_She_ (_aside_). How I have longed for a few words of love like these! and they have come at last!
_He._ I have been too selfish; I have thought too much of my work and too little of your happiness. I see now what a mistake I have made.
_She_ (_aside_). I cannot sit still here and see him waste his love in the air like this.
_He._ I shall turn over a new leaf. If you will let me I shall devote myself to you, taking care of you and making you happy.
_She_ (_aside_). If he had only spoken like that before!
_He._ I will try to win you away from these associates: I am sure that in your heart you do not care for them. (_Crossing to her._) You know that I love you: can I not hope to win you back to me?
_She_ (_aside_). Once before he spoke to me of his love: I can remember every tone of his voice, every word he said.
_She_ (_quietly crossing to arm-chair_). The task is easy, Jack. (_Smiling._) Perhaps you think too much of these associates: perhaps you think a good deal more of them than I do. In fact, I am sure that to-night you were the one who took to private theatricals first. By the way, where’s my _Guide to the Passions_? Have you seen it lately?
_He_ (_half comprehending_). Your _Guide to the Passions_? A book with a yellow cover? I think I _have_ seen it.
_She._ I saw it last in your hand--just after you had been quoting _Othello_.
_She_ (_smiling_). Yes, I know. I saw, I understood, and I retaliated on the spot.
_She._ I paid you off in your own coin--counterfeit, like yours.
_He_ (_joyfully_). Then Tom did not make love to you?
_He._ Haven’t I? Certainly not. At least--Well, at least I will say nothing more about Tom or Dick or Harry.
_She._ And I will say nothing more of Mrs. Lightfoot.
_He_ (_dropping in chair to her right_). Mrs. Lightfoot is a fine woman, my dear (_she looks up_), but she is not my style at all. Besides, you know, it was only as a matter of business, for the sake of our future prospects, that I took her part.
_She_ (_throwing him skein of wool_). And it is only for the sake of our future happiness that I have been playing mine.
_He holds the wool and she winds the ball, and the curtain falls, leaving them in the same position its rising discovered them in._