JEAN
Don"t you know why I ran away? To make you follow. I made you catch me.
I made you kiss me. Then you realized that we had been thrown together constantly--deliberately thrown together, if you care to know it--and, well, that"s how many marriages are made. But I shan"t marry on such terms. It"s indecent!
REX
[_another pause_]
I never thought a _woman_ could be capable of such honesty!... Oh, what a bully sport you are! You aren"t like the rest that have been shoved at me. Why, I can respect you. You are the one for me.
[_He tries to take her._
JEAN
[_restraining him with dignity_]
I am sorry, Rex, but I am not for you.
REX
Jean! without you ... don"t you see--I"ll go straight to the devil!
JEAN
That old, cowardly dodge? Any man who has no more backbone than that--why, I wouldn"t marry you if you were the last man in the world.
REX
[_frantic to possess what he cannot have_]
You won"t, eh? We"ll see about that. I want you now as I never wanted anything in my life, and I"ll win you from him yet. You"ll see!
[_HELEN now appears._
HELEN
Oh, I beg your pardon. Lucy said John was out here.
JEAN
I"ll call him.
[_She runs down into the garden._
REX
I"ll call him.
[_He runs after JEAN. HELEN helplessly watches them go, sighs, standing by the garden steps until JOHN ascends. He looks at HELEN a moment, wondering how to begin. She looks so capable and unafraid of him._
JOHN
If you hadn"t gone to college, you could have done what Jean is doing.
HELEN
[_with a shrug and a smile_]
But how proud you must be, John, to have a sister who isn"t compelled to marry one man while in love with another. _Now_, aren"t you glad I went to college?
[_She laughs good-naturedly at him._
JOHN
Humph! If you think I"d let a sister of mine marry one of old man Baker"s two-thousand-dollar employees----
HELEN
Why, John, didn"t Ernest tell you? Doctor Hawksbee has offered him a partnership. Just think of that!
JOHN
What! Going back into private practice?
HELEN
But it"s such a fashionable practice. Hawksbee"s made a million at it.
JOHN
But the inst.i.tute needs Hamilton.