BLANCHE [gaily] Very. Are you going to give me any?
TRENCH [wincing] Dont make a joke of it: I’m serious. Do you know that we shall be very poor?
BLANCHE Is that what made you look as if you had neuralgia?
TRENCH [pleadingly] My dear: it’s no laughing matter. Do you know that I have a bare seven hundred a year to live on?
BLANCHE How dreadful!
TRENCH Blanche: It’s very serious indeed: I assure you it is.
BLANCHE It would keep me rather short in my housekeeping, dearest boy, if I had nothing of my own. But papa has promised me that I shall be richer than ever when we are married.
TRENCH We must do the best we can with seven hundred. I think we ought to be self supporting.
BLANCHE Thats just what I mean to be, Harry. If I were to eat up half your £700, I should be making you twice as poor; but I’m going to make you twice as rich instead. [He shakes his head.] Has papa made any difficulty?
TRENCH [rising with a sigh and taking his chair back to its former place] No, none at all. [He sits down dejectedly. When Blanche speaks again her face and voice betray the beginning of a struggle with her temper.]
BLANCHE Harry : are you too proud to take money from my father?
TRENCH Yes, Blanche: I am too proud.
BLANCHE [after a pause] That is not nice to me, Harry.
TRENCH You must bear with me, Blanche. I — , I cant explain. After all, it’s very natural.
BLANCHE Has it occurred to you that I may be proud, too?
TRENCH Oh, thats nonsense. No one will accuse you of marrying for money.
BLANCHE No one would think the worse of me if I did, or of you either. [She rises and begins to walk restlessly about.] We really cannot live on seven hundred a year, Harry; and I dont think it quite fair of you to ask me merely because youre afraid of people talking.
TRENCH It’s not that alone, Blanche.
BLANCHE What else is it, then?
TRENCH Nothing. I —
BLANCHE [getting behind him, and speaking with forced playfulness as she bends over him, her hands on his shoulders] Of course it’s nothing. Now dont be absurd, Harry: be good; and listen to me: I know how to settle it. You are too proud to owe anything to me; and I am too proud to owe anything to you. You have seven hundred a year. Well, I will take just seven hundred a year from papa at first; and then we shall be quits. Now, now, Harry, you know youve not a word to say against that.
TRENCH It’s impossible.
BLANCHE Impossible!
TRENCH Yes, impossible. I have resolved not to take any money from your father.
BLANCHE But he’ll give the money to me, not to you.
TRENCH It’s the same thing. [With an effort to be sentimental] I love you too well to see any distinction. [He puts up his hand half-heartedly: she takes it over his shoulder with equal indecision. They are both trying hard to conciliate one another.]
BLANCHE Thats a very nice way of putting it, Harry; but I’m sure theres something I ought to know. Has papa been disagreeable?
TRENCH No : he has been very kind to me, at least. It’s not that. It’s nothing you can guess, Blanche. It would only pain you perhaps offend you. I dont mean, of course, that we shall live always on seven hundred a year. I intend to go at my profession in earnest, and work my fingers to the bone.
BLANCHE [playing with his fingers, still over his shoulder] But I shouldnt like you with your fingers worked to the bone, Harry. I must be told what the matter is. [He takes his hand quickly away: she flushes angrily; and her voice is no longer even an imitation of the voice of a lady as she exclaims:] I hate secrets; and I dont like to be treated as if I were a child.
TRENCH [annoyed by her tone] Theres nothing to tell. I dont choose to trespass on your father’s generosity: thats all.
BLANCHE You had no objection half an hour ago, when you met me in the hall, and shewed me all the letters. Your family doesnt object. Do you object?
TRENCH [earnestly] I do not indeed. It’s only a question of money.
BLANCHE [Imploringly, the voice softening and refining for the last time.] Harry: theres no use in our fencing in this way. Papa will never consent to my being absolutely dependent on you; and I dont like the idea of it myself. If you even mention such a thing to him you will break off the match: you will indeed.
TRENCH [obstinately] I cant help that.
BLANCHE [white with rage] You cant help! Oh, I’m beginning to understand. I will save you the trouble. You can tell papa that I have broken off the match; and then there will be no further difficulty.
TRENCH [taken aback] What do you mean, Blanche? Are you offended?
BLANCHE Offended! How dare you ask me?
TRENCH Dare!
BLANCHE How much more manly it would have been to confess that you were trifling with me that time on the Rhine! Why did you come here to-day? Why did you write to your people?
TRENCH Well, Blanche, if you are going to lose your temper —
BLANCHE Thats no answer. You depended on your family to get you out of your engagement; and they did not object: they were only too glad to be rid of you. You were not mean enough to stay away, and not manly enough to tell the truth. You thought you could provoke me to break the engagement: thats so like a man to try to put the woman in the wrong. Well, you have your way: I release you. I wish youd opened my eyes by downright brutality by striking me by anything rather than shuffling as you have done.
TRENCH [hotly] Shuffle! If I’d thought you capable of turning on me like this, I’d never have spoken to you. Ive a good mind never to speak to you again.
BLANCHE You shall not. not ever. I will take care of that [going to the door.]
TRENCH [alarmed] What are you going to do?
BLANCHE To get your letters, your false letters, and your presents, your hateful presents, to return them to you. I’m very glad it’s all broken off; and if — [as she puts her hand to the door it is opened from without by Sartorius, who enters and shuts it behind him.]
SARTORIUS [interrupting her severely] Hush, pray, Blanche : you are forgetting yourself: you can be heard all over the house. What is the matter?
BLANCHE [too angry to care whether she is overheard or not] You had better ask him. He has some excuse about money.
SARTORIUS Excuse! Excuse for what?
BLANCHE For throwing me over.
TRENCH [vehemently] I declare I never —
BLANCHE [interrupting him still more vehemently] You did. You did. You are doing nothing else [Trench begins repeating his contradiction and she her assertion; so that they both speak angrily together.]
SARTORIUS [in desperation at the noise] Silence! [Still more formidably] Silence! [They obey. He proceeds firmly] Blanche: you must control your temper : I will not have these repeated scenes within hearing of the servants. Dr Trench will answer for himself to me. You had better leave us. [He opens the door, and calls:] Mr Cokane: Will you kindly join us here.
COKANE [in the conservatory] Coming, my dear sir, coming. [He appears at the door.]
BLANCHE I’m sure I have no wish to stay. I hope I shall find you alone when I come back.
[An inarticulate exclamation bursts from Trench. She goes out, passing Cokane resentfully. He looks