A small library in ANDREW BOYD'S house in Edinborough. In the far wall is a fireplace, and to the right of it a high folding window. Above the fireplace is a large oil portrait of Mary Stuart.

It is late on a summer evening, and the window is open, giving on to a garden terrace, under which the town lies in the moonlight.

ANDREW BOYD, who is seventy years old, sits at a small table with a young man, JOHN HUNTER. BOYD, wearing a black velvet coat and skull-cap, looks as Charles the First might have done had he achieved a fuller age. HUNTER is in evening clothes. The date is 1900 or later.