and looks up deplorably
at Vivie, who takes out her watch and says] Well, that is enough for
tonight. At what hour would you like breakfast? Is half-past eight too
early for you?

MRS WARREN [wildly] My God, what sort of woman are you?

VIVIE [coolly] The sort the world is mostly made of, I should hope.
Otherwise I don't understand how it gets its business done.

Come [taking her mother by the wrist and pulling her up pretty
resolutely]: pull yourself together. Thats right.

MRS WARREN [querulously] Youre very rough with me, Vivie.

VIVIE. Nonsense. What about bed? It's past ten.

MRS WARREN [passionately] Whats the use of my going to bed? Do you think
I could sleep?

VIVIE. Why not? I shall.

MRS WARREN. You! you've no heart. [She suddenly breaks out vehemently in
her natural tongue--the dialect of a woman of the people--with all her
affectations of maternal authority and conventional manners gone, and an
overwhelming inspiration of true conviction and scorn in her] Oh, I wont
bear it: I won't put up with the injustice of it. What right have you to
set yourself up above me like this? You boast of what you are to me--to
_me_, who gave you a chance of being what you are. What chance had I?
Shame on you for a bad daughter and a stuck-up prude!

VIVIE [sitting down with a shrug, no longer confident; for her replies,
which have sounded sensible and strong to her so far, now begin to ring
rather woodenly and even priggishly against the new tone of her mother]
Don't think for a moment I set myself above you in any way. You attacked
me with the conventional authority of a mother: I defended myself with
the conventional superiority of a respectable woman. Frankly, I am not
going to stand any of your nonsense; and when you drop it I shall not
expect you to stand any of mine. I shall always respect your right to
your own opinions and your own way of life.

MRS WARREN. My own opinions and my own way of life! Listen to her
talking! Do you think I was brought up like you? able to pick and choose
my own way of life? Do you think I did what I did because I liked it, or
thought it right, or wouldn't rather have gone to college and been a lady
if I'd had the chance?

VIVIE. Everybody has some choice, mother. The poorest girl alive may
not be able to choose between being Queen of England or Principal
of Newnham; but she can choose between ragpicking and flowerselling,
according to her taste. People are always blaming circum