VIDA. [_Doing her best to charm._] I won't tell you--it would flatter you too much. JOHN. [_Not a bit impressed by_ VIDA, _but humanly ready to flirt._] Tell me! VIDA. There's a rose for you. [_Giving him the one she has in her hand._ JOHN. [_Saying what is plainly expected of him._] I want more than a rose-- VIDA. [_Passing over this insinuation._] You refuse to tell me--? JOHN. [_Once more reminded of_ CYNTHIA, _speaks with sudden feeling._] There's nothing to tell. We met, we loved, we married, we parted; or at least we wrangled and jangled. [_Sighs._] Ha! Why weren't we happy? Don't ask me, why! It may have been _partly_ my fault! VIDA. [_With tenderness._] Never! JOHN. [_His mind on_ CYNTHIA.] But I believe it's all in the way a girl's brought up. Our girls are brought up to be ignorant of life--they're ignorant of life. Life is a joke, and marriage is a picnic, and a man is a shawl-strap--'Pon my soul, Cynthia Deane--no, I can't tell you! [_In great irritation, he rises abruptly, and strides up and down the room._ VIDA. [_Gently._] Please tell me! JOHN. Well, she was an heiress, an American heiress--and she'd been taught to think marriage meant burnt almonds and moonshine and a yacht and three automobiles, and she thought--I don't know what she thought, but I tell you, Mrs. Phillimore, marriage is three parts love and seven parts forgiveness of sins. [_He continues restlessly to pace the floor as he speaks of_ CYNTHIA. VIDA. [_Flattering him as a matter of second nature._] She never loved you. JOHN. [_On whom she has made no impression at all._] Yes, she did. For six or seven months there was not a shadow between us. It was perfect, and then one day she went off like a pistol-shot! I had a piece of law work and couldn't take her to see Flashlight race the Maryland mare. The case meant a big fee, big Kudos, and in sails Cynthia, Flashlight-mad! And will I put on my hat and take her? No--and bang she goes off like a stick o' dynamite--what did I marry her for?--and words--pretty high words, until she got mad, when she threw over a chair, and said, oh, well,--marriage was a failure, or it was with me, so I said she'd better try somebody else. She said she would, and marched out of the room. VIDA. [_Gently sarcastic._] But she came back! JOHN. She came back, but not as you mean. She stood at the door and said, "Jack, I shall divorce you." Then she came over to my study-table, dropped her wedding ring on my law papers, and went out. The door shut, I laughed; the front door slammed, I damned. [_After a silence, moving abruptly to the window._] She never came back. [_He turns away and then, recovering, moves toward_ VIDA, _who catches his hands._ VIDA. [_Hoping for a contradiction._] She's broken your heart. JOHN. [_Taking a chair by the lounge._] Oh, no! VIDA. [_Encouraged, begins to play the game again._] You'll never love again!