THE DEVIL (_to Agnus_) Best thing—if the police should look in— AGNUS (_unhappily_) What do I care for the police—or anything—now! FANNY (_to The Devil in a dangerously cold tone_) I have _asked_ for an explanation! THE DEVIL (_irritated_) Oh, don’t try to Sarah Bernhardt it, Fanny. You haven’t the talent. Amateurs trying to be dramatic are only comic. FANNY (_turning suddenly to Doll Blondin with a “woman-to-woman-no-foolishness” air_) What are you doing in this house? Are you the new housekeeper, or the parlor-maid? DOLL BLONDIN (_half stunned and half admiring_) You cat, you! FANNY (_loudly_) Who is this woman? DOLL BLONDIN (_aroused_) I’m as much the lady as you! Howling and crying around here. What’s the matter? Are you crazy? (_Suddenly indignant_) Woman? Do you think—(_Her Broadway mock modesty and pretended lady-like morality halt her from saying what she means, so she explains shortly_) I’m boarding here! (_Violently_) How dared you think anything else—Woman, yourself! FANNY (_with a dry laugh_) Boarding? Can’t you think of a better story than that? Why should he take boarders? DOLL BLONDIN (_shortly_) Because he needs my twenty a week, I suppose. [_Fanny laughs still more dryly._ DOLL BLONDIN (_enraged_) Well, anyway, he ran after me in the street and called me in. (_Seeing she has hurt Fanny, she encourages the innuendo wickedly_) Said price didn’t matter—he said. (_Violently again_) But have no fear: I won’t stay here and be insulted: I’ll go— FANNY You had better— THE DEVIL Miss Blondin, if the place, or the food, or the service is unsatisfactory—go. Otherwise—stay. This lady is nothing to me. DOLL BLONDIN (_in cool admiration_) Well, you _are_ a brute! FANNY (_to The Devil, seeing the admiration and rendered wild by it_) I understand now! This is why you’ve changed so suddenly. The sight of this woman of the street— DOLL BLONDIN (_blazing_) What? FANNY (_a little alarmed_) Woman in the street, I said— DOLL BLONDIN Oh! FANNY And you forget your honor, your duty, your religion— THE DEVIL What has religion got to do with it? FANNY Everything. Well, I won’t permit it. I care nothing for you. I hate you. But there’s a law in the land that protects defenceless women— THE DEVIL Defenceless? Not unless they’re dumb! FANNY And I’ll see what the law says. I’ll publish you in every newspaper in the country, and I’ll tell how the great scientist ran after a strange woman—a woman he knew nothing about—and begged her to live in his house so she would be convenient to make love to. [_Doll Blondin looks at him suspiciously._ FANNY Then where will your reputation be? Your Nobel prize? DOLL BLONDIN (_hastily_) I’m glad I didn’t have my trunks unpacked— THE DEVIL Miss Blondin— DOLL BLONDIN