Miss Reed: “He’s let me wither for twenty-four hours already! But it’s nothing to me, now, how long he lets me wither. I’m perfectly satisfied to have the affair remain as it is. I am in the right, and if he comes I shall refuse to see him.”
Miss Spaulding: “Oh, no, you won’t, Ethel!”
Miss Reed: “Yes, I shall. I shall receive him very coldly. I won’t listen to any excuse from him.”
Miss Spaulding: “Oh, yes, you will, Ethel!”
Miss Reed: “No, I shall not. If he wishes me to listen he must begin by humbling himself in the dust—yes, the dust, Nettie! I won’t take anything short of it. I insist that he shall realize that I have suffered.”
Miss Spaulding: “Perhaps he has suffered too!”
Miss Spaulding: “You know that he was perfectly devoted to you.”
Miss Reed: “He never said so.”
Miss Spaulding: “Perhaps he didn’t dare.”