LUCAS. Oh, my brother's brilliant idea!
AGNES. Acquiesced in by your wife. [ST. OLPHERTS strolls away from
them.]
LUCAS. Certainly; as I anticipated, she has become intensely
dissatisfied with her position.
AGNES. And it would be quite possible, it seems, for you to resume your
old career?
LUCAS. Just barely possible--well, for the moment, quite possible.
AGNES. Quite possible.
LUCAS. I haven't, formally, made a sign to my political friends yet.
It's a task one leaves to the last. I shall do so now--at once. My
people have been busying themselves, it appears, in reporting that I
shall return to London directly my health is fully re-established.
AGNES. In the hope--? Oh, yes.
LUCAS. Hoping they'd be able to separate us before it was too--too
late.
AGNES. Which hope they've now relinquished?
LUCAS. Apparently.
AGNES. They're prepared to accept a--a compromise, I hear?
LUCAS. Ha!--yes.
AGNES. A compromise in my favour?
LUCAS. [Hesitatingly.] They suggest--
AGNES. Yes, yes, I know. [Looking at him searchingly.] After all, your
old career was--a success. You made your mark, as you were saying the
other day. You did make your mark. [He walks up and down restlessly,
abstractedly, her eyes following him.] You were generally spoken of,
accepted, as a Coming Man.
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