for me.

MRS. CARLEY. You can't do it yourself, and you don't want your wife to
starve, do you.

GEORGIANA. Louise _won't_ starve.

LOUISE. [_To_ GEORGIANA.] You could save us and you won't!

GEORGIANA. I don't love Sam.

MRS. CARLEY. Don't "love"? Did Molly Packer from Toledo love the Duke of
Birmingham? and isn't she happy now?

GEORGIANA. I don't know, I have my doubts.

MRS. CARLEY. Doubts! Oh, _doubts_!

GEORGIANA. That's not the point, mother. I'm not going to marry Sam.

MRS. CARLEY. Oh, very well, then, have your way.

GEORGIANA. I will, mother.

MRS. CARLEY. [_Going to the sofa._] Don't consider my way at all.

GEORGIANA. I won't, mother, since you ask me not to.

MRS. CARLEY. But I'll tell you this, Georgiana, you're just as bad as
Steve! We must shake off both of you. Louise must get a divorce and
marry again. Look what other widows have done before her.

[_Louise goes to her mother and takes her hand._

GEORGIANA. Mother! Louise!

LOUISE. Well, why not?

MRS. CARLEY. Certainly!

GEORGIANA. [_Goes to them._] _No!_ Listen! You must stand by Steve, both
of you. You ought to do it out of affection, for, after all, whatever
you've got of friends and position and the things you value he gave you!
But never mind that! You ought to stand by him out of loyalty,--but
never mind that! You've _got_ to stand by him because if you ruin him
you'll ruin yourselves. You and mother could never hold up your heads
again in our world--in the world you love--if you left Steve. After all,
though our world may be careless sometimes of what it does itself, it is
very particular about what those people do who are _its guests_! Of
course, Louise, it does come hardest on you, for yourself and for the
children--but still you've got to stand by Steve.

MRS. CARLEY. Sam!

[_Going to_ SAM _for help._

LOUISE. Oh, I suppose I'll forgive him, I always do, but I don't know
about forgiving you.

GEORGIANA. _Me?_

LOUISE. If you don't marry Sam! You can make everything all right, and
Sam loves you--you can make mother happy and me happy and Steve
happy....

STEVEN. [_Interrupting._] No, leave me out!

[_He goes up behind the sofa._

LOUISE. Our life would go on just the same,--Steve will make no more
mistakes. I think you're heartless to refuse!

GEORGIANA. But, Louise, you ask me to give up entirely my own happiness.

LOUISE. Not at all! There's no one else in love with you but Sam, and
this isn't your fi