Mrs. G. Barter your self-respect! What do you mean?
Kate. I mean sell myself for the sake of being supported in idleness.
Alice (languidly fanning herself). The idea of a lady actually wanting to work!
Kate. I cannot live on husks, Alice.
Mrs. G. I cannot understand why you should be so opposed to marriage.
Kate. You mistake me very much if you think I am. Oh, no! I know well that the deepest and truest happiness in life is in love and marriage. It is against making marriage a trade, degrading it to a means of support, that I protest, with all my soul! (Rises.)
Alice. A trade! How absurd! Would you marry a poor man for love?
Kate. Without an instant's hesitation, and I would never be a dependent burden on him! Oh! mother, can you not see how much of the misery in the world is caused by the way girls are educated, in helpless dependence, often obliged to sell themselves to the first man who offers, because they cannot support themselves? Do not condemn me to such a fate. Give me a chance to be independent of all such considerations in my choice of a husband.
Mrs. G. (with impatient gesture). Nonsense. You are crazy.
Alice. The best thing you can do, Kate, is to set your cap for Dr. Endicott.