CAROLINE. The wretchedness of living alone.
JULIE. I’m not afraid. I shall work so hard that I shall have no time for moping.
CAROLINE. You will work. [She sighs]. It isn’t easy for a woman who is alone to earn her living.
JULIE. Nonsense.
CAROLINE. I know what I’m talking about. Sometimes when I take my work to the shop they refuse it with an insolent contempt they would never dare to show to a man. It’s true. For I am doubly unprotected since I am a woman and I need work.
JULIE. But in your own room, at least, you are free.
CAROLINE. Free! [With a mirthless laugh]. If that is freedom, give me slavery.
JULIE. I shall have friends.
CAROLINE. Do you think so? The women will have nothing to do with you because you’ll be a wife living apart from her husband, and because you will be dull. And the men? What will people say if they visit you?
JULIE. Little I care what people will say.