Yes, but quite inevitable, I’m afraid. You see she’s got no intellect to provide ballast. EDWARD Poor Carol. ZOE I think you’re the one to be considered most at the present moment. EDWARD Do you think I ought to have a scene with her about it? I shrink from that. It seems to double the humiliation. ZOE I honestly don’t know what to say. She’s been actually unfaithful to you? EDWARD Yes. ZOE Often? EDWARD [_Wearily_] I suppose so. Harry Challoner is in possession at present. ZOE Oh dear! How typical. EDWARD Everything of that sort is made so much easier for people nowadays. I suppose it’s an aftermath of the war. ZOE It’s the obvious result of this “barriers down” phase through which we seem to be passing. Everyone is at close quarters with everyone else. There’s no more glamour. Everything’s indefinite and blurred except sex, so people are instinctively turning to that with a rather jaded vigor. It’s pathetic when you begin to analyze it. EDWARD What fools they all are! ZOE [_Half smiling_] Has being a success made you realize that? EDWARD Yes. There wasn’t time before. ZOE Why don’t you do what I did—go away? EDWARD It means sacrificing a good deal of work here in London. I’ve only just got my foot in, really. ZOE Divorce? EDWARD I don’t feel equal to it at the moment—all the vile publicity, and the lascivious curiosity leveled at Carol and me. It makes me shudder to think of it. ZOE For a society portrait-painter you seem unduly sensitive. EDWARD If I felt vindictive toward Carol it would be so much easier. But I don’t—I merely feel nauseated and frightfully, frightfully bored. ZOE The longer you allow it to drift, the worse it will become. EDWARD You think I ought to clinch it finally. ZOE Yes, I do. Once you’ve embarked you’ll feel better. EDWARD No, I shan’t. ZOE I believe you are still in love with her. EDWARD No; but I could be again if everything were all right. Oh, Zoe, I loathe this age and everything to do with it. Men of my sort are the products of over-civilization. All the red-blooded honest-to-God emotions have been squeezed out of us. We’re incapable of hating enough or loving enough. When any big moment comes along, good or bad, we hedge round it, arguing, weighing it in the balance of reason and psychology, trying to readjust the values until there’s nothing left and nothing achieved. I wish I were primitive enough to thrash Carol and drive her out of my life forever—or strong enough to hold her—but I’m not; I’m just an ass—an intelligent spineless ass! [_He flings himself into a chair and takes a cigarette._] ZOE All the same, being the product of an Age equips you for grappling with it. You’ve got more chance as you are than, say, Evie Bathurst, for instance. EDWARD Evie goes straight for what he wants and gets it. ZOE He doesn’t demand as much as you. EDWARD He’s a damned sight happier. ZOE I should imagine he misses a good deal. EDWARD