RIDGEON. I am very sorry. I see I had better go.
JENNIFER [putting the book down] I beg your pardon. I forgot myself. But it is not yet--it is a private copy.
RIDGEON. But for me it would have been a very different book.
JENNIFER. But for you it would have been a longer one.
RIDGEON. You know then that I killed him?
JENNIFER [suddenly moved and softened] Oh, doctor, if you acknowledge that--if you have confessed it to yourself--if you realize what you have done, then there is forgiveness. I trusted in your strength instinctively at first; then I thought I had mistaken callousness for strength. Can you blame me? But if it was really strength--if it was only such a mistake as we all make sometimes--it will make me so happy to be friends with you again.
RIDGEON. I tell you I made no mistake. I cured Blenkinsop: was there any mistake there?
JENNIFER. He recovered. Oh, dont be foolishly proud, doctor. Confess to a failure, and save our friendship. Remember, Sir Ralph gave Louis your medicine; and it made him worse.
RIDGEON. I cant be your friend on false pretences. Something has got me by the throat: the truth must come out. I used that medicine myself on Blenkinsop. It did not make him worse. It is a dangerous medicine: it cured Blenkinsop: it killed Louis Dubedat. When I handle it, it cures. When another man handles it, it kills--sometimes.
JENNIFER [naively: not yet taking it all in] Then why did you let Sir Ralph give it to Louis?
RIDGEON. I'm going to tell you. I did it because I was in love with you.
JENNIFER [innocently surprised] In lo-- You! elderly man!
RIDGEON [thunderstruck, raising his fists to heaven] Dubedat: thou art avenged! [He drops his hands and collapses on the bench]. I never thought of that. I suppose I appear to you a ridiculous old fogey.
JENNIFER. But surely--I did not mean to offend you, indeed--but you must be at least twenty years older than I am.
RIDGEON. Oh, quite. More, perhaps. In twenty years you will understand how little difference that makes.
JENNIFER. But even so, how could you think that I--his wife--could ever think of YOU--
RIDGEON [stopping her with a nervous waving of his fingers] Yes, yes, yes, yes: I quite understand: you neednt rub it in.