MRS. TILLMAN. [_Laughing._] Had we dreamed you and Jack were coming home in June, your father and I wouldn't have gone into the country so early. JINNY. We've been home two weeks and it hasn't been hot yet. MRS. TILLMAN. And you're still ideally happy aren't you, darling? JINNY. Yes-- [_She rises and goes to a table near the centre of the room and looks at the titles of several books without realizing what they are._ MRS. TILLMAN. Why, Jinny,--what does that mean? JINNY. Oh, it's all my horrid disposition! MRS. TILLMAN. Been seeing green? JINNY. Um! Um! Once in Rome, and on the steamer, and again since we've been back. MRS. TILLMAN. Nothing serious? JINNY. [_Hesitatingly, she turns and faces her mother._] No--but the last time Jack was harder to bring around than before, and he looked at me for fully five minutes without a particle of love in his eyes, and they were almost--_dead_ eyes! MRS. TILLMAN. What was it all about? JINNY. Ruth Chester, principally. MRS. TILLMAN. Why Ruth? JINNY. Well, the first real scene I made was in Rome in the Vatican. I was jealous of her; I can't explain it all to you--as a matter of fact, it hasn't been all explained to _me_! Something was troubling Ruth that Jack knew, and he said he'd help her. MRS. TILLMAN. What? JINNY. That's just it; Jack won't tell me. And the day we sailed from Naples a telegram came, and of course I opened it, and it said, "Trust me, I will do everything you say. Ruth." MRS. TILLMAN. Why haven't you told me anything of all this before, dear? JINNY. [_Going back to her mother._] I was ashamed to! Somehow, in the end I always knew I was wrong and had hurt him--hurt him terribly, mother, the man I love better than everything else in the world! Yes, even better than you and father and Geoffrey--all together! [_In her mother's arms, crying a little._ MRS. TILLMAN. Oh, this curse of jealousy! I was in hopes he was so strong he would help you to overcome it. JINNY. He does try hard, I can see sometimes; but he hasn't a spark of it in him, and he can't understand it, and I know I'm unreasonable, and before I know it I am saying things I don't know what, and some day he won't forgive them! I'm sure some day he won't!-- [_Breaking down again._ [_She rises and turns away._ MRS. TILLMAN. [_Rising and putting her arms about her._] Come, dear! Now you're getting yourself all unstrung, and that won't do you any good; you've got to fight this battle out, I'm afraid, by yourself, trusting in the deep love of your husband to teach him forbearance. Your father's and my troubles were never very big because we _shared_ the curse, so we knew how to sympathize with each other! JINNY. What an awful thing it is! MRS. TILLMAN. Yes, my dear child. Jealousy has no saving grace, and it only destroys what is always most precious to you. Jinny, don't let it destroy _your best_ happiness! JINNY. Mother, if it _should_, I'd kill myself!