Cleeve and--and--
GERTRUDE. No!
[ST. OLPHERTS signifies assent; GERTRUDE makes a movement.]
ST. OLPHERTS. [To her.] Don't go.
AMOS. The object of such a meeting?
ST. OLPHERTS. Mrs. Cleeve desires to make a direct, personal appeal to
Mrs. Ebbsmith.
GERTRUDE. Oh, what kind of woman can this Mrs. Cleeve be?
ST. OLPHERTS. A woman of character, who sets herself to accomplish a
certain task--
GERTRUDE. Character!
AMOS. Hush, Gerty!
ST. OLPHERTS. And who gathers her skirts tightly around her and
tip-toes gently into the mire.
AMOS. To put it clearly: in order to get her unfaithful husband back to
London, Mrs. Cleeve would deliberately employ this weak, unhappy woman
as a lure.
ST. OLPHERTS. Perhaps Mrs. Cleeve is an unhappy woman.
GERTRUDE. What work for a wife!
ST. OLPHERTS. Wife--nonsense! She is only married to Cleeve.
AMOS. [Walking up and down.] It is proposed that this meeting should
take place--when?
ST. OLPHERTS. I have brought Sir Sandford and Mrs. Cleeve with me.
[Pointing towards the outer door.] They are--
AMOS. If I decline?
ST. OLPHERTS. It's known you leave for Milan at a quarter to nine in
the morning; there might be some sort of foolish, inconvenient scene at
the station.
AMOS. Surely your Grace--?
ST.
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