HUSBAND. What does that mean?
ROSE. Can't I help you with something, Mr. Axel? Won't you let me brush your hat?
[She picks up his hat and begins to brush it.
HUSBAND. No, I can't let you do that, Miss Rose.
[He tries to take the hat away from her.
ROSE. Let me alone! [She puts her fingers into the hole on her sleeve and tears it open] There, now! You tore my dress!
HUSBAND. You are so peculiar to-day, Miss Rose, and I think your restiveness is troubling your mother.
ROSE. Well, what do I care? I am glad if it troubles her, although I suppose that will hurt you. But I don't care any more for you than I care for the cat in the kitchen or the rats in the cellar. And if I were your wife, I should despise you, and go so far away that you could never find me again!—You should be ashamed of kissing another woman! Shame on you!
HUSBAND. Oh, you saw me kissing your mother's hand, did you? Then I must tell you that it was nothing but a final greeting from your father, whom I met abroad after you had seen him for the last time. And I have a greeting for you, too....
He goes to ROSE and puts his hands about her head in order to kiss her brow, but ROSE throws her head back so that her lips meet his. At that moment the WIFE appears on the veranda, shrinks back at what she sees and disappears again.