MIRALDA

Yes?

JOHN

Why, I’d tell him a bit about the law, and make him see that you didn’t keep all that money that belonged to someone else.

MIRALDA

Would you really?

JOHN

Nothing would please me better.

MIRALDA

Would you really?  Would you go all that way?

JOHN

It’s just the sort of thing that I should like, apart from the crying shame.  The man ought to be . . .

MIRALDA

We’re getting into Holborn.  Would you come and lunch somewhere with me and talk it over?

JOHN

Gladly.  I’d be glad to help.  I’ve got to see a man on business first.  I’ve come up to see him.  And then after that, after that there was something I wanted to do after that.  I can’t think what it was.  But something I wanted to do after that.  O, heavens, what was it?

[Pause.]

MIRALDA

Can’t you think?

JOHN

No.  O, well, it can’t have been so very important.  And yet . . .  Well, where shall we lunch?

MIRALDA

Gratzenheim’s.

JOHN

Right.  What time?

MIRALDA

One-thirty.  Would that suit?

JOHN

Perfectly.  I’d like to get a man like Hussein in prison.  I’d like . . .  O, I beg your pardon.

[He hurries to open the door.  Exit Miralda.]

Now what was it I wanted to do afterwards?

[Throws hand to forehead.] O, never mind.

Curtain

ACT II

SCENE

JOHN’s tent in Al Shaldomir.  There are two heaps of idols, left and right, lying upon the ground inside the tent.  Daoud carries another idol in his arms.  John looks at its face.

Six months have elapsed since the scene in the second-class railway carriage.

JOHN BEAL

This god is holy.

[He points to the left heap.  Daoud carries it there and lays it on the heap.]

DAOUD

Yes, great master.

JOHN BEAL