Clem. I have already told you. I am rooted in my decision. And I promise you that if you begin scribbling or publishing poems in which you paint your passion for me, and sing to the world the progress of our love—it's all up with our wedding, and off I go.
Marg. You threaten—you, who have had a dozen well-known affairs.
Clem. My dear, well-known or not, I didn't tell anybody. I didn't bring out a book whenever a woman abandoned herself on my breast, so that any Tom, Dick or Harry could buy it for a gulden and a half. There's the rub. I know there are people who thrive by it, but, as for me, I find it extremely coarse. It's more degrading to me than if you were to pose as a Greek goddess in flesh-colored tights at Ronacher's. A Greek statue like that doesn't say "Mew." But a writer who makes copy of everything goes beyond the merely humorous.
Marg. [nervously]. Dearest, you forget that the poet does not always tell the truth.
Clem. And suppose he only vaporizes. Does that make it any better?
Marg. It isn't called vaporizing; it's "distillation."
Clem. What sort of an expression is that?
Marg. We disclose things we never experience, things we dreamed—plainly invented.
Clem. Don't say "we" any more, Margaret. Thank goodness, that is past.
Marg. Who knows?