FANNY
Don’t swear, dear. You’re above it. But as for the check: I understand and I love you the more for it.
THE DEVIL (shouting louder)
Love me the more? By Saturn! this is too much—this passes all endurance—
FANNY
You’re angry because I’ve discovered your secret. Because you know now that I know that no matter how much you try to make your work come first, you can’t.
THE DEVIL (swearing wildly)
Oh, Jupiter! Oh, the Pleiades! Oh, the Milky Way, the Crab, and the Gemini!—Where under the light of the sun or in the bowels of the earth—in what corner of a lunatic asylum did you find that colossal, preposterous and utterly insane hallucination of a disordered brain?
FANNY
In your heart, dear—in your heart. This morning I made you give up work that was dearer to you than life. You promised. Your better nature made you break that promise. Then I came again, tempting you; threatening to leave you forever. Your heart betrayed you again. And—when I was gone—you loathed yourself for your weakness.