.

MAGGIE [to HETTY]. We did, but not the kind you think.

MARGARET. John became the rage among Americans travelling in France,
too, and they simply insisted upon his coming here.

HARRIET. Whom is he going to paint here?

MAGGIE [frightened]. What names dare I make up?

MARGARET [calmly]. Just at present Miss Dorothy Ainsworth of Oregon is
posing. You may not know the name, but she is the daughter of a wealthy
miner who found gold in Alaska.

HARRIET. I dare say there are many Western people we have never heard
of.

MARGARET. You must have found social life in New York very interesting,
Harriet, after the simplicity of our home town.

HETTY [to MAGGIE]. There's no need to remind us that our beginnings were
the same.

HARRIET. Of course Charles's family made everything delightful for me.
They are so well connected.

MAGGIE [to MARGARET]. Flatter her.

MARGARET. I heard it mentioned yesterday that you had made yourself very
popular. Some one said you were very clever!

HARRIET [pleased]. Who told you that?

MAGGIE. Nobody!

MARGARET [pleasantly]. Oh, confidences should be suspected--respected,
I mean. They said, too, that you are gaining some reputation as a critic
of art.

HARRIET. I make no pretenses.

MARGARET. Are you and Mr. Goodrich interested in the same things, too?

HETTY. No!

HARRIET. Yes, indeed, Charles and I are inseparable.

MAGGIE. I wonder.

HARRIET. Do have another cake.

MAGGIE [in relief]. Oh, yes. [Again her claws extend but do not touch
the cake.]

MARGARET [takes cake delicately]. I really shouldn't--after my big
luncheon. John took me to the Ritz and we are invited to the Bedfords'
for dinner--they have such a magnificent house near the drive--I really
shouldn't, but the cakes are so good.

MAGGIE. Starving!

HARRIET [to MARGARET]. More tea?

MAGGIE. Yes!

MARGARET. No, thank you. How wonderfully life has arranged itself for
you. Wealth, position, a happy marriage, every opportunity to enjoy all
pleasures; beauty, art--how happy you must be.

HETTY [in anguish]. Don't call me happy. I've never been happy since
I gave up John. All these years without him--a future without
him--no--no--I shall win him back--away from you--away from you----

HARRIET [does not see MAGGIE pointing to cream and MARGARET stealing
some]. I sometimes think it is unfair for any one to be as happy as I
am. Charles and I are just as much in love now as when we married. To me
he is just