TREBELL. [_An edge on his voice._] Yes . . people keep on dying at all sorts of ages, in all sorts of ways. But we seem never to get used to it . . narrow-minded as we are. WEDGECROFT. Don't you talk nonsense. TREBELL. [_One note sharper yet._] One should occasionally test one's sanity by doing so. If we lived in the logical world we like to believe in, I could also prove that black was white. As it is . . there are more ways of killing a cat than hanging it. WEDGECROFT. Had I better give you a sleeping draught? FRANCES. Are you doctoring him for once? Henry, have you at last managed to overwork yourself? TREBELL. No . . I started the evening by a charming little dinner at the Van Meyer's . . sat next to Miss Grace Cutler, who is writing a _vie intime_ of Louis Quinze and engaged me with anecdotes of the same. FRANCES. A champion of her sex, whom I do not like. WEDGECROFT. She's writing such a book to prove that women are equal to anything. _He goes towards the door and_ FRANCES _goes with him_. TREBELL _never turns his head_. TREBELL. I shall not come and open the door for you . . but mind you shut it. FRANCES _comes back_. FRANCES. Henry . . this is dreadful about that poor little woman. TREBELL. An unwelcome baby was arriving. She got some quack to kill her. _These exact words are like a blow in the face to her, from which, being a woman of brave common sense, she does not shrink._ TREBELL. What do you say to that? _She walks away from him, thinking painfully._ FRANCES. She had never had a child. There's the common-place thing to say . . Ungrateful little fool! But . . TREBELL. If you had been in her place? FRANCES. [_Subtly._] I have never made the mistake of marrying. She grew frightened, I suppose. Not just physically frightened. How can a man understand? TREBELL. The fear of life . . do you think it was . . which is the beginning of all evil? FRANCES. A woman must choose what her interpretation of life is to be . . as a man must too in his way . . as you and I have chosen, Henry. TREBELL. [_Asking from real interest in her._] Was yours a deliberate choice and do you never regret it? FRANCES. [_Very simply and clearly._] Perhaps one does nothing quite deliberately and for a definite reason. My state has its compensations . . if one doesn't value them too highly. I've travelled in thought over all this question. You mustn't blame a woman for wishing not to bear children. But . . well, if one doesn't like the fruit one mustn't cultivate the flower. And I suppose that saying condemns poor Amy . . condemned her to death . . [_Then her face hardens as she concentrates her meaning._] and brands most men as . . let's unsentimentally call it =illogical=, doesn't it? _He takes the thrust in silence._ TREBELL. Did you notice the light in my window as you came in? FRANCES. Yes . . in both as I got out of the cab. Do you want the curtains drawn back? TREBELL. Yes . . don't touch them.