want to look at you. . . . I've seen you
like that for four years. Don't move. . . . I've been in some dreary
places, but you've been with me most of the time. Just let's have a
last look.

KATE. A last look?

DENNIS. Yes.

KATE. You're saying good-bye to me?

DENNIS. I don't know whether it's to you, Kate. To the girl who has
been with me these last four years. Was that you?

KATE (dropping her eyes). I don't know, Dennis.

DENNIS. I wish to God I wasn't your husband.

KATE. What would you do if you weren't my husband?

DENNIS. Make love to you.

KATE. Can't you do that now?

DENNIS. Being your husband rather handicaps me, you know. I never
really stood a chance against the other fellow.

KATE. I was to choose between you, you said. You think that I have
already made up my mind?

DENNIS (smiling). I think so.

KATE. And chosen him?

DENNIS (shaking his head). Oh, no!

KATE (surprised). You think I have chosen _you_?

DENNIS (nodding). M'm.

KATE (indignantly). Really, Dennis! Considering that I had practically
arranged to run away with him twenty minutes ago! You must think me
very fickle.

DENNIS. Not fickle. Imaginative.

KATE. What do you mean? And why are you so certain that I am going to
choose you? And why in that case did you talk about taking a last look
at me? And what--?

DENNIS. Of course, we've only got five minutes, but I think that if
you asked your questions one at a time----

KATE (smiling). Well, you needn't _answer_ them all together.

DENNIS. All right then, one at a time. Why am I certain that you will
choose me? Because for the first time in your life you have just been
alone with Mr. Cyril Norwood. That's what I meant by saying you were
imaginative. The Norwood you've been thinking yourself in love with
doesn't exist. I'm certain that you've seen him for the first time in
these last few minutes. Why, the Archangel Gabriel would have made a
hash of a five minutes like that; it would have been impossible for
him to have said the right thing to you. Norwood? Good Lord, he didn't
stand a chance. You were judging him all the time, weren't you?

KATE (thoughtfully). You're very clever, Dennis.

DENNIS (cheerfully). Four years' study of the Turkish character.

KATE. But how do you know I'm not judging _you_ all the time?

DENNIS. Of course you are. But there's all the difference in the world
between judging a stranger like me, and judging the man you thought
you were