RA. Julia, I wasn't addressing myself to you. Mother, where _are_
you living?... Why, _where_ has she gone to?

(_For now we perceive that this gentle Old Lady so devious in her
conversation has a power of self-possession, of which, very retiringly,
she avails herself._)

JULIA (_improving the occasion, as she hands back the cup, with that
touch of superiority so exasperating to a near relative_). Now you see!
If you press her too much, she goes.... You'll have to accommodate
yourself, Laura.

LAURA (_imposing her own explanation_). I think you gave me
_green_ tea, Julia ... or have had it yourself.

JULIA (_knowing better_). The dear Mother seldom stays long, except
when she finds me alone.

(_Having insinuated this barb into the flesh of her 'dear sister,' she
takes up her crochet with an air of great contentment. Mrs. James,
meanwhile, to make herself more at home, now that tea is finished, undoes
her bonnet-strings with a tug, and lets them hang. She is not in the best
of tempers.)_

LAURA. I don't believe she recognised me. Why did she keep on calling me
'Jane'?

JULIA. She took you for poor Aunt Jane, I fancy.

LAURA (_infuriated at being taken for anyone 'poor'_).
Why should she do that, pray?

JULIA. Well, there always was a likeness, you know; and you are older than
you were, Laura.

LAURA (_crushingly_). Does 'poor Aunt Jane' wear widow's weeds?
(_This reminds her not only of her own condition, but of other things as
well. She sits up and takes a stiller bigger bite into her new world_.)
Julia!... Where's William?

JULIA. I haven't inquired.

LAURA (_self-importance and a sense of duty consuming her_.) I wish
to see him.

JULIA. Better not, as it didn't occur to you before.

LAURA. Am I not to see my own husband, pray?

JULIA. He didn't ever live _here_, you know.

LAURA. He can come, I suppose. He has got legs like the rest of us.

JULIA. Yes, but one can't force people: at least, not here. You should
remember that--before he married you--he had other ties.

(_Mrs. James preserves her self-possession, but there is battle in her
eye._)

LAURA. He was married to me longer than he was to Isabel.

JULIA. They had children.

LAURA. I could have had children if I chose. I didn't choose.... Julia,
how am I to see him?

JULIA (_Washing her hands of it_). You must manage for yourself,
Laura.

LAURA. I'm puzzled! Here are we in the next world just as we expected, and
where are all the--