promise me
always to come to me for everything.

[STERLING _enters suddenly Left._

[_He is a man of thirty-eight or forty, a singularly attractive
personality; he is handsome and distinguished. His hair is grayer than
his years may account for and his manner betrays a nervous system
overtaxed and barely under control. At the moment that he enters he is
evidently laboring under some especial, and only half-concealed, nervous
strain. In spite of his irritability at times with his wife, there is an
undercurrent of tenderness which reveals his real love for_ BLANCHE.

STERLING. Oh, you're all here! Have I missed old Mason?

RUTH. Yes, but Blanche will tell you what he had to say. I'm going
upstairs to try and pacify your mother. We mustn't forget she has a hard
time ahead of her.

[_She goes out Right with_ JESSICA.

STERLING. I suppose Mason came about the will and your father's affairs?

BLANCHE. Yes, you ought to have been here.

STERLING. [_Irritably._] But I couldn't--I told you I couldn't!

BLANCHE. Do you realize, dear, that you haven't been able to do
_anything for me_ for a long time? Lately, even I hardly ever _see_
you--I stay home night after night alone.

STERLING. That's your own fault, dear; Ned Warden's always ready to take
you anywhere you like.

BLANCHE. [_With the ghost of a jest._] But do you think it's quite right
for me to take up all Mr. Warden's time?

STERLING. Why not, if he likes it?

BLANCHE. And don't you think people will soon talk?

STERLING. Darling! People always talk, and who cares!

BLANCHE. It's months since you showed me any sign of affection, and now
when my heart is hungrier than ever for it,--you know how I loved my
father,--I long for sympathy from _you_, and you haven't once thought to
take me, your wife, in your arms and hold me close and comfort me.

STERLING. I'm sorry, old girl, I'm really sorry. [_Embracing her
affectionately._] And surely you know I don't love any other woman in
the world but you. [_He kisses her._] It's only because I've been
terribly worried. I don't want to bother you with business, but I've
been in an awful hole for money. I tried to make a big coup in Wall
Street the other day and only succeeded getting in deeper, and for the
last few days I've been nearly distracted.

BLANCHE. Why didn't you tell me?

STERLING. I thought I'd get out of it with this Consolidated Copper
without worrying you.

BLANCHE. You were in that, too?

STE