TRANTO. There are no principles in married life.
HILDEGARDE. Oh, indeed! Well, there may not be any principles in your married life, but there most positively will be in mine, if I ever have a married life. And let me tell you that you aren't on the winning side after all—you're on the losing side.
TRANTO. How? Has your—
HILDEGARDE. Johnnie and I have had a great interview with mamma, and she's yielded. She's
abandoned the baronetcy. In half an hour from now the baronetcy will have been definitely and finally refused.
TRANTO. Great Scott!
HILDEGARDE. You're startled?
TRANTO. No! After all, I might have foreseen that you'd come out on top. The day before yesterday your modesty was making you say that your mother could eat you. I, on the contrary, insisted that you could eat your mother. Who was right? I ask: who was right? When it really comes to the point—well, you have a serious talk with your mother, and she gives in!
HILDEGARDE ( gloomily ). No! I didn't do it. I tried, and failed. Then Johnnie tried, and did it without the slightest trouble. A schoolboy! That's why I'm so upset.
TRANTO ( shaking his head ). You musn't tell me that, Miss Hilda. Of course it was you that did it.