OLIVIA.  It is an ugly word, isn’t it?

GEORGE.  Yes, but don’t you understand—­(He jumps up and comes over to her) Look here, Olivia, old girl, the whole thing is nonsense, eh?  It isn’t your husband, it’s some other Telworthy that this fellow met.  That’s right, isn’t it?  Some other shady swindler who turned up on the boat, eh?  This sort of thing doesn’t happen to people like us—­committing bigamy and all that.  Some other fellow.

OLIVIA (shaking her head).  I knew all the shady swindlers in Sydney, George. . . .  They came to dinner. . . .  There were no others called Telworthy.

(GEORGE goes back despondently to his seat.)

GEORGE.  Well, what are we going to do?

OLIVIA.  You sent Mr. Pim away so quickly.  He might have told us things.  Telworthy’s plans.  Where he is now.  You hurried him away so quickly.

GEORGE.  I’ve sent a note round to ask him to come back.  My one idea at the moment was to get him out of the house—­to hush things up.

OLIVIA.  You can’t hush up two husbands.

GEORGE (in despair).  You can’t.  Everybody will know.  Everybody!

OLIVIA.  The children, Aunt Julia, they may as well know now as later. 
Mr. Pim must, of course.

GEORGE.  I do not propose to discuss my private affairs with Mr.
Pim——­

OLIVIA.  But he’s mixed himself up in them rather, hasn’t he, and if you’re going to ask him questions——­

GEORGE.  I only propose to ask him one question.  I shall ask him if he is absolutely certain of the man’s name.  I can do that quite easily without letting him know the reason for my inquiry.

OLIVIA.  You couldn’t make a mistake about a name like Telworthy.  But he might tell us something about Telworthy’s plans.  Perhaps he’s going back to Australia at once.  Perhaps he thinks I’m dead, too.  Perhaps—­ oh, there are so many things I want to know.

GEORGE.  Yes, yes, dear.  It would be interesting to—­that is, one naturally wants to know these things, but of course it doesn’t make any real difference.

OLIVIA (surprised).  No difference?

GEORGE.  Well, that is to say, you’re as much his wife if he’s in
Australia as you are if he’s in England.

OLIVIA.  I am not his wife at all.

GEORGE.  But, Olivia, surely you understand the position——­

OLIVIA (shaking her head).  Jacob Telworthy may be alive, but I am not his wife.  I ceased to be his wife when I became yours.

GEORGE.  You never were my wife.  That is the terrible part of it.  Our union—­you make me say it, Olivia—­has been unhallowed by the Church.  Unhallowed even by the Law.  Legally, we have been living in—­living in—­well, the point is, how does the Law stand?  I imagine that Telworthy could get a—­a divorce. . . .  Oh, it seems impossible that things like this can be happening to us.

OLIVIA (Joyfully).  A divorce?