Love's Usuries

by Louis Creswicke

Miss Hunch (severely). Let me beg silence while the oath is taken.

Chorus of the "Celibates" (with clasped hands). We solemnly swear that, however pressed to marry, we will refuse.

Mrs Clare Graham (pulling Dora to her side). Dora, I'm disgusted with you. Only yesterday you gave my brother a book with an inscription.

Dora. Well?

Mrs Clare Graham. I read it—there was something about "Pure romance of love, Idyllic and ideal as could be, All policy and prudence far above."

Dora. I'm not ashamed of it. Why shouldn't our love be idyllic and ideal? Why should wedlock of soul mean padlock of individual?

Mrs Clare Graham (angrily). Why, indeed? But don't talk against policy and prudence. Your theory seems the quintessence of both!

Scene II.—Mrs Graham's Drawing-Room.

(Charlie Cheyne and his sister Mrs Clare Graham are seated.)