FANNY
The duties of a wife—
MRS. FELIX
Don’t hide behind phrases.
FANNY
If you don’t know, mother, it’s too late for you to learn.
MRS. FELIX
Well, I’ll tell you what my duties as a wife were: spending more than my husband could get decently; making him overwork to pay my extravagances; keeping him until four in the morning at silly affairs, knowing he must work while I slept it off; flirting with every idle attractive man I met, letting him think I was a fragile flower plucked by a hand of a savage who could not appreciate my fairy fragrance! Those—and neglecting my one child until she grew up to be an encyclopædia of all a woman should not be—those were my wifely duties!
FANNY
Mother! You are shocking everybody!