Miss Fullgarney--!
SOPHY.
[_After a cautious glance round._] You know, Mr. Valma, I was always a self-willed, independent sort of a girl--a handful, they used to call me; and when father died I determined to have done with my step-mother, and to come to London at any price. I was seventeen then.
POLLITT.
Yes?
SOPHY.
Oh, it"s nothing to be ashamed of, really; still, I did begin life in town--[_with an uneasy little laugh and a toss of the head_]--you"d hardly believe it!--as a nursery-maid.
POLLITT.
H"m! I am aware that is not considered--
SOPHY.
I should think not! Oh, of course, in time I rose to be Useful Maid, and then Maid. I"ve been lady"s-maid in some excellent houses. And when I got sick of maiding I went to Dundas"s opposite, and served three years at the hairdressing; that"s an extremely refined position, I needn"t say. And then some kind friends routed me out, [_surveying the room proudly_] and put me into this.
POLLITT.
Then why bestow a second thought upon your beginnings?
SOPHY.
No, I suppose I oughtn"t to. n.o.body can breathe a word against my respectability. All the same, I am quite aware that it mightn"t be over pleasant for a gentleman to remember that his wife was once--[_sitting in the screen-chair_] well, a servant.
POLLITT.
[_By her chair._] It would not weigh on my mind if you had been kitchen-maid [_pointing out of the window_] at Fletcher"s Hotel.
[_Looking about him._] It"s this business I don"t care for.
SOPHY.
This business!
POLLITT.
For _you_. If you did no more than glide about your rooms, superintending your young ladies! [_Sitting, facing her._] But I hate the idea of your sitting here, or there, holding some man"s hand in yours!
SOPHY.
[_Suddenly ablaze._] Do you! [_Pointing out of the window._] Yet you sit there, day after day, and hold women"s hands in yours!
POLLITT.
[_Eagerly._] You are jealous of me?
SOPHY.
[_Panting._] A little.
POLLITT.
[_Going down upon one knee._] Ah, you do love me!
SOPHY.
[_Faintly._] Fondly.
POLLITT.
And you will be my wife?
SOPHY.
Yes.
POLLITT.
[_Embracing her._] My dearest!
SOPHY.
Not yet! suppose the girls saw you!
POLLITT.
Let all the world see us!
SOPHY.
[_Submissively, laying her cheek upon his brow._] Oh, but I wish--and yet I don"t wish--
POLLITT.
What?
SOPHY.
That you were not so much my superior in every way.
POLLITT.
[_In an altered voice._] Sophy.