Silence! You have no right to traduce them. Do you place no value upon heredity, upon high birth?
PIKE
Why, I think so much of it that I know John [pg 111] Simpson's daughter doesn't need anybody else's to help her out.
[He comes toward her, looking at her with honest admiration.]
She's fine enough and I think she's sweet enough—and I know from the way she goes for me that she's brave enough—to stand on her own feet!
ETHEL
This is beside the point; I know exactly what I want in life—
[she has been somewhat moved by his last speech, is agitated, and a little breathless]
—and I could not change now if it were otherwise. I gave Almeric my promise, it was forever, and I shall keep it.
PIKE