accompanied not by FULLARTON, but by the lawyer,
TWISDON. They come in.

MRS. FULLARTON. Clare! My dear! How are you after all this time?

CLARE. [Her eyes fixed on TWISDEN] Yes?

MRS. FULLARTON. [Disconcerted by the strange greeting] I brought
Mr. Twisden to tell you something. May I stay?

CLARE. Yes. [She points to the chair at the same table: MRS.
FULLARTON sits down] Now!

[TWISDEN comes forward]

TWISDEN. As you're not defending this case, Mrs. Dedmond, there is
nobody but yourself for me to apply to.

CLARE. Please tell me quickly, what you've come for.

TWISDEN. [Bowing slightly] I am instructed by Mr. Dedmond to say
that if you will leave your present companion and undertake not to
see him again, he will withdraw the suit and settle three hundred a
year on you. [At CLARE's movement of abhorrence] Don't
misunderstand me, please--it is not--it could hardly be, a request
that you should go back. Mr. Dedmond is not prepared to receive you
again. The proposal--forgive my saying so--remarkably Quixotic--is
made to save the scandal to his family and your own. It binds you to
nothing but the abandonment of your present companion, with certain
conditions of the same nature as to the future. In other words, it
assures you a position--so long as you live quietly by yourself.

CLARE. I see. Will you please thank Mr. Dedmond, and say that I
refuse?

MRS. FULLARTON. Clare, Clare! For God's sake don't be desperate.

[CLARE, deathly still, just looks at her]

TWISDEN. Mrs. Dedmond, I am bound to put the position to you in its
naked brutality. You know there's a claim for damages?

CLARE. I have just learnt it.

TWISDEN. You realize what the result of this suit must be: You will
be left dependent on an undischarged bankrupt. To put it another
way, you'll be a stone round the neck of a drowning man.

CLARE. You are cowards.

MRS. FULLARTON. Clare, Clare! [To TWISDEN] She doesn't mean it;
please be patient.

CLARE. I do mean it. You ruin him because of me. You get him down,
and kick him to intimidate me.

MRS. FULLARTON. My dear girl! Mr. Twisden is not personally
concerned. How can you?

CLARE. If I were dying, and it would save me, I wouldn't take a
penny from my husband.

TWISDEN. Nothing could be more bitter than those words. Do you
really wish me to take them back to him?

CLARE. Yes. [She turns from them to the fire]

MRS. FULLARTO