OLIVIA. Yours, George? Your life isn't wrecked. The Court will absolve
you of all blame; your friends will sympathise with you, and tell you
that I was a designing woman who deliberately took you in; your Aunt
Julia----
GEORGE (overwrought). Stop it! What do you mean? Have you no heart? Do
you think I _want_ to lose you, Olivia? Do you think I _want_ my home
broken up like this? Haven't you been happy with me these last five
years?
OLIVIA. Very happy.
GEORGE. Well then, how can you talk like that?
OLIVIA (pathetically). But you want to send me away.
GEORGE. There you go again. I don't _want_ to. I have hardly had time
to realise just what it will mean to me when you go. The fact is I
simply daren't realise it. I daren't think about it.
OLIVIA (earnestly). Try thinking about it, George.
GEORGE. And you talk as if I _wanted_ to send you away!
OLIVIA. Try thinking about it, George.
GEORGE. You don't seem to understand that I'm not _sending_ you away.
You simply aren't mine to keep.
OLIVIA. Whose am I?
GEORGE. Your husband's. Telworthy's.
OLIVIA (gently). If I belong to anybody but myself, I think I belong
to you.
GEORGE. Not in the eyes of the Law. Not in the eyes of the Church. Not
even in the eyes of--er----
OLIVIA. The County?
GEORGE (annoyed). I was about to say "Heaven."
OLIVIA (unimpressed). Oh!
GEORGE. That this should happen to _us_! (He gets up and walks about
the room, wondering when he will wake up from this impossible dream,
OLIVIA works in silence. Then she stands up and shakes out her
curtains.)
OLIVIA (looking at them). I do hope Jacko will like these.
GEORGE. What! You---- (Going up to her) Olivia, Olivia, have you no
heart?
OLIVIA. Ought you to talk like that to another man's wife?
GEORGE. Confound it, is this just a joke to you?
OLIVIA. You must forgive me, George; I am a little over-excited--at
the thought of returning to Jacob, I suppose.
GEORGE. Do you _want_ to return to him?
OLIVIA. One wants to do what is right. In the eyes of--er--Heaven.
GEORGE. Seeing what sort of man he is, I have no doubt that you could
get a separation, supposing that he didn't--er--divorce you. I don't
know _what_ is best. I must consult my solicitor. The whole position
has been sprung on us, and--(miserably) I don't know, I don't know. I
can't take it all in.
OLIVIA. Wouldn't you like to consult your Aunt Julia too? She could
tell you what the County--I mean what Heaven really thought about it.
GEORGE. Yes, yes. Aunt Julia has plenty of common sense. You're quite
right, Olivia. This isn't a thing we can keep from the family.
OLIVIA. Do I still call her _Aunt_ Julia?
GEORGE (looking up from his pacings). What? What? (ANNE comes in.)
Well, what is it?
ANNE. Mr. Pim says he will come down at once, sir.
GEORGE. Oh, thank you, thank you.
[ANNE goes out.
OLIVIA. George, Mr. Pim has got to know.
GEORGE. I don't see the necessity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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