“That’s all off.”
“Betty! Your engagement to him?”
“So far as there ever was any.”
“Is it really off? Or have you only quarreled?”
“Oh, no. I can’t imagine myself quarreling with Tertius. He’s too impersonal. For the same reason, and others, I can’t see myself marrying him.”
“But you must have considered it, for a time.”
“Not very profoundly. I don’t want to marry a newspaper. Particularly such a newspaper as The Patriot. For that matter, I don’t want to marry anybody, and I won’t!”
“That being disposed of, what’s the matter with The Patriot? It’s been treating you with distinguished courtesy ever since Marrineal took over charge.”
“It has. That’s part of his newspaperishness.”
“From our review of your new play I judge that it was written by the shade of Shakespeare in collaboration with the ghost of Molière, and that your acting in it combines all the genius of Rachel, Kean, Booth, Mrs. Siddons, and the Divine Sarah.”