ELSIE. It's no good, father. If wishing could kill Mrs. Metherell, she'd be dead at my feet.
JACK. Elsie!
MRS. METHERELL. Plain speaking breaks no bones. I can give as good as I get.
AUSTIN. May I speak plainly, then? Frankly, don't you think your attitude is selfish. We've all to see our children go from us, or the world would never get on. Let me appeal to you—and I think you will acknowledge that a man of my position is not accustomed to appeal to a woman of—well, you'll admit the difference between us, and the fact that I make very earnestly this petition should——
MRS. METHERELL. Yes. I'll admit the difference between us. You're ruined. I'm not.
AUSTIN (taken aback). Ruined!
MRS. METHERELL. Didn't you say so?
AUSTIN (bitterly). Yes. I'm ruined.
MRS. METHERELL. You've a family. It's a good lift to a ruined man with a family to get a daughter off his hands. That's why you've come to push her on to us. We mayn't be swells, but we can keep her, and that's more than you can do, so——
AUSTIN (to Jack). Metherell, you don't believe that, do you?