GEORGIANA. [_Still standing, very strong._] 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--
[GEORGIANA _watches him a little while in silence. Then she goes to him and puts her hand on his shoulder._
GEORGIANA. And I'll trust you again if I have a chance.
STEVEN. [_Looking up._] Georgy, what do you mean?
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.
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!
STEVEN. But the shame of my life now, the degradation, the _rot_ of it!
GEORGIANA. [_The idea comes to her._] Steve, I told you I'd trust you again if I had the chance! Here is the first one, and I take it! Promise me you'll never again even think of taking your life.
GEORGIANA. If you tell me, I'll believe you.
[STEVEN, _not looking at her, puts his hand in the pocket where the pistol is, then takes his hand away, still not looking at her._