Alice shows up at the Clare estate during a birthday party and is immediately recognized. Family members demand to know how she survived after being supposedly cast out to the slums. Mr. Clare publicly refuses her claim, calling himself the only Clare heir and insisting his daughter by his first wife died young. Alice accuses him of abandoning her with her grandmother then dumping her abroad. Guests jeer and try to force her out. The confrontation forces a shocked acknowledgement—"Alice really is back"—as father and daughter meet after eighteen years, their claims and the inheritance left unresolved.