with Providence? I think
Rhode Island tips the scales pretty even for the east!

BLANCHE. Please go, mother; please leave me for a little while.

MRS. HUNTER. Oh, very well, good-by! [LEONARD _enters Right with a
Christmas parcel, which he places on the table Right._] Dear me, have
you had all these Christmas presents and not opened them?

BLANCHE. It is only little Richard in this house who is celebrating
Christmas to-day.

MRS. HUNTER. It's a terrible affair; I only hope the newspapers won't
get hold of it. [_To_ LEONARD.] If any women come here asking for _me_
who look like ladies, don't let 'em in! They ain't my friends; they're
reporters.

[LEONARD _bows and goes out._

CLARA. I'm awfully sorry, Blanche, I honestly am; but I think you'll
have only yourself to blame if you don't strike out now and throw Dick
over. Good-by!

[MRS. HUNTER _and_ CLARA _go out Right._

BLANCHE. I wish _they_ wouldn't advise me to do what I _want_ to.

RUTH. Ah!

BLANCHE. But who do I harm by it? Surely, it wouldn't be for _his_ good
to be brought up under the influence of his father!

RUTH. If he saw you patiently bearing a cross for the sake of duty, can
you imagine a stronger force for good on the boy's character? What an
example _you_ will set him! What a chance for a mother!

BLANCHE. But my own life, my own happiness?

RUTH. Ah, my dear, that's just it! The watchword of our age is self! We
are all for ourselves; the twentieth century is to be a glorification of
selfishness, the Era of Egotism! Forget yourself, and what would you do?
The dignified thing. You would live quietly _beside_ your husband if not
_with_ him. And your son would be worthy of such a mother!

BLANCHE. And I?

RUTH. You would be _glad_ in the end.

BLANCHE. Perhaps--

RUTH. Surely! Blanche, for twenty years Mr. Mason and I have loved each
other.

[BLANCHE _is astonished. There is a pause._

[RUTH _smiles while she speaks, though her voice breaks._]

You never guessed! Ah, well, your father knew.

BLANCHE. But Mrs. Mason is hopelessly insane; surely--

RUTH. A principle is a principle; I took my stand against divorce. What
can you do for a principle if you don't give up everything for it?
Nothing! And that is what I mean. To-day I am not sorry--I am happy.

[_There is another slight pause._ RICHARD _is heard upstairs singing a
Christmas carol, "Once in Royal David's City," etc._

BLANCHE. [_With great emotion._] But if it breaks my