THE BISHOP. Come! you are in the house of your friends. Can we help you? MRS GEORGE [to Hotchkiss, pointing to the study] Go in there, you. Youre not wanted here. HOTCHKISS. You understand, Bishop, that Mrs Collins is not to blame for this scene. I'm afraid Ive been rather irritating. THE BISHOP. I can quite believe it, Sinjon. Hotchkiss goes into the study. THE BISHOP [turning to Mrs George with great kindness of manner] I'm sorry you have been worried [he sits down on her left]. Never mind him. A little pluck, a little gaiety of heart, a little prayer; and youll be laughing at him. MRS GEORGE. Never fear. I have all that. It was as much my fault as his; and I should have put him in his place with a clip of that poker on the side of his head if you hadnt come in. THE BISHOP. You might have put him in his coffin that way, Mrs Collins. And I should have been very sorry; because we are all fond of Sinjon. MRS GEORGE. Yes: it's your duty to rebuke me. But do you think I dont know? THE BISHOP. I dont rebuke you. Who am I that I should rebuke you? Besides, I know there are discussions in which the poker is the only possible argument. MRS GEORGE. My lord: be earnest with me. I'm a very funny woman, I daresay; but I come from the same workshop as you. I heard you say that yourself years ago. THE BISHOP. Quite so; but then I'm a very funny Bishop. Since we are both funny people, let us not forget that humor is a divine attribute. MRS GEORGE. I know nothing about divine attributes or whatever you call them; but I can feel when I am being belittled. It was from you that I learnt first to respect myself. It was through you that I came to be able to walk safely through many wild and wilful paths. Dont go back on your own teaching. THE BISHOP. I'm not a teacher: only a fellow-traveller of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead--ahead of myself as well as of you. MRS GEORGE [rising and standing over him almost threateningly] As I'm a living woman this day, if I find you out to be a fraud, I'll kill myself. THE BISHOP. What! Kill yourself for finding out something! For becoming a wiser and therefore a better woman! What a bad reason! MRS GEORGE. I have sometimes thought of killing you, and then killing myself. THE BISHOP. Why on earth should you kill yourself--not to mention me? MRS GEORGE. So that we might keep our assignation in Heaven. THE BISHOP [rising and facing her, breathless] Mrs. Collins! YOU are Incognita Appassionata! MRS GEORGE. You read my letters, then? [With a sigh of grateful relief, she sits down quietly, and says] Thank you. THE BISHOP [remorsefully] And I have broken the spell by making you come here [sitting down again]. Can you ever forgive me? MRS GEORGE. You couldnt know that it was only the coal merchant's wife, could you? THE BISHOP. Why do you say only the coal merchant's wife?