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GEORGIANA. Wait! She's built her tiara up with a breastpin and an aigrette off my winter hat, and it was all I could do to keep her from wearing the three feathers in which she was presented to the Queen in A.D. '73.
[_They all laugh good-naturedly._
COAST. Aunt Laura's a corker!
GEORGIANA. Well, no one will miss her! She'll get the Grand Duke's eye if no one else does! I tell her she'll go through the ballroom like a search-light!
COAST. Is she all dressed now?
GEORGIANA. Not yet. I'm judging by her dress rehearsal! I left her in a state of terrible indecision as to whether she should arch her eyebrows "just a little" with a burnt match!
[_All laugh again good-naturedly._
COAST. Smart old girl!
GEORGIANA. She's all the happier for being silly, and she's a good soul and does her best! What's _your_ news, Steve?
[_Turning to_ STEVEN.
STEVEN. Sam, would you mind?
[_Motions to_ COAST _to leave the room._
COAST. Oh, no! [_Rises._] See you later! I'll go and take a squint at auntie.
[_He goes out Right._
GEORGIANA. Steve, you look troubled--what's gone wrong?
[_She goes to_ STEVEN _on the sofa and sits beside him._
STEVEN. _I_ have!
GEORGIANA. How do you mean? You and Louise haven't quarrelled?
STEVEN. If it was only that!
GEORGIANA. What then?
STEVEN. I've gone wrong, I tell you, all wrong.
GEORGIANA. How? In what way, Steve?
STEVEN. Your money's lost, it's all lost.
[GEORGIANA _rises. A pause._
GEORGIANA. How do you mean?
STEVEN. And that isn't the worst of it, either. I've broken my word to you! I know I've killed your faith in me. I've lost faith in myself.
GEORGIANA. [_Still standing, very strong._] Steve!
STEVEN. I've speculated!
GEORGIANA. _No_, Steve!
STEVEN. [_Rises and goes to the mantel._] Yes, I've been speculating since the very day I said I wouldn't. I won a lot at first, and of course I thought I'd get all back; and then, of course, what I did get back was my old cursed luck!
GEORGIANA. Oh, Steve! And I believed in you so thoroughly, I never had a doubt!
STEVEN. I know it! I know it! I'm rotten all through, Georgy. [_Bursting into tears._] I'm not worth being forgiven--[_He falls on his knees, in a paroxysm of sobs and tears._] I'm _rotten_! Oh--I'm rotten--
[_He sobs uncontrollably._
[GEORGIANA _watches him a little while in silence. Then she goes to him and puts her hand on his shoulder._
GEORGIANA. Steve!
STEVEN. [_Sobbing._] Yes!
GEORGIANA. I forgive you!
STEVEN. No! No!
GEORGIANA. And I'll trust you again if I have a chance.
STEVEN. [_Looking up._] Georgy, what do you mean?
[_Beginning to control his sobs._
GEORGIANA. I mean, though it's been a pretty big blow, my faith in you isn't altogether gone yet.
STEVEN. Oh, I can't bear it! I can't bear it! But you don't mean it! No, you can't mean it! How could you? Forgive me? Trust me again? No, no!
You couldn't--it's all over! I've thrown away my own money first, then my wife's and her mother's--that ought to have been enough,--but I had to go and break my word of honor to you, and lose every penny of yours!
There's no excuse for me, nor reason to forgive.
GEORGIANA. [_After a moment, very quietly, with her eyes filling._]
There's _love_, Steve!
STEVEN. Not for a man like me. I'm not worth it. [_He rises._] Not deserving it! There's only one thing for such as me, and that is to end it all with a bullet.
GEORGIANA. Now you're talking wildly!
STEVEN. [_In a lowered voice._] No, Georgy, I mean it! It's better for all of you to have me out of the way; I tried to do it to-day--only, _I was afraid_!
GEORGIANA. That would be worse than anything you have done yet. That I would never forgive--anything but that!
[_She goes to him._
