CAPT. G. I've spoken the truth. MRS. H. My _dear_ Sir, you flatter yourself. You have lied over the reason. Pip, remember that I know you as you don't know yourself. You have been everything to me, though you are--(_Fan-guard_.) Oh, what a contemptible _Thing_ it is! And so you are merely tired of me? CAPT. G. Since you insist upon my repeating it--Yes. MRS. H. Lie the first. I wish I knew a coarser word. Lie seems so ineffectual in your case. The fire has just died out and there is no fresh one? Think for a minute, Pip, if you care whether I despise you more than I do. Simply _Mafisch_, is it? CAPT. G. Yes. (_Aside_.) I think I deserve this. MRS. H. Lie number two. Before the next glass chokes you, tell me her name. CAPT. G. (_Aside_.). I'll make her pay for dragging Minnie into the business! (_Aloud_.) Is it likely? MRS. H. _Very_ likely if you thought that it would flatter your vanity. You'd cry my name on the house-tops to make people turn round. CAPT. G. I wish I had. There would have been an end of this business. MRS. H. Oh, no, there would not--And so you were going to be virtuous and _blase_, were you? To come to me and say: 'I've done with you. The incident is clo-osed.' I ought to be proud of having kept such a man so long. CAPT. G. (_Aside_.) It only remains to pray for the end of the dinner. (_Aloud_.) You know what I think of myself. MRS. H. As it's the only person in the world you ever _do_ think of, and as I know your mind thoroughly, I do. You want to get it all over and--Oh, I can't keep you back! And you're going--think of it, Pip--to throw me over for another woman. And you swore that all other women were--Pip, my Pip! She _can't_ care for you as I do. Believe me, she can't! Is it any one that I know? CAPT. G. Thank Goodness it isn't. (_Aside_.) I expected a cyclone, but not an earthquake. MRS. H. She _can't!_ Is there anything that I wouldn't do for you--or haven't done? And to think that I should take this trouble over you, knowing what you are! Do you despise me for it? CAPT. G. (_Wiping his mouth to hide a smile_.) _Again?_ It's entirely a work of charity on your part. MRS. H. Ahhh! But I have no right to resent it.--Is she better-looking than I? Who was it said--? CAPT G. No--not that! MRS. H. I'll be more merciful than you were. Don't you know that all women are alike? CAPT. G. (_Aside._) Then this is the exception that proves the rule. MRS. H. _All_ of them! I'll tell you anything you like. I will, upon my word! They only want the admiration--from anybody--no matter who--anybody! But there is always _one_ man that they care for more than any one else in the world, and would sacrifice all the others to. Oh, _do_ listen! I've kept the Vaynor man trotting after me like a poodle, and he believes that he is the only man I am interested in. I'll tell you what he said to me. CAPT. G. Spare him. (_Aside._) I wonder what _his_ version is.