Degrade you. If I hadn't come into your life again, you would have accepted your reverse--your failure to gain popularity by your latest book--as you've accepted similar disappointments--with a shrug and a confident snap of your fingers. [_Advancing._] But I've humbled you--bruised your spirit--shaken your courage; and now you express your willingness--_you!_--to throw your pen aside, and tack yourself to my skirts, and to figure meekly for the rest of your existence as "Mrs. Mackworth's husband"! [_At the nearer end of the writing-table._] _Mon Dieu!_ This is what I have brought you to! PHILIP. [_Biting his lip._] You--you wouldn't have me profit by the advertisement I've got out of "The Big Drum," Ottoline--[_ironically_] the finest advertisement I could wish for, according to Robbie! You wouldn't have me sink as low as that? OTTOLINE. You can write under an alias--a _nom de plume_--until you've won your proper place---- PHILIP. [_Uneasily._] Oh, well--perhaps--by-and-by--when we had settled down, you and I--and things had adjusted themselves---- OTTOLINE. Yes, when you'd grown sick and weary of your new environment, and had had time to reflect on the horrid trick I'd employed to get hold of you, and had learned to despise me for it, you'd creep back to your desk and make an effort to pick up the broken threads! [_Coming to the settee on the right._] _Eh bien!_ Do you know what would happen _then_, Phil? PHILIP. W-w-what? OTTOLINE. [_Intensely._] I should _puff_ you, under the rose--quietly pull the strings--use all the influence I could rake up---- PHILIP. No, no---- OTTOLINE. I should. It's in my blood. I couldn't resist it. Whether you wrote as Jones, or Smith, or Robinson, you'd find Jones, Smith, or Robinson artfully puffed and paragraphed and thrust under people's noses in the papers. I'm an incurably vulgar woman, I tell you! [_Snatching at her coat--harshly._] _Ah, que je me connais; que je me connais!_ [_She fumbles for the arm-holes of her coat. He goes to her quickly and they stand holding the coat between them and looking at each other._ PHILIP. [_After a silence._] You--you're determined? OTTOLINE. Determined. PHILIP. You--you _can't_ be! Ottoline. I am--I swear I am. PHILIP. [_After a further silence._] Then it _is_--as you said last night----? OTTOLINE. What did I say last night? I forget. PHILIP. [_In a husky voice._] _C'est fini--apres tout!_ OTTOLINE. [_Inclining her head._] _C'est fini--apres tout._