MELISANDE (pathetically). Oh, don't! (She hides her face in them.)
GERVASE. Dear hands. . . . May I kiss your lips, Melisande? (She says nothing. He comes closer to her) Melisande!
(He is about to put his arms round her, but she breaks away from him.)
MELISANDE. Oh, don't, don't! What's the good of pretending? It was only pretence this morning—what's the good of going on with it? I thought you were so different from other men, but you're just the same, just the same. You talk about the things they talk about, you wear the clothes they wear. You were my true knight, my fairy Prince, this morning, and this afternoon you come down dressed like that (she waves her hand at it) and tell me that you are on the Stock Exchange! Oh, can't you see what you've done? All the beautiful world that I had built up for you and me—shattered, shattered.
GERVASE (going to her). Melisande!
MELISANDE. No, no!
GERVASE (stopping). All right.
MELISANDE (recovering herself). Please go.
GERVASE (with a smile). Well, that's not quite fair, you know.
MELISANDE. What do you mean?