LADY KITTY. One says that when one's sure of a man's love, but when one isn't any more--oh, it's so different. In those circumstances one's got to keep a man's love. It's the only thing one has. ELIZABETH. I'm a human being. I can stand on my own feet. LADY KITTY. Have you any money of your own? ELIZABETH. None. LADY KITTY. Then how can you stand on your own feet? You think I'm a silly, frivolous woman, but I've learned something in a bitter school. They can make what laws they like, they can give us the suffrage, but when you come down to bedrock it's the man who pays the piper who calls the tune. Woman will only be the equal of man when she earns her living in the same way that he does. ELIZABETH. [_Smiling._] It sounds rather funny to hear you talk like that. LADY KITTY. A cook who marries a butler can snap her fingers in his face because she can earn just as much as he can. But a woman in your position and a woman in mine will always be dependent on the men who keep them. ELIZABETH. I don't want luxury. You don't know how sick I am of all this beautiful furniture. These over-decorated houses are like a prison in which I can't breathe. When I drive about in a Callot frock and a Rolls-Royce I envy the shop-girl in a coat and skirt whom I see jumping on the tailboard of a bus. LADY KITTY. You mean that if need be you could earn your own living? ELIZABETH. Yes. LADY KITTY. What could you be? A nurse or a typist. It's nonsense. Luxury saps a woman's nerve. And when she's known it once it becomes a necessity. ELIZABETH. That depends on the woman. LADY KITTY. When we're young we think we're different from everyone else, but when we grow a little older we discover we're all very much of a muchness. ELIZABETH. You're very kind to take so much trouble about me. LADY KITTY. It breaks my heart to think that you're going to make the same pitiful mistake that I made. ELIZABETH. Oh, don't say it was that, don't, don't. LADY KITTY. Look at me, Elizabeth, and look at Hughie. Do you think it's been a success? If I had my time over again do you think I'd do it again? Do you think he would? ELIZABETH. You see, you don't know how much I love Teddie. LADY KITTY. And do you think I didn't love Hughie? Do you think he didn't love me? ELIZABETH. I'm sure he did. LADY KITTY. Oh, of course in the beginning it was heavenly. We felt so brave and adventurous and we were so much in love. The first two years were wonderful. People cut me, you know, but I didn't mind. I thought love was everything. It _is_ a little uncomfortable when you come upon an old friend and go towards her eagerly, so glad to see her, and are met with an icy stare. ELIZABETH. Do you think friends like that are worth having? LADY KITTY. Perhaps they're not very sure of themselves. Perhaps they're honestly shocked. It's a test one had better not put one's friends to if one can help it. It's rather bitter to find how few one has. ELIZABETH. But one has some.