I must insist that you tell me frankly the reason.
Mrs. Frowde
You insist?
Miss Stannard
Yes.
Mrs. Frowde
(Bluntly)
There has been too much talk about you. Surely you must have realized your name is on every tongue. You know the world: women can’t do what you have done. You must have been mad—and with a married man at that!
(Patricia eyes her keenly. Miss Stannard tosses her head defiantly; but as Mrs. Frowde eyes her piercingly she seems to lose all her control, begins to tremble, totters, clutching the back of a chair and finally sinks with an hysterical sob upon the sofa, burying her face in her hands. Her vanity-case rattles to the floor. Patricia rises instinctively to go to her but sits again as Mrs. Frowde motions her back and approaches Miss Stannard less harshly.)