Don't think of her at all.[He takes her hand and sits down on the carpet at her feet].Aurora:do you remember the evening when I sat here at your feet and read you those poems for the first time?
SHE.I shouldn't have let you:I see that now.When I think of Georgina sitting there at Teddy's feet and reading them to him for the first time,I feel I shall just go distracted.
HE.Yes,you are right.It will be a profanation.
SHE.Oh,I don't care about the profanation;but what will Teddy think?what will he do?[Suddenly throwing his head away from her knee].You don't seem to think a bit about Teddy.[She jumps up,more and more agitated].
HE [supine on the floor;for she has thrown him off his balance]
To me Teddy is nothing,and Georgina less than nothing.
SHE.You'll soon find out how much less than nothing she is.If you think a woman can't do any harm because she's only a scandalmongering dowdy ragbag,you're greatly mistaken.[She flounces about the room.He gets up slowly and dusts his hands.
Suddenly she runs to him and throws herself into his arms].
Henry:help me.Find a way out of this for me;and I'll bless you as long as you live.Oh,how wretched I am![She sobs on his breast].
HE.And oh!how happy I am!
SHE [whisking herself abruptly away]Don't be selfish.
HE [humbly]Yes:I deserve that.I think if I were going to the stake with you,I should still be so happy with you that I could hardly feel your danger more than my own.
SHE [relenting and patting his hand fondly]Oh,you are a dear darling boy,Henry;but [throwing his hand away fretfully]you're no use.I want somebody to tell me what to do.
HE [with quiet conviction]Your heart will tell you at the right time.I have thought deeply over this;and I know what we two must do,sooner or later.
SHE.No,Henry.I will do nothing improper,nothing dishonorable.
[She sits down plump on the stool and looks inflexible].
HE.If you did,you would no longer be Aurora.Our course is perfectly ******,perfectly straightforward,perfectly stainless and true.We love one another.I am not ashamed of that:I am ready to go out and proclaim it to all London as simply as I will declare it to your husband when you see--as you soon will see--that this is the only way honorable enough for your feet to tread.Let us go out together to our own house,this evening,without concealment and without shame.Remember!we owe something to your husband.We are his guests here:he is an honorable man:
He has been kind to us:he has perhaps loved you as well as his prosaic nature and his sordid commercial environment permitted.
We owe it to him in all honor not to let him learn the truth from the lips of a scandalmonger.Let us go to him now quietly,hand in hand;bid him farewell;and walk out of the house without concealment and subterfuge,freely and honestly,in full honor and self-respect.
SHE [staring at him]And where shall we go to?
HE.We shall not depart by a hair's breadth from the ordinary natural current of our lives.We were going to the theatre when the loss of the poems compelled us to take action at once.We shall go to the theatre still;but we shall leave your diamonds here;for we cannot afford diamonds,and do not need them.
SHE [fretfully]I have told you already that I hate diamonds;only Teddy insists on hanging me all over with them.You need not preach simplicity to me.
HE.I never thought of doing so,dearest:I know that these trivialities are nothing to you.What was I saying--oh yes.
Instead of coming back here from the theatre,you will come with me to my home--now and henceforth our home--and in due course of time,when you are divorced,we shall go through whatever idle legal ceremony you may desire.I attach no importance to the law:my love was not created in me by the law,nor can it be bound or loosed by it.That is ****** enough,and sweet enough,is it not?[He takes the flower from the table].Here are flowers for you:I have the tickets:we will ask your husband to lend us the carriage to show that there is no malice,no grudge,between us.Come!
SHE [spiritlessly,taking the flowers without looking at them,and temporizing]Teddy isn't in yet.
HE.Well,let us take that calmly.Let us go to the theatre as if nothing had happened.and tell him when we come back.Now or three hours hence:to-day or to-morrow:what does it matter,provided all is done in honor,without shame or fear?
SHE.What did you get tickets for?Lohengrin?
HE.I tried;but Lohengrin was sold out for to-night.[He takes out two Court Theatre tickets].
SHE.Then what did you get?
HE.Can you ask me?What is there besides Lohengrin that we two could endure,except Candida?
SHE [springing up]Candida!No,I won't go to it again,Henry [tossing the flower on the piano].It is that play that has done all the mischief.I'm very sorry I ever saw it:it ought to be stopped.
HE [amazed]Aurora!
SHE.Yes:I mean it.
HE.That divinest love poem!the poem that gave us courage to speak to one another!that revealed to us what we really felt for one another!That--SHE.Just so.It put a lot of stuff into my head that I should never have dreamt of for myself.I imagined myself just like Candida.
HE [catching her hands and looking earnestly at her]You were right.You are like Candida.
SHE [snatching her hands away]Oh,stuff!And I thought you were just like Eugene.[Looking critically at him]Now that I come to look at you,you are rather like him,too.[She throws herself discontentedly into the nearest seat,which happens to be the bench at the piano.He goes to her].
HE [very earnestly]Aurora:if Candida had loved Eugene she would have gone out into the night with him without a moment's hesitation.
SHE [with equal earnestness]Henry:do you know what's wanting in that play?
HE.There is nothing wanting in it.
SHE.Yes there is.There's a Georgina wanting in it.If Georgina had been there to make trouble,that play would have been a true-to-life tragedy.Now I'll tell you something about it that Ihave never told you before.
HE.What is that?