Sara, Marwood.

SARA.

My good Mellefont sometimes gives his polite phrases quite a wrong
accent. Do not you think so too, Madam?

MARWOOD.

I am no doubt too much accustomed to his way already to notice anything
of that sort.

SARA.

Will you not take a seat, Madam?

MARWOOD.

If you desire it. (_Aside, whilst they are seating themselves_.) I must
not let this moment slip by unused.

SARA.

Tell me! Shall I not be the most enviable of women with my Mellefont?

MARWOOD.

If Mellefont knows how to appreciate his happiness, Miss Sampson will
make him the most enviable of men. But----

SARA.

A "but," and then a pause, Madam----

MARWOOD.

I am frank, Miss Sampson.

SARA.

And for this reason infinitely more to be esteemed.

MARWOOD.

Frank--not seldom imprudently so. My "but" is a proof of it. A very
imprudent "but."

SARA.

I do not think that my Lady Solmes can wish through this evasion to
make me more uneasy. It must be a cruel mercy that only rouses
suspicions of an evil which it might disclose.

MARWOOD.

Not at all, Miss Sampson! You attach far too much importance to my
"but." Mellefont is a relation of mine----

SARA.

Then all the more important is the slightest charge which you have to
make against him.

MARWOOD.

But even were Mellefont my brother, I must tell you, that I should
unhesitatingly side with one of my own sex against him, if I perceived
that he did not act quite honestly towards her. We women ought properly
to consider every insult shown to one of us as an insult to the whole
sex, and to make it a common affair, in which even the sister and
mother of the guilty one ought not to hesitate to share.

SARA.

This remark----

MARWOOD.

Has already been my guide now and then in doubtful cases.

SARA.

And promises me--I tremble.

MARWOOD.

No, Miss Sampson, if you