That's just what I said you'd do. Just what you must not do! Your work is needed by the world.
Ernest
[wooing]
You are my world and I need you.... But there is no love without marriage, no marriage without money.... We can take it or leave it. Can we leave it? No! I can't—you can't! Come! [She steps back slowly.] Why should we sacrifice the best! Come!
Helen
So this is what marriage means! Then I cannot marry you, Ernest!
Ernest
You cannot do without me, Helen! [Holds out his arms.] Come! You have been in my arms once. You and I can never forget that now. We can never go back now. It's all—or nothing now. Come! [She is struggling against her passion. He stands still, with arms held out.] I shall not woo you against your will, but you are coming to me! Because, by all the powers of earth and heaven, you are mine and I am yours! Come!
[Like a homing pigeon she darts into his arms with a gasp of joy. A rapturous embrace in silence with the moonlight streaming down upon them. The music has stopped.
John, dressed for dinner, strolls out upon the terrace. He stops abruptly upon discovering them. The lovers are too absorbed to be aware of his presence.