Haven’t you heard of the life we led together? PERIGAL. I make a point of never believing the disagreeable things that are said about a man who subscribes so handsomely to the Party funds as your husband. CATHERINE. Then I have you against me too? PERIGAL. My dear child, I’ve known you all your life. Your mother is my first cousin. We all desire nothing more than your happiness. CATHERINE. George was served with the petition this morning. PERIGAL. Ah!... It appears that two prominent supporters of your husband are coming up from Middlepool this afternoon to get from your own lips a denial of the rumours that have been circulating in the constituency. CATHERINE. I can promise you that they’re not going to get it. PERIGAL. I wish I could persuade you to pause before you take such an irrevocable step. CATHERINE. But why should you care? PERIGAL. We’ve been in for six years. We’re dissolving Parliament at once. I don’t know if we shall get in again. It’ll be a very close shave. We can’t afford to risk a couple of seats.... CATHERINE. A couple? PERIGAL. The Chief Whip tells me that your husband proposes to lodge a counter petition. CATHERINE. If it weren’t so odious, the idea would be laughable. I promise you that.... PERIGAL. Yes, yes, of course. Neither you nor Robert Colby has anything to reproach himself with. That is obvious. But ... well, I gather that the evidence is such that a _prima facie_ case could be made out. It would be awkward just at this moment, for all of us--I myself could wish that my relationship to your dear mother weren’t quite so close. The British people for some reason always judge moral delinquencies on the Radical side with great severity. I have always thought it a hardship that the Tories should have a sort of prescriptive right to the more amusing forms of immorality. CATHERINE. Let us understand one another plainly. Do you mean that if my husband drags Robert Colby through the Divorce Court, you’ll throw Robert overboard, even if his innocence is proved through and through? PERIGAL. My dear, no one is so innocent that there’s not occasion for many people to shake their heads and say: One never knows. I don’t suppose any Prime Minister would invite a man to enter his cabinet who’d been co-respondent in a divorce suit. CATHERINE. It’s nothing short of blackmail. George makes no concealment of the fact. PERIGAL. He has a brutal frankness which is sometimes rather engaging. CATHERINE. Oh, you drive me mad. My whole happiness is at stake, and you can pause to smile at that odious cynicism.... You’ve known Robert and me all our lives. Won’t you believe in us? Won’t you stand by us? PERIGAL.