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 first year out, you know.

MRS. CARLEY.  And anyway it would be five happy against one unhappy, there’s no arguing about that.

COAST. [To LOUISE.] You and your mother both think she ought to accept me, don’t you?

LOUISE.  Certainly.

COAST. [To GEORGIANA.] I told you.

GEORGIANA.  Yes, Sam, you win!—­but Louise!  I love some one else.

LOUISE.  Dick Coleman?