Why Marry? Part 68

HELEN

[_covering his lips with her hand_]

Sssh--I can't stand it--I was perfectly horrid to you. And you were doing it all for my sake. [_Laughing and crying._] You dear old thing--I knew it all the time.

[_They seem about to embrace._

JUDGE

[_shaking with laughter_]

Was there ever in the world anything like it!... Well, children, see here. He's willing to lie for your sake. She's willing to die for your sake. Now, why not just split the difference and have a civil ceremony for _our_ sake.

THEODORE

No, they will marry for a better reason. Think of the _sin_ of it! [_To HELEN._] Have you no sense of sin?

JUDGE

If not, think of the humor of it! Have you no sense of humor?

HELEN

[_still drying eyes and smiling to JUDGE_]

Not a sc.r.a.p. Neither has Ernest. Have you, dear?

ERNEST

I _hope_ not--judging from those who always say they have.

THEODORE

[_solemnly_]

Helen, look at Ernest--Ernest look at Helen. [_The lovers do so._] Look into each other's very souls!... You know, you _must_ know, that in the eyes of G.o.d this thing would be a sin, a heinous sin.

[_The lovers gaze deep into each other's eyes in silence._

ERNEST

[_tremulous from the emotion he has just been through_]

The glory and the gladness I see in this woman's eyes a sin? Her trust in me, my wors.h.i.+p of her, our new-found belief in a future life, our greater usefulness together in this--bah! don't talk to me about sin!

Such women cannot sin--they love.

JOHN

[_tired out_]

Oh, you can talk all night, but this is a practical world. How long could you keep your job in the inst.i.tute? Then how'll you live! Private practice? No respectable home will let you inside the door.

ERNEST

I've seen the inside of respectable homes. I want no more. [_Taking from his pocket a piece of paper._] This morning I came to ask for your sister's hand in marriage. Your manners did not please me. So I cabled over to Metchnikoff. [_Hands cablegram to JOHN._] His answer. Positions await us both at the Pasteur Inst.i.tute in Paris. That luxurious suite on to-morrow's steamer still waits in my name.

THEODORE

Ernest! Stop! Think! This woman's soul is in your hands.

[_ERNEST seems to hesitate. HELEN crosses to him. JUDGE seizes JOHN, whispers, and shoves him across._

JOHN

Doctor Hamilton! I apologize!... You're a man of the world. You know what this means--she doesn't. She is in your power--for G.o.d's sake go to Paris without her.

[_JOHN tries to lead HELEN away from ERNEST. She shudders at JOHN'S masterful touch and clings to her lover._

ERNEST

And leave her here in _your_ power? Never again! You've forced her out of her work--you'd force her into legalized prost.i.tution, if you could, like her innocent little sister. [_s.n.a.t.c.hes HELEN away from JOHN._] No, married or not, she sails with me in the morning. That's final.

[_The lovers turn away together._

JUDGE

Where are you going?

HELEN

To ask Marie to pack my trunk.