SCENE XXXIII.--_The Yew Walk.

_Lady Maisie_ (_to herself, as she watches UNDERSHELL approaching_). How badly he walks, and what _does_ he mean by smiling at me like that? (_Aloud, coldly._) I am sorry, Mr. BLAIR, but I must leave you to finish your stroll alone; my maid has just told me----

_Undershell_ (_vehemently_). Lady MAISIE, I ask you, in common fairness, not to judge me until you have heard _my_ version. You will not allow the fact that I travelled down here in the same compartment with your maid, PHILLIPSON----

_Lady Maisie_ (_wide-eyed_). The _same!_ But _we_ came by that train. I thought you missed it?

_Und._ I--I was not so fortunate. It is rather a long and complicated story, but----

_Lady Maisie._ I'm afraid I really can't listen to you _now_, Mr. BLAIR, after what I have heard from PHILLIPSON----

_Und._ I implore you not to go without hearing both sides. Sit down again--if only for a minute. I feel confident that I can explain everything satisfactorily.

_Lady Maisie_ (_sitting down_). I can't imagine what there is to explain--and really I ought, if PHILLIPSON----

_Und._ You know what maids _are_, Lady MAISIE. They embroider. Unintentionally, I daresay, but still, they _do_ embroider.

_Lady Maisie_ (_puzzled_). She is very clever at mending lace, I know, though what _that_ has to do with it----

_Und._ Listen to me, Lady MAISIE. I came to this house at your bidding. Yes, but for your written appeal, I should have treated the invitation I received from your Aunt with silent contempt. Had I obeyed my first impulse and ignored it, I should have been spared humiliations and indignities which ought rather to excite your pity than--than any other sensation. Think--try to realise what my feelings must have been when I found myself expected by the butler here to sit down to supper with him and the upper servants in the Housekeeper's Room!

_Lady Maisie_ (_shocked_). Oh, Mr. BLAIR! Indeed, I had no----You weren't _really!_ How _could_ they? What _did_ you say?

_Und._ (_haughtily_). I believe I let him know my opinion of the snobbery of his employers in treating a guest of theirs so cavalierly.

_Lady Maisie_ (_distressed_). But surely--_surely_ you couldn't suppose that my Uncle and Aunt were capable of----?

_Und._ What else _could_ I suppose under the circumstances? It is true I have since learnt that I was mistaken in this particular instance; but I am not ignorant of the ingrained contempt you Aristocrats have for all who live by exercising their intellect--the bitter scorn of Birth for Brains!

_Lady Maisie._ I am afraid the--the contempt is all on the other side; but if _that_ is how you feel about it, I don't wonder that you were indignant.

_Und._ Indignant! I was _furious_. In fact, nothing would have induced me to sit down to supper at all, if it hadn't been for----

_Lady Maisie_ (_in a small voice_). Then, you _did_ sit down? With the servants! Oh, Mr. BLAIR!

_Und._ I thought you were already aware of it. Yes, Lady MAISIE, I endured even that. But (_with magnanimity_) you must not distress yourself about it now. If _I_ can forget it, surely you can do so!

_Lady Maisie._ Can I? That _you_ should have consented, for any consideration whatever; how could you--how _could_ you?

_Und._ (_to himself_). She admires me all the more for it. But I _knew_ she would take the right view! (_Aloud, with pathos._) I was only compelled by absolute starvation. I had had an unusually light lunch, and I was so hungry!

_Lady Maisie_ (_after a pause_). That explains it, of course.... I hope they gave you a good supper!

_Und._ Excellent, thank you. Indeed, I was astonished at the variety and even luxury of the table. There was a pyramid of quails----

_Lady Maisie._ I am pleased to hear it. But I thought there was something you were going to explain.

_Und._ I have been _endeavouring_ to explain to the best of my ability that if I have undesignedly been the cause of--er--a temporary diversion in the state of Miss PHILLIPSON'S affections, no one could regret more deeply than I that the--er--ordinary amenities of the supper-table should have been mistaken for----

_Lady Maisie_ (_horrified_). Oh, stop Mr. BLAIR, please stop! I don't want to hear any more. I see now. It was _you_ who----

_Und._ Of course it was I. Surely the girl herself has been telling you so just now!

_Lady Maisie._ You really thought _that_ possible, too? She simply came with a message from my mother.

_Und._ (_slightly disconcerted_). Oh! If I had known it was merely _that_. However, I am sure I need not ask you to treat my--my communication in the strictest confidence, Lady MAISIE.

_Lady Maisie._ Indeed, that is _perfectly_ unnecessary, Mr. BLAIR.

_Und._ Yes, I felt from the first that I could trust you--even with my life. And I cannot regret having told you, if it has enabled you to understand me more thoroughly. It is such a relief that you know all, and that there are no more secrets between us. You _do_ feel that I only acted as was natural and inevitable under the circumstances?

_Lady Maisie._ Oh, yes, yes. I--I daresay you could not help it. I mean you did quite, _quite_ right!

_Und._ Ah, how you comfort me with your fresh girlish----You are not _going_, Lady MAISIE?

_Lady Maisie_ (_rising_). I must. I ought to have gone before. My mother wants me. No, you are not to come too; you can go on and gather those snowdrops, you know.

[_She walks slowly back to the house._

_Und._ (_looking after her_). She took it wonderfully well. I've made it all right, or she wouldn't have said that about the snowdrops. Yes, she shall not be disappointed; she shall have her posy!