The New Woman - LightNovelsOnl.com
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Who?
LADY WARGRAVE.
An _old_ woman.
GERALD.
Lady Wargrave's joking!
LADY WARGRAVE.
Oh, I could put an end to it, I think!
MRS. SYLVESTER.
We don't know what the end will be ourselves.
LADY WARGRAVE.
There I have the advantage. If I can help in any way, my experience is always at your service. Meanwhile, I fear I am another interruption.
Theodore, your arm!
GERALD [_follows them to door, L._].
Thank you so much for coming.
[_Holding his hand out._
LADY WARGRAVE [_taking it_].
And for going?
[_Exit with COLONEL, L._
MRS. SYLVESTER.
What does she mean?
GERALD.
Thank her for going?
MRS. SYLVESTER.
And the end of it?
GERALD.
Aunt always talks in riddles!
MRS. SYLVESTER.
Is it a riddle?
GERALD [_avoids her eyes_].
Come, let us get to work. I've done hardly anything today. It's first one interruption, then another.
[_Sits._
MRS. SYLVESTER.
We should be quieter at our house.
GERALD.
There's your husband!
MRS. SYLVESTER.
Always a husband!
GERALD.
Or a wife. Ah, me!
[_Sits with his head between his hands, staring at vacancy; MRS.
SYLVESTER watching him sympathetically._
MRS. SYLVESTER [_comes and kneels by him_].
Gerald! [_He starts slightly._] You are not happy. You have realized the truth.
GERALD.
What truth?
MRS. SYLVESTER.
Your marriage was a mistake from the beginning.
GERALD.
Not from the beginning. It started right enough, but somehow it has taken the wrong turn.
MRS. SYLVESTER.
It was wrong from the first. Mine was the true ideal. The thing that you thought love was a mere pa.s.sion--an intoxication. Now you have come back to your better self you feel the need of sympathy.
