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      SHE. (after a pause). Do you know what you have said?

      HE. 'Can't say that I do exactly. I'm not in the best of tempers.

      SHE. So I see... and feel. My true and faithful lover, where is your "eternal constancy," "unalterable trust," and "reverent devotion"? I remember those phrases; you seem to have forgotten them. I mention a man's name—

      HE. A good deal more than that.

      SHE. Well, speak to him about a dance—perhaps the last dance that I shall ever dance in my life before I... before I go away; and you at once distrust and insult me.

      HE. I never said a word.

      SHE. How much did you imply? Guy, is this amount of confidence to be our stock to start the new life on?

      HE. No, of course not. I didn't mean that. On my word of honor, I didn't. Let it pass, dear. Please let it pass.

      SHE. This once—yes—and a second time, and again and again, all through the years when I shall be unable to resent it. You want too much, my Lancelot, and... you know too much.

      HE. How do you mean?

      SHE. That is a part of the punishment. There cannot be perfect trust between us.

      HE. In Heaven's name, why not?

      SHE. Hush! The Other Place is quite enough. Ask yourself.

      HE. I don't follow.

      SHE. You trust me so implicitly that when I look at another man—Never mind, Guy. Have you ever made love to a girl—a good girl?

      HE. Something of the sort. Centuries ago—in the Dark Ages, before I ever met you, dear.

      SHE. Tell me what you said to her.

      HE. What does a man say to a girl? I've forgotten.

      SHE. I remember. He tells her that he trusts her and worships the ground she walks on, and that he'll love and honor and protect her till her dying day; and so she marries in that belief. At least, I speak of one girl who was not protected.

      HE. Well, and then?

      SHE. And then, Guy, and then, that girl needs ten times the love and trust and honor—yes, honor—that was enough when she was only a mere wife if—if—the other life she chooses to lead is to be made even bearable. Do you understand?

      HE. Even bearable! It'll he Paradise.

      SHE. Ah! Can you give me all I've asked for—not now, nor a few months later, but when you begin to think of what you might have done if you had kept your own appointment and your caste here—when you begin to look upon me as a drag and a burden? I shall want it most, then, Guy, for there will be no one in the wide world but you.

      HE. You're a little over-tired tonight, Sweetheart, and you're taking a stage view of the situation. After the necessary business in the Courts, the road is clear to—

      SHE. "The holy state of matrimony!" Ha! ha! ha!

      HE. Ssh! Don't laugh in that horrible way!

      SHE. I-I c-c-c-can't help it! Isn't it too absurd! Ah! Ha! ha! ha! Guy, stop me quick or I shall—l-l-laugh till we get to the Church.

      HE. For goodness' sake, stop! Don't make an exhibition of yourself. What is the matter with you?

      SHE. N-nothing. I'm better now.

      HE. That's all right. One moment, dear. There's a little wisp of hair got loose from behind your right ear and it's straggling over your cheek. So!

      SHE. Thank'oo. I'm 'fraid my hat's on one side, too.

      HE. What do you wear these huge dagger bonnet-skewers for? They're big enough to kill a man with.

      SHE. Oh! Don't kill me, though. You're sticking it into my head! Let me do it. You men are so clumsy.

      HE. Have you had many opportunities of comparing us—in this sort of work?

      SHE. Guy, what is my name?

      HE. Eh! I don't follow.

      SHE. Here's my cardcase. Can you read?

      HE. Yes. Well?

      SHE. Well, that answers your question. You know the other man's name. Am I sufficiently humbled, or would you like to ask me if there is any one else?

      HE. I see now. My darling, I never meant that for an instant. I was only joking. There! Lucky there's no one on the road. They'd be scandalized.

      SHE. They'll be more scandalized before the end.

      HE. Do-on't! I don't like you to talk in that way.

      SHE. Unreasonable man! Who asked me to face the situation and accept it? Tell me, do I look like Mrs. Penner? Do I look like a naughty woman? Swear I don't! Give me your word of honor, my honorable friend, that I'm not like Mrs. Buzgago. That's the way she stands, with her hands clasped at the back of her head. D'you like that?

      HE. Don't be affected.

      SHE. I'm not. I'm Mrs. Buzgago. Listen!

      Pendant une anne' toute entiere

       Le regiment n'a pas r'paru.

       Au Ministere de la Guerre

       On le r'porta comme perdu.

       On se r'noncait a r'trouver sa trace,

       Quand un matin subitement,

       On le vit r'paraitre sur la place

       L'Colonel toujours en avant.

      That's the way she rolls her r's. Am I like her?

      HE. No, but I object when you go on like an actress and sing stuff of that kind. Where in the world did you pick up the Chanson du Colonel? It isn't a drawing-room song. It isn't proper.

      SHE. Mrs. Buzgago taught it me. She is both drawing-room and proper, and in another month she'll shut her drawing-room to me, and thank God she isn't as improper as I am. Oh, Guy, Guy! I wish I was like some women and had no scruples about—what is it Keene says?—"Wearing a corpse's hair and being false to the bread they eat."

      HE. I am only a man of limited intelligence, and just now, very bewildered. When you have quite finished flashing through all your moods tell me, and I'll try to understand the last one.

      SHE. Moods, Guy! I haven't any. I'm sixteen years old and you're just twenty, and you've been waiting for two hours outside the school in the cold. And now I've met you, and now we're walking home together. Does that suit you, My Imperial Majesty?

      HE. No. We aren't children. Why can't you be rational?

      SHE. He asks me that when I'm going to commit suicide СКАЧАТЬ