[He breaks the neck of a bottle of champagne, fills a tumbler, and gives her to drink] Alive still in the world Of lust and lush! Oh, Warwick, strike me, hurt me! My withered fancy flounders in the mire; My memory chooses words I never loved, Ideas foreign to my prime. Pure pain, Absorbing every sense, would clean my soul.-- Is this the Parthenon or the Grosvenor, Warwick? Groom. The Grosvenor, Martha. Lady S. Something is happening here. Groom. Something abnormal for the stage! I passed Unnoticed in the tumult! Lady S. Listen, Warwick, As if you were the Universe itself. No one would give an ear, or understand; But you will, Warwick; I belong to you; You had the bloom and scent, the flower of me. I think of that unhallowed, holy week A hundred times a day, a hundred times. You were my lover, Warwick, and my friend; My child, my doll: I used to dress you, dear. I live in that: that wonder-working time, When all my senses and my soul, aroused From the sweet slumber of virginity, Became one instinct and ardour of womanhood. Lay your proud head upon my bosom, love-- My faded bosom.--Now, my dear, now, now! If we could fall asleep and never waken.-- Why did I marry Tristram! Why? Not once Have you demanded that. Groom. Because I guessed. He showed me to you---- Lady S. Hush! He did: and more-- He told me you were any woman's man. Groom. That was true, too. Lady S. But you adored me, Warwick? You had a passion for me, a passion, Warwick? Groom. I loved you then as truly as I love You now; haggard and worn, or fresh and sweet, You were and are the woman of my choice; You only, Martha. Lady S. And you, my man of men. Give me some wine again. Will you not drink? [They drink; and Lady Sumner sings.] When I had found a gem I lost Where none would ever think, My heart became a cup of wine I gave my love to drink. My voice is cracked; but, Warwick, do you know, There's not a happier woman in the world. You wonder at my dress? Sit here by me: I'll tell you pleasantly the whole romance. And smoke! Do you remember how we quarrelled About tobacco? You loved it best, you said-- To plague me, Warwick: better than women or wine. But when I wept you tossed a box away Of Delicadedzas worth their weight in gold. [While Groom turns to the cabinet to choose a cigar, Lady Sumner pours the contents of the vial into her wine. GROOM then sits beside her.]