Lady Emily: Because one’s roots go deeper than one thinks. You find a lot of odd principles and inhibitions lying about at the bottom of the sea. If the psychoanalysts hadn’t made the term ridiculous I should talk of the subconscious.
Lord William: Did I hear you use the word subconscious, Emily?
Lady Emily: You did, William.
Lord William: It has played no part in your life.
Lady Emily: It has played the same part in my life that it plays in other people’s. It has been the refuge of unwelcome guests.
Lord William (calling): Ann. Ann! There is something the matter with Emily to-night. She has become a moralist. Everyone is very odd. Selina is silent, Tim is restless, Ninian is absent-minded, and Mrs. Martineau is sunny. Why the devil should they run away from themselves like that? By the way, Ann, what are you?
Ann (smiling): I am happy.
Molyneux: Tell us, Ann, is virtue really its own reward? We should so like to know. We need cheering up.
[Enter Thompson.