MRS. CULVER ( very sweetly ), Arthur, I was wrong.
CULVER ( startled ). Good God! (Mrs. Culver bends down to examine the upholstery of a chair . Culver gives a gesture, first of triumph, and then of apprehension .)
MRS. CULVER ( looking straight at him ). I say I was wrong.
CULVER ( lightly, but uneasily ). Oh no! Oh no!
MRS. CULVER. Of course I don't mean wrong in my arguments about the title. Not for a moment. I mean I was wrong not to sacrifice my own point of view. I'm only a woman, and it's the woman's place to submit. So I do submit. Naturally I shall always be a true wife to you, but—
CULVER. Now child, don't begin to talk like that. I don't mind reading novels, but I won't have raw lumps of them thrown at me.
MRS. CULVER ( with a gentle smile ), I must talk like this. I shall do everything I can to make you comfortable, and I hope nobody, and especially not the poor children, will notice any difference in our relations.
CULVER ( advancing, with a sort of menace ). But?
MRS. CULVER. But things can never be the same again.
CULVER. I knew the confounded phrase was coming. I knew it. I've read it scores of times. ( Picking up the vase .) Hermione, if you continue in that strain, I will dash this vase into a thousand fragments.