You got some of that, too? FREDA Yes. And then some mushrooms--tinned-- VANDERLIP _(Interrupting ecstatically.)_ Freda, you're a wonder! FREDA Then season to taste, _(Rising to climax.)_ and there you are! _(Freda half rises, leaning toward him. He half rises to meet her, reaching for her with both arms, to put around her waist, but she catches his hands and very gently and slowly disengages herself. Her very manner of disengaging herself is caressing and seducing. They sink back slowly into their respective chairs.)_ _(Freda listens intently, as for the sound of a sled without. Glances anxiously at clock on piano. Vanderlip does not notice, for he is drawing his watch and looking at it.)_ VANDERLIP It's ten after twelve. _(Looks anxiously at door to right.)_ Gee! I hate to go without having a crack at that Cupid's stew. _(He looks at Freda. She is gazing at him absently, apparently lost in meditation over him.)_ Well? FREDA _(Startled, as though discovered, in pretty embarrassment.)_ Oh! VANDERLIP I was just wondering what you wanted to see me about. _(He draws his chair snugly against hers. She looks at him, studying him, as though trying to make up her mind to speak.)_ Well, what is it? FREDA _(With steadiness and determination.)_ Floyd, I am tired of the whole business. I want to go away--over the ice--anywhere--away. I can't live it out here till the river breaks next spring. I'll die. I know it. I want to quit it all and go away. And I want to go at once. _(She lays her hand in appeal on the back of his. His hand turns over and captures hers. He does not know what to say.)_ Well? VANDERLIP _(Hastily.)_ I don't know what to say. Nothing I'd like better, Freda. You know that well enough. _(He presses her hand, and she nods.)_ But you see I'm-- _(Blurting it out.)_ --I'm engaged. Of course you know that. Everybody knows it. The girl's coming in over the ice to marry me. _(Meditatively.)_ Don't know what was up with me when I asked her, but it was a long while back, and I was all-fired young. FREDA And you intend to wait for her? _(He nods.)_ And to marry her? _(He nods.)_ Men sometimes make mistakes, you know, when they are young. VANDERLIP _(Warmly.)_ And this is one of them. What did I know about women then? FREDA _(Slyly.)_ Nothing to what you know about them now. VANDERLIP I should say so. FREDA But, Floyd, by persisting in the mistake, do you mend matters? _(He shakes his head dubiously.)_ Will you be happy? Will she be happy? She is sure to find out the mistake, then it will be tragedy. VANDERLIP _(In despair.)_ I don't know. Women keep bothering me so. There are so many of them, and I like them all. Seems to me I like best the one I'm with at the time. FREDA Mrs. Eppingwell, let us say. VANDERLIP _(With positiveness.)_