[And wants her lips again.

Jean

[giving herself to him, head sinks upon his shoulder]

Then, oh, Rex, love me and be nice to me and—and take me away from all this!

[She covers her face with her hands and sobs. He pats her tenderly, with a manly look on his face.

Lucy comes up from the garden. She is dressed in white with a garden hat, a garden basket filled with flowers in one hand, long scissors in the other. She is John's wife, the mistress of the house, sister-in-law to Jean; conspicuously a "sweet" woman, affectedly so, a contrast with Jean's more modern, less delicate charm. Jean is frank and brave, Lucy indirect and timid, pretty but fading, forty but fighting it.

Jean

[laughing]

It's all right, Lucy—we're engaged!

Lucy