(kneels at fire, and warms her hands) One more chance!

Denham.

I shall make the most of it.  Well, but what do you want?  A friendship, passionate and Platonic?  Why, it takes all the tyranny of a strong man like Swift to keep instinct within bounds.  The victory killed Stella and Vanessa.

Mrs. Tremaine.

Oh, we are more rational now!  Then, there were two of them; that was the difficulty there.

Denham.

Yes, there were two of them.  Except in a desert island, there is always a danger of that.

Mrs. Tremaine.

Why are men so inconstant?

Denham.

Why are women so charming—­and unsatisfactory?  We deceive ourselves, and are deceived, just like you.

Mrs. Tremaine.

You amuse yourselves, and we pay.

Denham.

It is the will of God—­of Nature, I should say.  She is an artist; but as for her morality—­

Mrs. Tremaine.

One can’t say much for that.

Denham.

Art is Nature’s final aim.  Love is the Art of Arts, and Art is long.

Mrs. Tremaine.

But could you not be a little more constant, if you tried?

Denham.

Oh, we can resist temptation, when we are not tempted—­just like women.

Mrs. Tremaine.

Your capacity for temptation is wonderful.

Denham.

Yes. We know our own frailty, you never quite realise yours.

Mrs. Tremaine.

What has made you so cynical?

Denham.

The bitterness of life.  Are your hands warm yet? (Takes her hands.)

Mrs. Tremaine.

Yes, I can go back now.

(She goes back to the “throne.”  He poses her, and returns to the easel.)

Denham.

(painting again) Marriage must certainly be modified.  A woman should have some honourable way of escape, when her husband gets tired of her.

Mrs. Tremaine.

(laughing) How delicately you put it!  But the wife?  If you had to bear all you so chivalrously inflict on us in “honourable” marriage, I wonder how many marriages there would be?

Denham.

Instinct would be too strong for us still.  But we should outscheme Nature.  We should invent.  What has a woman ever invented since the beginning of the world?  Well, you can easily rail us out of marriage.  How will you live then?

Mrs. Tremaine.

As we are trying to live now.

Denham.

I believe woman’s great ambition is to do all the work of the world, and maintain man in idleness.

Mrs. Tremaine.

That would be awful!  You would all be artists and minor poets then.

Denham.

You, I believe, prefer “the Free Union,” as it is called, to marriage?

Mrs. Tremaine.