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MISS SPAULDING: “Oh, it’s very different with YOU. YOU’RE in love with him.”

MISS REED: “For shame, Nettie! I’m NOT in love with him.”

MISS SPAULDING: “And you can explain and justify it. But I never can justify it to myself, much less to him. Let me go, Ethel! I shall tell Mrs. McKnight that we must change this room instantly. And just after I’d got it so nearly in order! Go down and receive him in the parlor, Ethel. I CAN’T see him.”

MISS REED: “Receive him in the parlor! Why, Nettie, dear, you’re crazy! I’m going to ACCEPT him: and how can I accept him–with all the consequences–in a public parlor? No, indeed! If you won’t meet him here for a moment, just to oblige me, you can go into the other room. Or, no–you’d be listening to every word through the key-hole, you’re so demoralized!”

MISS SPAULDING: “Yes, yes, I deserve your contempt, Ethel.”

MISS REED, laughing: “You will have to go out for a walk, you poor thing; and I’m not going to have you coming back in five or ten minutes. You have got to stay out a good hour.”

MISS SPAULDING, running to get her things from the next room: “Oh, I’ll stay out till midnight!”

MISS REED, responding to a tap at the door: “Ye-e-s! Come in!– You’re caught, Nettie.”

A MAID-SERVANT, appearing with a card: “This gentleman is asking for you in the parlor, Miss Reed.”

MISS REED: “Oh! Ask him to come up here, please.–Nettie! Nettie!” She calls to her friend in the next room. “He’s coming right up, and if you don’t run you’re trapped.”

MISS SPAULDING, re-appearing, cloaked and bonneted: “I don’t blame YOU, Ethel, comparatively speaking. You can say that everything is fair in love. He will like it, and laugh at it in you, because he’ll like everything you’ve done. Besides, you’ve no principles, and I HAVE.”

MISS REED: “Oh, I’ve lots of principles, Nettie, but I’ve no practice!”

MISS SPAULDING: “No matter. There’s no excuse for me. I listened simply because I was a woman, and couldn’t help it; and, oh, what will he think of me?”

MISS REED: “I won’t give you away; if you really feel so badly” –

MISS SPAULDING: “Oh, DO you think you can keep from telling him, Ethel dear? Try! And I will be your slave forever!” Steps are heard on the stairs outside. “Oh, there he comes!” She dashes out of the door, and closes it after her, a moment before the maid- servant, followed by Mr. Ransom, taps at it.

III.

[SCENE: Miss Reed opens the door, and receives Mr. Ransom with well- affected surprise and state, suffering him to stand awkwardly on the threshold for a moment.]

SHE, coldly: “Oh!–Mr. Ransom!”

HE, abruptly: “I’ve come” –

SHE: “Won’t you come in?”

HE, advancing a few paces into the room: “I’ve come” –

SHE, indicating a chair: “Will you sit down?”

HE: “I must stand for the present. I’ve come to ask you for that money, Miss Reed, which I refused yesterday, in terms that I blush to think of. I was altogether and wholly in the wrong, and I’m ready to offer any imaginable apology or reparation. I’m ready to take the money and to sign a receipt, and then to be dismissed with whatever ignominy you please. I deserve anything–everything!”

SHE: “The money? Excuse me; I don’t know–I’m afraid that I’m not prepared to pay you the whole sum to-day.”