LADY C. (_laying her hand upon SIR GEORGE"S arm_) What are you thinking of?
SIR G. I was just wondering if that poor woman"s love, which had so gone astray, will ever go back to her husband.
LADY C. Yes, if he is as generous as you.
SIR G. How was I generous?
LADY C. In sparing her.
SIR G. I was not generous. (_each looking in the other"s eyes with meaning_) I simply paid a debt of honour I have owed too long. If I _was_ generous, was it not you who taught me generosity?
LADY C. George, you have guessed her name!
SIR G. But I shall never mention it. (_embrace_)
CURTAIN.
Transcriber"s Note
This transcription is based on scanned images posted by the Internet Archive:
archive.org/details/inhonourboundano00grunuoft
These images, which were scanned from a copy made available by the University of Toronto Libraries, are of an undated edition printed in London by Samuel French. The estimated date of publication is 1885. A secondary source, also posted by the Internet Archive, was consulted:
archive.org/details/inhonorboundorig00grun
These images, which were made available by the University of California, are of an edition printed in Philadelphia by the Penn Publishing Company in 1912.
French"s Acting Editions from the nineteenth century tend to have minor editorial inconsistencies and errors as well as errors introduced in the printing process, depending on the condition and inking of the plates. Thus, for example, it is at times difficult to determine whether a certain letter is an "c," "e," or "o" or whether a certain punctuation mark is a period or a comma. Where context made the choice obvious, the obvious reading was given the benefit of the doubt without comment.
The following changes were noted:
- Throughout the text, the use of dashes has been made consistent.
- p. 3: Based on the Penn edition and editorial practice in other contemporaneous French"s Acting Editions, three colons in the opening scene description were changed to semicolons.
- p. 4: The only girl in the wide world for me--Added a period at the end of the sentence.
- p. 8: SIR GEORGE (_putting chair..._--Changed "SIR GEORGE" to "SIR G." for consistency.
- p. 9: Of course. (_quickl y_)--Deleted s.p.a.ce in "_quickl y_" in two consecutive lines.
- p. 10: SIR. G. Why so?--Deleted period after "SIR".
- p. 10: SIB G. (_putting the brief..._--Changed "SIB G." to "SIR G.".
- p. 10: SIR. G. Let us hope it will.--Deleted period after "SIR".
- p. 10: ...and hear you plead,--Changed comma to period.
- p. 11: What can they have to talk about--those two? (_reflectiv ly_)--Inserted "e" in _reflectiv ly_.
- p. 12: It is a weird thing Sometimes--Inserted period after "thing".
- p. 14: I know she did, although she never spoke: and...--Changed colon to semicolon, as in Penn edition.
- p. 17: Are youno better?--Inserted s.p.a.ce after "you".
- p. 18: SIR G. What--Added a question mark after "What".
- p. 19: (_reads nervously, the l trembling in his hands_)--Changed "_l_" to "_letter_".
The html version of this etext attempts to reproduce the layout of the printed text. However, some concessions have been made. For example, in the printed text stage directions following a line of dialogue were placed a couple s.p.a.ces after the dialogue, flush right on the same printed line, or flush right on the next line. In the etext, all stage directions printed on the same line were placed right after the dialogue. Stage directions printed on the next line were indented from the left margin, and coded as hanging paragraphs.