Henry Barbour, sitting alone in Paul's studio at the top of the house, is watching the dying embers in the hearth, indifferent to the deepening darkness in the room. Paul left a few minutes ago, and Henry turned off the small table lamp and sat, chin in hand, staring into the fire, reviewing in his mind the stormy scene he has just had with his eldest son. He's too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice the passage of time, until Clifford lets him know that Fanny is beginning to wonder what has happened to him...