In Penang, 1921, Robert feels unwell after dinner and refuses Lesley's offer to summon Dr Joyce. Willie helps him to bed and gives him a sleeping tablet. Robert mentions a planned trip up Penang Hill, then, when Willie raises Ethel Proudlock, mutters cryptically that her husband and father had treated her terribly, that they should have been hanged, and that he and others should have spoken up. Before Willie can press him, Robert falls asleep.

Willie joins Lesley on the verandah and relates Robert's strange remarks. Lesley is baffled, insisting Ethel's father and husband William were not abusive. The conversation turns to Gerald, who has gone into town; Willie admits Gerald always returns to him, though he avoids confronting what would happen if Gerald did not.

Lesley directly asks if Willie knew Robert was homosexual. Willie claims Robert never indicated it during the months they once shared rooms, and the subject was never broached. Lesley provocatively probes Willie about his wife Syrie, suggesting she hopes Syrie takes lovers to feel desired. Offended, Willie retreats inside.

Later, Lesley finds Willie reading in the library and joins him on the sofa. She confides that he is the only person she has ever spoken to about Robert's secret, kept for ten years. Willie reveals that Syrie, using her connections through her father Thomas Barnardo and former husband Henry Wellcome, had Gerald deported from England as an "undesirable alien" two years earlier, barring him forever. Lesley asks why homosexual men marry women; Willie answers sorrowfully that, after Oscar Wilde, they have no choice, and that her marriage shields Robert from prison. Lesley retorts that wives are not martyrs. Willie then asks her to tell him what happened to Ethel.