If any telegrams come for me, I'm writing to _my wife_!
[_JEAN and REX alone, they look at each other, not very loverlike._
You weren't in love with me yesterday. You aren't now. You would get out of it if you honorably could. But you honorably _can't_! So you have spoken to John; you are going to see it through, because you're a good sport.... I admire you for that, Rex, too much to hold you to it. You are released.
Why--why--you--you don't suppose I want to be released?
Well, I do!... Yesterday I let you propose to me when I cared for some one else. That's not fair to you, to me, to him!
Who is he? What do you mean by this? Why didn't you tell me?
I am telling you now. What have you ever told me about yourself?
You had no right to play fast and loose with me.
I'm making the only amends I can. You are free, I tell you.
I don't want to be free! He can't have you! You are mine! If you think you can make me stop loving you----
Love, Rex? Only jealousy. You've never been in love with me--you've always been in love with Helen. But you couldn't get her, so you took me. Isn't that true, Rex?
I'll be honest with you, too. Yesterday I wasn't really very serious. I felt like a brute afterward. You tried your best to prevent what happened and ran away from me. But now----
Don't you know why I ran away? To make you follow. I made you catch me. I made you kiss me. Then you realized that we had been thrown together constantly--deliberately thrown together, if you care to know it--and, well, that's how many marriages are made. But I shan't marry on such terms. It's indecent!
I never thought a _woman_ could be capable of such honesty!... Oh, what a bully sport you are! You aren't like the rest that have been shoved at me. Why, I can respect you. You are the one for me.
Jean! without you ... don't you see--I'll go straight to the devil!
That old, cowardly dodge? Any man who has no more backbone than that--why, I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man in the world.
[_frantic to possess what he cannot have_]
You won't, eh? We'll see about that. I want you now as I never wanted anything in my life, and I'll win you from him yet. You'll see!
Oh, I beg your pardon. Lucy said John was out here.
[_He runs after JEAN. HELEN helplessly watches them go, sighs, standing by the garden steps until JOHN ascends. He looks at HELEN a moment, wondering how to begin. She looks so capable and unafraid of him._