Then why are you afraid? BESS The world ... my world ... your world.... HOOD But you wouldn’t be the first who.... BESS Don’t drive me to the wall! HOOD You must decide. BESS I’m thinking of you. I’m older than you. In time, perhaps, you.... HOOD Never. BESS How you say it! HOOD I love you. I’ve never loved any woman before. I’ll never love any woman again. BESS My dear boy! I must go now. I just wanted to see you, to hear you say you love me. HOOD And I came because I wanted a definite answer. BESS Wait. In time. Don’t drive me to the wall. HOOD (_Heroically_) I tell you I’ll kill myself if.... BESS Bob! Do you care as much as that? HOOD Yes. Nothing else matters. BESS But your career--your position? HOOD You are more than all that. What will you give up for me? BESS Sh! Somebody’s coming. (_In a different tone, mistress of herself._) It must have taken a good many years to collect these specimens. (RAY LIVINGSTON _has come in on this, walking slowly down with eyes that glitter for a moment on seeing them_. _He is about sixty. The tightly drawn skin on his face clearly reveals the bones beneath. He is an aristocratic, calm, collected man: the essence of deliberate politeness. When he comes to them he acts as though he were surprised._) LIVINGSTON Bess. This is a surprise. BESS Ray? LIVINGSTON Do you come here often? BESS I was just strolling through to look at some ancient jewelry when I happened to meet Mr. Hood.--This is my husband. Mr. Hood. (_As_ LIVINGSTON _crosses slowly and shakes his hand with cold studied courtesy_, HOOD _gives him a sickly smile, ill at ease in an unaccustomed situation_.) LIVINGSTON I’m charmed to meet you. I’ve heard Mrs. Livingston speak of you. Let me see, where was it? BESS (_Casually, mistress of herself_) Perhaps it was after I first met him at Judge Wilton’s. Mr. Hood is in the Legislature, you know. LIVINGSTON To be sure. I remember your photograph in all the newspapers. (_Half playfully_) But you’re rather a young man for such a conspicuous and responsible office. HOOD (_Trying to be at ease_) One soon grows older up there. LIVINGSTON (_Pleasantly_) I hope that means wiser; for wisdom, I’m told, is only a matter of perspective, and its secret is finding the relative importance of things. (_With a smile._) But, of course, _every_thing must seem vitally important at the beginning. Just as each moment of life was _once_ the most important thing to these animals. (_Before_ HOOD _can answer_.) Are you interested in fossils? HOOD (_Eyes him_) I’m trying to understand their meaning and significance. LIVINGSTON Do you find it difficult? I see you have a catalogue. Do you come here to study them? BESS (_Trying with her skill to relieve the situation_) Mr. Hood was just telling me he was planning to introduce a bill in the Legislature to--to extend the wings. LIVINGSTON To extend the wings? What of? BESS