre not particular, if youll excuse my saying so.

TARLETON.Out with it. What did you see?

GUNNER. I saw your daughter with my own eyes–oh well, never mind what I saw.

BENTLEY. [almost crying with anxiety] You beastly rotter, I’ll get Joey to give you such a hiding–

TARLETON.You cant leave it at that, you know. What did you see my daughter doing?

GUNNER. After all, why shouldnt she do it? The Russian students do it. Women should be as free as men. I’m a fool. I’m so full of your bourgeois morality that I let myself be shocked by the application of my own revolutionary principles. If she likes the man why shouldnt she tell him so?

MRS TARLETON. I do wonder at you, John, letting him talk like this before everybody. [Turning rather tartly to Lina] Would you mind going away to the drawing-room just for a few minutes, Miss Chipenoska. This is a private family matter, if you dont mind.

LINA. I should have gone before, Mrs Tarleton, if there had been anyone to protect Mr Tarleton and the young gentleman.