VALENTINE (confirming her officiously). Nothing. Nothing whatever.
(Gloria looks at him with unspeakable indignation.) I beg your pardon.
(He sits down ignominiously on the ottoman.)
GLORIA. I cannot believe that any one has any right even to think
about things that concern me only. (She turns away from them to conceal
a painful struggle with her emotion.)
MRS. CLANDON. My dear, if I have wounded your pride---
GLORIA (turning on them for a moment). My p r i d e! My pride!!
Oh, it's gone: I have learnt now that I have no strength to be proud of.
(Turning away again.) But if a woman cannot protect herself, no one can
protect her. No one has any right to try---not even her mother. I know
I have lost your confidence, just as I have lost this man's respect;---
(She stops to master a sob.)
VALENTINE (under his breath). This man! (Murmuring again.) Oh!
MRS. CLANDON (in an undertone). Pray be silent, sir.
GLORIA (continuing). ---but I have at least the right to be left
alone in my disgrace. I am one of those weak creatures born to be
mastered by the first man whose eye is caught by them; and I must
fulfill my destiny, I suppose. At least spare me the humiliation of
trying to save me. (She sits down, with her handkerchief to her eyes,
at the farther end of the table.)
VALENTINE (jumping up).
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