Coincidence! But it’s childish to look at the mere elements of a dream. You have to look _into_ it--you have to see what it _means_! HENRIETTA On account of that trivial, meaningless play on syllables--on that flimsy basis--you are ready--[_Wails._] O-h! STEVE What on earth’s the matter? What has happened? Suppose I _am_ Step Hen? What about it? What does it mean? MABEL [_Crying._] It means--that I--have a suppressed desire for _you_! STEVE For me! The deuce you have! [_Feebly._] What--er--makes you think so? MABEL Dr. Russell has worked it out scientifically. HENRIETTA Yes. Through the amazing discovery that Step Hen equals Stephen! MABEL [_Tearfully._] Oh, that isn’t all--that isn’t near all. Henrietta won’t give me a chance to tell it. She’d rather I’d go to the insane asylum than be unconventional. HENRIETTA We’ll all go there if you can’t control yourself. We are still waiting for some rational report. MABEL [_Drying her eyes._] Oh, there’s such a lot about names. [_With some pride._] I don’t see how I ever did it. It all works in together. I dreamed I was a hen because that’s the first syllable of _Hen_-rietta’s name, and when I dreamed I was a hen, I was putting myself in Henrietta’s place. HENRIETTA With Stephen? MABEL With Stephen. HENRIETTA [_Outraged._] Oh! [_Turns in rage upon STEPHEN, who is fanning himself with the time-table._] What are you doing with that time-table? STEVE Why--I thought--you were so keen to have me go tonight--I thought I’d just take a run up to Canada, and join Billy--a little shooting--but-- MABEL But there’s more about the names. HENRIETTA Mabel, have you thought of Bob--dear old Bob--your good, kind husband? MABEL Oh, Henrietta, “my good, kind husband!” HENRIETTA Think of him, Mabel, out there alone in Chicago, working his head off, fixing people’s _teeth_--for you! MABEL Yes, but think of the living Libido--in conflict with petrified moral codes! And think of the perfectly wonderful way the names all prove it. Dr. Russell said he’s never seen anything more convincing. Just look at Stephen’s last name--Brewster. I dream I’m a hen, and the name Brewster--you have to say its first letter by itself--and then the hen, that’s me, she says to him: “Stephen, Be Rooster!” [_HENRIETTA and STEPHEN collapse into the nearest chairs._ MABEL I think it’s perfectly wonderful! Why, if it wasn’t for psychoanalysis you’d never find out how wonderful your own mind is! STEVE [_Begins to chuckle._] Be Rooster! Stephen, Be Rooster! HENRIETTA You think it’s funny, do you? STEVE Well, what’s to be done about it? Does Mabel have to go away with me? HENRIETTA Do you want Mabel to go away with you? STEVE Well, but Mabel herself--her complex--her suppressed desire--! HENRIETTA [_Going to her._] Mabel, are you going to insist on going away with Stephen? MABEL I’d rather go with Stephen than go to the insane asylum! HENRIETTA