Act IV

[Honoria Fraser's chambers in Chancery Lane. An office at the top of New
Stone Buildings, with a plate-glass window, distempered walls, electric
light, and a patent stove. Saturday afternoon. The chimneys of Lincoln's
Inn and the western sky beyond are seen through the window. There is a
double writing table in the middle of the room, with a cigar box, ash
pans, and a portable electric reading lamp almost snowed up in heaps of
papers and books. This table has knee holes and chairs right and left
and is very untidy. The clerk's desk, closed and tidy, with its high
stool, is against the wall, near a door communicating with the inner
rooms. In the opposite wall is the door leading to the public corridor.
Its upper panel is of opaque glass, lettered in black on the outside,
FRASER AND WARREN. A baize screen hides the corner between this door and
the window.]

[Frank, in a fashionable light-colored coaching suit, with his stick,
gloves, and white hat in his hands, is pacing up and down in the office.
Somebody tries the door with a key.]

FRANK [calling] Come in. It's not locked.

[Vivie comes in, in her hat and jacket. She stops and stares at him.]

VIVIE [sternly] What are you doing here?

FRANK. Waiting to see you. I've been here for hours. Is this the way you
attend to your business? [He puts his hat and stick on the table, and
perches himself with a vault on the clerk's stool, looking at her with
every appearance of being in a specially restless, teasing, flippant
mood].

VIVIE. I've been away exactly twenty minutes for a cup of tea. [She takes
off her hat and jacket and hangs them behind the screen]. How did you
get in?

FRANK. The staff had not left when I arrived. He's gone to play cricket
on Primrose Hill. Why don't you employ a woman, and give your sex a
chance?

VIVIE. What have you come for?

FRANK [springing off the stool and coming close to her] Viv: lets go and
enjoy the Saturday half-holiday somewhere, like the staff.

What do you say to Richmond, and then a music hall, and a jolly supper?

VIVIE. Can't afford it. I shall put in another six hours work before I go
to bed.

FRANK. Can't afford it, can't we? Aha! Look here. [He takes out a handful
of sovereigns and makes them chink]. Gold, Viv: gold!

VIVIE. Where did you get it?

FRANK. Gambling, Viv: gambling. Poker.

VIVIE. Pah! It's meaner than stealing it. No: I'm not coming. [She sits
down to work at the table, with her back to the glass door, and begins
turning over the papers].

FRANK [remonstrating piteously] But, my dear Viv, I want to talk to you
ever so seriously.

VIVIE. Very well: sit down in Honoria's chair and talk here. I like