I had to see you. RANDOLPH Why here? MRS. SABINE I couldn’t wait till you came to me. RANDOLPH (_With strained jocularity_) Feather brain; what’s the trouble? MRS. SABINE Nothing--only my husband _knows_. RANDOLPH (_Quickly_) About us? MRS. SABINE He’s known for some time. RANDOLPH And he only spoke----? MRS. SABINE To-day. RANDOLPH The devil! (_Slowly_) What’s the reason? MRS. SABINE Why he kept silent? (_Shrugging shoulders_) You men always have reasons. RANDOLPH What did he say? MRS. SABINE (_Laughing cynically_) He smiled. It was so funny and so unexpected. RANDOLPH (_Incredulously_) He didn’t make a scene? MRS. SABINE No. And I’d been rehearsing for weeks what I should say. RANDOLPH But didn’t he----? MRS. SABINE (_Bitterly_) I tell you he didn’t even insult me! RANDOLPH Sh! (_He looks towards his daughter’s room and then crosses and closes the door through which_ MRS. SABINE _has entered_.) MRS. SABINE (_After she has watched him_) Hasn’t he spoken to you? RANDOLPH Not yet. MRS. SABINE That’s like him. He said he’d wait till I broke the news to you. RANDOLPH And then? MRS. SABINE Then he said you would want to see him and (_ominously_) he’d do some talking. RANDOLPH (_Recalling_) So that’s why he smiled just now.--Didn’t he say _anything_? MRS. SABINE He merely put his hands on your furs. I thought he’d believe I’d saved enough to buy them myself. He stroked them once or twice slowly--and smiled. But he _said_ nothing. Then he led me to the window and pointed to your car--the extra one you forced upon _us_--when you began. He smiled; but he said nothing. He picked up a book: the work in the library was interesting; it kept him _safe_ in the long winter evenings. I tell you he said it all in his smiles and never a word. (_Violently_) He disappointed me so! I’d be sorry for him a little if he’d only struck me. God! I hate men who only smile when they are angry. (RANDOLPH _trying to quiet her_.) Oh, I hate him with his penny a year. I hate him for asking me to marry him, and then not even striking me when he found out what I was! RANDOLPH But didn’t you even try to deny it? MRS. SABINE (_Defiantly_) Why should I deny it? RANDOLPH (_Cynically_) Of course not. Sooner or later, a woman always confesses to someone. MRS. SABINE (_Quickly_) What did you want me to do? Think of you? I was sick of him. When I saw he wasn’t going to make a fuss, I didn’t think your well-known reputation would suffer; so I didn’t care about protecting myself. What’s the difference, anyhow? He can’t give me what I want: you can. If we can only keep it quiet, nobody need know--and it wouldn’t even reach your daughter’s ears. RANDOLPH (_Angrily_) We’ll not discuss her. MRS. SABINE