When Falstaff comes Alice is playing the lute. He sings to her accompaniment. When Quickly says that Ford is coming they hide Falstaff behind a screen. Ford and his men start to search another part of the house, and the women hide Falstaff inside a big laundry basket with dirty clothes. Ford comes back, he hears the sound of kissing and thinks it is his wife with Falstaff, but he finds it is Nannetta and Fenton. Ford goes out furiously, and the women quickly throw the laundry basket out of the window into the river Thames below. When Ford comes back his wife takes him to the window and he sees Falstaff, who is very wet, getting out of the river.