ROSALINE.
What do you think of me?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
I think you a charming young lady.
ROSALINE.
Then what is the matter?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Well, I thought you were somebody else, that is all. So you are Rosaline.
ROSALINE.
You keep telling me I am Rosaline--I know I am. The question is how do I do?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
How do you do?
ROSALINE.
You misunderstand me. The question is how do I suit you?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Quite so--you bring me to the point. You suit me entirely. Mr. Addison perhaps explained to you the subject of my picture?
ROSALINE.
"Susannah." Susannah is a very ugly name--.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
But she will be a very pretty girl, won"t she?
ROSALINE.
Oh, go away with you.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Humour, only my humour! You musn"t think any familiarity was intended.
I am not that sort of man at all.
ROSALINE.
No?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Not a bit. As I told you out of the window, I"m married.
ROSALINE.
Well, I am sorry to hear it.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Now you are flattering me--now _I_ must say, "go away with you."
ROSALINE.
I am sorry to hear it because I prefer sitting to single artists. Wives sometimes make rumpuses.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Oh, you have found that?
ROSALINE.
I have indeed. I shall never forget one of my experiences as long as I live.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Really? You interest me.
ROSALINE _(sentimentally)_.
I loved a man with all my soul, and _he_ loved _me_. He married! No, you must not blame him for it--he was weak, and the temptation came.
"To err is human,"--he married. Oh, my heart! (_She presses her hand to her side_.) Forgive me while I shed a tear.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Shed two.
ROSALINE.
I forgave him; I struggled to subdue the rage within me. I forgave him, and went to see him again. I had conquered my scorn--my better nature had triumphed--I went to him with all the old tenderness that I had lavished on him in the days gone by. He was startled, even cold, but still I feel I should have won him back to me had not something happened.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Something so often happens. It is an aggravating way of something.
ROSALINE.