er to her) Melisande!

(He is about to put his arms round her, but she breaks away from him.)

MELISANDE. Oh, don't, don't! What's the good of pretending? It was
only pretence this morning--what's the good of going on with it? I
thought you were so different from other men, but you're just the
same, just the same. You talk about the things they talk about, you
wear the clothes they wear. You were my true knight, my fairy Prince,
this morning, and this afternoon you come down dressed like that (she
waves her hand at it) and tell me that you are on the Stock Exchange!
Oh, can't you see what you've done? All the beautiful world that I had
built up for you and me--shattered, shattered.

GERVASE (going to her). Melisande!

MELISANDE. No, no!

GERVASE (stopping). All right.

MELISANDE (recovering herself). Please go.

GERVASE (with a smile). Well, that's not quite fair, you know.

MELISANDE. What do you mean?

GERVASE. Well, what about _my_ beautiful world--the world that _I_ had
built up?

MELISANDE. I don't understand.

GERVASE. What about _your_ pretence this morning? I thought you were
so different from other women, but you're just the same, just the
same. You were my true lady, my fairy Princess, this morning; and this
afternoon the Queen, your mother, disabled herself by indigestion,
tells me that you do all the housekeeping for her just like any
ordinary commonplace girl. Your father, the King, has obviously never
had a battle-axe in his hand in his life; your suitor, Prince Robert
of Coote, is much more at home with a niblick than with a lance; and
your cousin, the Lady Jane----

MELISANDE (sinking on to the sofa and hiding her face). Oh, cruel,
cruel!

GERVASE (remorsefully). Oh, forgive me, Melisande. It was horrible of
me.

MELISANDE. No, but it's true. How could any romance come into this
house? Now you know why I wanted you to take me away--away to the ends
of the earth with you.

GERVASE. Well, that's what I want to do.

MELISANDE. Ah, don't! When you're on the Stock Exchange!

GERVASE. But there's plenty of romance on the Stock Exchange. (Nodding
his head) Oh yes, you want to look out for it.

MELISANDE (reproachfully). Now you're laughing at me again.

GERVASE. My dear, I'm not. Or if I am laughing at you, then I am
laughing at myself too. And if we can laugh together, then we can be
happy together, Melisande.

MELISANDE. I want romance, I want beauty. I don't want jokes.

GERVASE.