CANDIDA. It seems unfair that all the love should go to you, and none to him, although he needs it so much more than you do. (A convulsive movement shakes him in spite of himself.) What's the matter? Am I worrying you? MORELL (hastily). Not at all. (Looking at her with troubled intensity.) You know that I have perfect confidence in you, Candida. CANDIDA. You vain thing! Are you so sure of your irresistible attractions? MORELL. Candida: you are shocking me. I never thought of my attractions. I thought of your goodness--your purity. That is what I confide in. CANDIDA. What a nasty, uncomfortable thing to say to me! Oh, you ARE a clergyman, James--a thorough clergyman. MORELL (turning away from her, heart-stricken). So Eugene says. CANDIDA (with lively interest, leaning over to him with her arms on his knee). Eugene's always right. He's a wonderful boy: I have grown fonder and fonder of him all the time I was away. Do you know, James, that though he has not the least suspicion of it himself, he is ready to fall madly in love with me? MORELL (grimly). Oh, he has no suspicion of it himself, hasn't he? CANDIDA. Not a bit. (She takes her arms from his knee, and turns thoughtfully, sinking into a more restful attitude with her hands in her lap.) Some day he will know when he is grown up and experienced, like you. And he will know that I must have known. I wonder what he will think of me then. MORELL. No evil, Candida. I hope and trust, no evil. CANDIDA (dubiously). That will depend. MORELL (bewildered). Depend! CANDIDA (looking at him). Yes: it will depend on what happens to him. (He look vacantly at her.) Don't you see? It will depend on how he comes to learn what love really is. I mean on the sort of woman who will teach it to him. MORELL (quite at a loss). Yes. No. I don't know what you mean. CANDIDA (explaining). If he learns it from a good woman, then it will be all right: he will forgive me. MORELL. Forgive! CANDIDA. But suppose he learns it from a bad woman, as so many men do, especially poetic men, who imagine all women are angels! Suppose he only discovers the value of love when he has thrown it away and degraded himself in his ignorance. Will he forgive me then, do you think? MORELL. Forgive you for what?