a drive in my car.

MINNIE (vehemently). No, you never.

GEORGE. Why do you deny it?

MINNIE. There's nothing to it.

AUGUSTA (aghast). George!

GEORGE. Well, it's true. I'm not ashamed of it, though Minnie appears to
be.

MINNIE (on the verge of tears). If you wasn't ashamed, why didn't you
tell, her before? I'm not ashamed of it, neither. It was natural.

AUGUSTA (after a pause, with a supreme effort to meet the situation).
Well, I suppose men are different. But there's no excuse for you, after
all I tried to do for you.

MINNIE. Thank God men are different!

(AUGUSTA rises. The ball of wool drops to the floor again, and DR.
JONATHAN picks it up.)

GEORGE. Mother, I'd like to tell you about it. You don't understand.

AUGUSTA. I'm afraid I do understand, dear.

(As she leaves the room, with dignity, GEORGE glances appealingly at
DR. JONATHAN.)

DR. JONATHAN (going up to MINNIE and taking her hand). Do you think
you'd have time to drop in to see me, Minnie, before your train goes?

MINNIE (gazing at him; after a moment). Sure! I guess I'd like to talk
to you.

DR. JONATHAN. It's the little white house across the Common.

MINNIE. Oh, I know, that's been shut up all these years.

DR. JONATHAN. And is open now again.

(He goes out, lower right, and there is a brief silence as the two
look after him.)

MINNIE. Say, who is he?

GEORGE. Why, he's a cousin of mine--

MINNIE. I don't mean that. He's somebody, ain't he?

GEORGE. By jingo, I'm beginning to think he is!

(They stand gazing at one another.)

MINNIE (remembering her grievance: passionately). Now you've gone and
done it--telling your mother we were friends.

GEORGE. But we are--aren't we? You couldn't expect me to keep quiet,
under the circumstances.

MINNIE. She thinks I'm not fit to talk to you. Not that I care, except
that I was fond of her, she's been good to me in her way, and I felt
real bad when I went off to Newcastle with the letter to the minister I
never laid eyes on. She'll believe--you know what she'll believe,--it'll
trouble her. She's your mother, and you're going away. You might have
kept still.

GEORGE. I couldn't keep still. What would you have thought of me?

MINNIE. It don't make any difference what I'd have thought of you.

GEORGE. It makes a difference to me, and it makes some difference what I
think of myself. I seem to be learning a good many things this morning.

MINNIE. From him?