MRS GILBEY.     |   Oh, Maria!   What are you saying?
|

GILBEY. | What!  And you so pious!

MRS KNOX.  She went where the spirit guided her.  And what harm there was in it she knew nothing about.

GILBEY.  Oh, come, Mrs Knox!  Girls are not so innocent as all that.

MRS KNOX.  I dont say she was ignorant.  But I do say that she didnt know what we know:  I mean the way certain temptations get a sudden hold that no goodness nor self-control is any use against.  She was saved from that, and had a rough lesson too; and I say it was no earthly protection that did that.  But dont think, you two men, that youll be protected if you make what she did an excuse to go and do as youd like to do if it wasnt for fear of losing your characters.  The spirit wont guide you, because it isnt in you; and it never had been:  not in either of you.

GILBEY. [with ironic humility] I’m sure I’m obliged to you for your good opinion, Mrs Knox.

MRS KNOX.  Well, I will say for you, Mr Gilbey, that youre better than my man here.  Hes a bitter hard heathen, is my Jo, God help me! [She begins to cry quietly].

KNOX.  Now, dont take on like that, Amelia.  You know I always give in to you that you were right about religion.  But one of us had to think of other things, or we’d have starved, we and the child.

MRS KNOX.  How do you know youd have starved?  All the other things might have been added unto you.

GILBEY.  Come, Mrs Knox, dont tell me Knox is a sinner.  I know better.  I’m sure youd be the first to be sorry if anything was to happen to him.

KNOX. [bitterly to his wife] Youve always had some grudge against me; and nobody but yourself can understand what it is.

MRS KNOX.  I wanted a man who had that happiness within himself.  You made me think you had it; but it was nothing but being in love with me.

MRS GILBEY.  And do you blame him for that?

MRS KNOX.  I blame nobody.  But let him not think he can walk by his own light.  I tell him that if he gives up being respectable he’ll go right down to the bottom of the hill.  He has no powers inside himself to keep him steady; so let him cling to the powers outside him.

KNOX. [rising angrily] Who wants to give up being respectable?  All this for a pint of whisky that lasted a week!  How long would it have lasted Simmons, I wonder?

MRS KNOX. [gently] Oh, well, say no more, Jo.  I wont plague you about it. [He sits down].  You never did understand; and you never will.  Hardly anybody understands:  even Margaret didnt til she went to prison.  She does now; and I shall have a companion in the house after all these lonely years.

KNOX. [beginning to cry] I did all I could to make you happy.  I never said a harsh word to you.

GILBEY. [rising indignantly] What right have you to treat a man like that? an honest respectable husband? as if he were dirt under your feet?