If Only etc. Part 28

ROSALINE.

What do you think of me?

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

I think you a charming young lady.

ROSALINE.

Then what is the matter?

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Well, I thought you were somebody else, that is all. So you are Rosaline.

ROSALINE.

You keep telling me I am Rosaline--I know I am. The question is how do I do?

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

How do you do?

ROSALINE.

You misunderstand me. The question is how do I suit you?

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Quite so--you bring me to the point. You suit me entirely. Mr. Addison perhaps explained to you the subject of my picture?

ROSALINE.

"Susannah." Susannah is a very ugly name--.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

But she will be a very pretty girl, won't she?

ROSALINE.

Oh, go away with you.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Humour, only my humour! You musn't think any familiarity was intended.

I am not that sort of man at all.

ROSALINE.

No?

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Not a bit. As I told you out of the window, I'm married.

ROSALINE.

Well, I am sorry to hear it.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Now you are flattering me--now _I_ must say, "go away with you."

ROSALINE.

I am sorry to hear it because I prefer sitting to single artists. Wives sometimes make rumpuses.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Oh, you have found that?

ROSALINE.

I have indeed. I shall never forget one of my experiences as long as I live.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Really? You interest me.

ROSALINE _(sentimentally)_.

I loved a man with all my soul, and _he_ loved _me_. He married! No, you must not blame him for it--he was weak, and the temptation came.

"To err is human,"--he married. Oh, my heart! (_She presses her hand to her side_.) Forgive me while I shed a tear.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Shed two.

ROSALINE.

I forgave him; I struggled to subdue the rage within me. I forgave him, and went to see him again. I had conquered my scorn--my better nature had triumphed--I went to him with all the old tenderness that I had lavished on him in the days gone by. He was startled, even cold, but still I feel I should have won him back to me had not something happened.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Something so often happens. It is an aggravating way of something.

ROSALINE.