SERGIUS.
No; but—
RAINA.
(interrupting). Do you deny that you were making love to her when she told you?
SERGIUS.
No; but I tell you—
RAINA.
(cutting him short contemptuously). It is unnecessary to tell us anything more. That is quite enough for us. (She turns her back on him and sweeps majestically back to the window.)
BLUNTSCHLI.
(quietly, as Sergius, in an agony of mortification, sinks on the ottoman, clutching his averted head between his fists). I told you you were getting the worst of it, Saranoff.
SERGIUS.
Tiger cat!
RAINA.
(running excitedly to Bluntschli). You hear this man calling me names, Captain Bluntschli?
BLUNTSCHLI.
What else can he do, dear lady? He must defend himself somehow. Come (very persuasively), don’t quarrel. What good does it do? (Raina, with a gasp, sits down on the ottoman, and after a vain effort to look vexedly at Bluntschli, she falls a victim to her sense of humor, and is attacked with a disposition to laugh.)
SERGIUS.
Engaged to Nicola! (He rises.) Ha! ha! (Going to the stove and standing with his back to it.) Ah, well, Bluntschli, you are right to take this huge imposture of a world coolly.
RAINA.
(to Bluntschli with an intuitive guess at his state of mind). I daresay you think us a couple of grown up babies, don’t you?