JUDITH (_crossly_): I said Life had dealt me another blow, but I didn’t mind. DAVID: Rubbish. JUDITH (_gently_): You’re probably irritable, dear, because you’re in the wrong. It’s quite usual. DAVID: Now, Judith—— JUDITH: Ssshhh! Let me speak—it is my right. MYRA: I don’t see why. JUDITH (_surprised_): I am the injured party, am I not? MYRA: Injured? JUDITH (_firmly_): Yes, extremely injured. DAVID (_contemptuously_): Injured! JUDITH: Your attitude, David, is nothing short of deplorable. DAVID: It’s all nonsense—sheer, unbridled nonsense. JUDITH: No, David, you can’t evade the real issues as calmly as that. I’ve known for a long time—I’ve realised subconsciously for years that you’ve stopped caring for me in “that way.” DAVID (_irritably_): What do you mean—“that way”? JUDITH (_with a wave of the hand_): Just that way.... It’s rather tragic, but quite inevitable. I’m growing old now—men don’t grow old like women, as you’ll find to your cost, Myra, in a year or two. David has retained his youth astonishingly, perhaps because he has had fewer responsibilities and cares than I—— MYRA: This is all ridiculous hysteria. DAVID (_looking at her and not liking her very much_): No, Myra—Judith is right. What are we to do? MYRA (_furious_): Do? Nothing! JUDITH (_ignoring her_): Do you love her truly, David? DAVID: Madly. MYRA (_astounded_): David! DAVID (_intensely_): You thought just now that I was joking. Couldn’t you see that all my flippancy was only a mask, hiding my real emotions—crushing them down desperately——? MYRA (_scared_): But, David, I—— JUDITH: I knew it! The time has come for the dividing of the ways. MYRA: What on earth do you mean? JUDITH: I mean that I am not the sort of woman to hold a man against his will. MYRA: You’re both making a mountain out of a mole-hill. David doesn’t love me madly, and I don’t love him. It’s—— JUDITH: Ssshhh!—you _do_ love him. I can see it in your eyes—in your every gesture. David, I give you to her—freely and without rancour. We must all be good friends, always. DAVID: Judith, do you mean this? JUDITH (_with a melting look_): You know I do. DAVID: How can we ever repay you? JUDITH: Just by being happy. I may leave this house later on—I have a feeling that its associations may become painful, specially in the autumn—— MYRA: Look here, Judith—— JUDITH (_shouting her down_): October is such a mournful month in England. I think I shall probably go abroad—perhaps a _pension_ somewhere in Italy, with cypresses in the garden. I’ve always loved cypresses. DAVID: What about the children? JUDITH: We must share them, dear. DAVID: I’ll pay you exactly half the royalties I receive from everything, Judith. JUDITH (_bowing her head_): That’s very generous of you. DAVID: You have behaved magnificently. This is a crisis in our lives, and thanks to you—— MYRA (_almost shrieking_): Judith—I _will_ speak—I——