JUDITH. Yes, I. Am I not to care at all?

RICHARD (gaily and bluntly). Not a scrap. Oh, you expressed your
feelings towards me very frankly yesterday. What happened may have
softened you for the moment; but believe me, Mrs. Anderson, you don't
like a bone in my skin or a hair on my head. I shall be as good a
riddance at 12 today as I should have been at 12 yesterday.

JUDITH (her voice trembling). What can I do to show you that you are
mistaken?

RICHARD. Don't trouble. I'll give you credit for liking me a little
better than you did. All I say is that my death will not break your
heart.

JUDITH (almost in a whisper). How do you know? (She puts her hands on
his shoulders and looks intently at him.)

RICHARD (amazed--divining the truth). Mrs. Anderson!!! (The bell of the
town clock strikes the quarter. He collects himself, and removes her
hands, saying rather coldly) Excuse me: they will be here for me
presently. It is too late.

JUDITH. It is not too late. Call me as witness: they will never kill
you when they know how heroically you have acted.

RICHARD (with some scorn). Indeed! But if I don't go through with it,
where will the heroism be? I shall simply have tricked them; and
they'll hang me for that like a dog. Serve me right too!

JUDITH (wildly). Oh, I believe you WANT to die.

RICHARD (obstinately). No I don't.

JUDITH. Then why not try to save yourself? I implore you--listen. You
said just now that you saved him for my sake--yes (clutching him as he
recoils with a gesture of denial) a little for my sake. Well, save
yourself for my sake. And I will go with you to the end of the world.

RICHARD (taking her by the wrists and holding her a little way from
him, looking steadily at her). Judith.

JUDITH (breathless--delighted at the name). Yes.

RICHARD. If I said--to please you--that I did what I did ever so little
for your sake, I lied as men always lie to women. You know how much I
have lived with worthless men--aye, and worthless women too. Well, they
could all rise to some sort of goodness and kindness when they were in
love. (The word love comes from him with true Puritan scorn.) That has
taught me to set very little store by the goodness that only comes out
red hot. What I did last night, I did in cold blood, caring not half so
much for your husband, or (ruthlessly) for you (she droops, stricken)
as I do for myself. I had no motive and no interest: all I can tell you
is that when it came to t