LADY TORMINSTER. Why no—of course not. I knew you were going to-morrow.
SIR GEOFFREY. How?
LADY TORMINSTER. Oh, never mind how! I knew. And I suspected you would be sitting up here to-night. So I came down, hoping to find you. I wanted this talk with you. And I extracted your confession—as though it had been a tooth.
SIR GEOFFREY. And why?
LADY TORMINSTER. Why? Because it will be something to think of, in the dull days ahead. Because I knew that you loved me, and wanted to be told. Because your life lies before you, and mine is ended. Because I love you, and insisted that you should know. You leave me now, and I have no illusions. Paolo and Francesca are merely a poet's dream. You will marry—of course you will marry—but this moment, at least, has been mine.
SIR GEOFFREY. [Stretching out yearning hands.] This moment, and every moment, in past and future!
LADY TORMINSTER. Ah, the future! Strange little syllables that hide so much! I can see you, introducing your wife to me, a little shyly—I can see myself, shaking hands with her—and with you…. My boy is seven already—time travels fast…. But it's good to know that you really have loved me, all these years….
SIR GEOFFREY. By day and by night—you, and only you!
LADY TORMINSTER. And I have loved you—ah, yes, I have loved you!… And, having said this to each other, we will not meet again—till you bring me your wife.
SIR GEOFFREY. Ah—then!