JOHN: She’s got no respect for the outside rules; she’s got to find her inside ones. She _is_ worrying. Whether you like it or not, she is. A great deal. Talking, thinking, deciding. Not always as her elders would like. But there are some fine people among ’em; they’ll do the devil of a lot to make a better world. GWEN: I hope that’s true. MARGARET: They’re claiming a good deal more out of life. JOHN: Why shouldn’t they? GWEN: Hear, hear! COLIN: You’re a dangerous influence, young man. JOHN: To you old men; I hope so; you’ve been damned dangerous to us! FRANKIE: If Religion’s going to have nothing to do with your new world, what is? JOHN: You’re mixing up religion and the Church. There’s got to be a religious spirit; that’s essential; I mean the spirit that makes you strive to do the best with your life. I believe some young people to-day want to live according to their beliefs with a sincerity that’s religious--anyhow it’s causing nearly as much trouble. COLIN: A lot of conscientious consenters, that’s what you are. GWEN: Now let’s be _personal_. JOHN: Go ahead. MARGARET: Must we! FRANKIE: _You_ needn’t talk. MARGARET: Needn’t! But I did. GWEN: I know I’m sick of living at home; I know I’m sick of living alone. The obvious way out is to get married. But I don’t see how I can ever be certain of wanting to live all alone with the same person for the rest of my life. COLIN: When you’re in love, you’ll know all right. JOHN: That’s easy to say when you’re forty. COLIN: You’re being very unpleasant to me to-night. JOHN: I agree with Gwen. Nobody can know until they’ve tried. GWEN: What d’you mean, “tried”? COLIN: Oh, my God, where’s a drink? [_He gets up to help himself to one._ JOHN: Frankie, it’s been on the tip of my tongue during these last months to ask you where you wanted to go most in all the world: and then to ask you to come with me there, straight away. GWEN: What fun! Would you have gone? FRANKIE: Of course not. GWEN: I don’t see why. A sort of trial affair. JOHN: No, Gwen. Much more respectable than that. Not a trial “affair.” A trial marriage. We should have gone definitely to find out whether we were suited for life. FRANKIE: That would have been all very nice for _you_! JOHN: You flatter yourself. It might have been nice for you, too! FRANKIE: Supposing you’d taken me away and left me--where should I be then? COLIN (_with his drink_): That depends where you went to. GWEN: Answer, John. JOHN: If we parted it would mean it wasn’t successful. It would be a very good thing for both of us that we weren’t tied up for life. FRANKIE: Anyhow, you’d see a good deal of the world, John! JOHN: What do you mean? FRANKIE: You’d always be going away with different people all over the place. JOHN: This is becoming too personal. FRANKIE: You began it. JOHN: Somebody asked me to rearrange the world; and I’m doing it. I certainly wouldn’t sweep away all existing marriage laws all at once----