you think you'll
pass out of my life--that I _want_ you to? Why, good Heaven, I'll be your
best friend as long as I live. Friend--yes--what I always should have
been--meant to be! And Hector. Why, Betty, I tell you, merely talking
to-night, as I've done, has made me feel--different--sort of--lifted--a
load. Because I've always had it--somewhere deep down in me--when I've
thought of--him.

BETTY. [_Calmly._] Liar.

WALTER. [_Falling back._] Betty!

BETTY. Liar--yes. Why these stupid, silly lies? "Always, deep down in me!"
Where was it, this beautiful feeling, when you got me to go to your rooms?

WALTER. [_Harshly._] We needn't--

BETTY. I liked you--I've said that--I liked you from the first. But I was
straight enough. Liked you, of course--but I had no idea, not the
slightest.... Thought it fun to play the fool, flirt just a bit. But it
was you, you, _you_ who--

WALTER. [_Breaking in sulkily and stamping his foot._] Never mind about
who it was.

BETTY. [_Passionately._] Never mind! You dare!

WALTER. [_Doggedly._] Yes--I dare. And look here--since you force me to
it--that's all rot--yes, it is--just rot. Just as you like it now, hearing
Hector ask me to stop with you, and kissing me the moment his back is
turned--so you met me halfway, and more than halfway.

BETTY. You cur!

WALTER. That's what a woman always says, when a man speaks the truth.
Because it _is_ the truth--and you know it. "The way I squeezed your
hand!" D'you think I _meant_ to squeeze it--in a way! Why, as there's a
Heaven above me, you were as sacred to me--as my own sister!

BETTY. [_Quietly, as she sits, to right of the table._] What I'm
wondering is--you see, you're the only lover I've had--what I wonder is,
when a man breaks off, tells a woman he's tired of her, wants to get
married--does he _always_ abuse the woman--

WALTER. [_Sulkily._] I haven't--

BETTY. Degrade, and throw mud on, the love she has had for him?

WALTER. [_With a bitter shrug._] Love--

BETTY. [_Passionately, as she springs to her feet._] Love, love, yes,
you--cruel man! Love, what else? I adore you, don't you know that? Live
for you! would give up everything in the world--everything, everything!
And Walter, Walter! If it's only _that_--that you want a home--well, let's
go off together. He'll divorce us--we can get married. Don't go away, and
leave me here, alone with him! I couldn't stand it--Walter, I couldn't, I
couldn't!

[_She goes eagerly to hi