with sudden feeling._]
There's nothing to tell. We met, we loved, we married, we parted; or
at least we wrangled and jangled. [_Sighs._] Ha! Why weren't we happy?
Don't ask me, why! It may have been _partly_ my fault!

VIDA. [_With tenderness._] Never!

JOHN. [_His mind on_ CYNTHIA.] But I believe it's all in the way a
girl's brought up. Our girls are brought up to be ignorant of
life--they're ignorant of life. Life is a joke, and marriage is a
picnic, and a man is a shawl-strap--'Pon my soul, Cynthia Deane--no,
I can't tell you! [_In great irritation, he rises abruptly, and
strides up and down the room._

VIDA. [_Gently._] Please tell me!

JOHN. Well, she was an heiress, an American heiress--and she'd been
taught to think marriage meant burnt almonds and moonshine and a yacht
and three automobiles, and she thought--I don't know what she thought,
but I tell you, Mrs. Phillimore, marriage is three parts love and
seven parts forgiveness of sins. [_He continues restlessly to pace the
floor as he speaks of_ CYNTHIA.

VIDA. [_Flattering him as a matter of second nature._] She never loved
you.

JOHN. [_On whom she has made no impression at all._] Yes, she did. For
six or seven months there was not a shadow between us. It was perfect,
and then one day she went off like a pistol-shot! I had a piece of law
work and couldn't take her to see Flashlight race the Maryland mare.
The case meant a big fee, big Kudos, and in sails Cynthia,
Flashlight-mad! And will I put on my hat and take her? No--and bang
she goes off like a stick o' dynamite--what did I marry her for?--and
words--pretty high words, until she got mad, when she threw over a
chair, and said, oh, well,--marriage was a failure, or it was with
me, so I said she'd better try somebody else. She said she would, and
marched out of the room.

VIDA. [_Gently sarcastic._] But she came back!

JOHN. She came back, but not as you mean. She stood at the door and
said, "Jack, I shall divorce you." Then she came over to my
study-table, dropped her wedding ring on my law papers, and went out.
The door shut, I laughed; the front door slammed, I damned. [_After a
silence, moving abruptly to the window._] She never came back. [_He
turns away and then, recovering, moves toward_ VIDA, _who catches his
hands._

VIDA. [_Hoping for a contradiction._] She's broken your heart.

JOHN. [_Taking a chair by the lounge._] Oh, no!

VIDA. [_Encouraged, begins to play the game again._] You'