Part 39 (1/2)

PAULA.

[_Suspiciously._] Oh! [_Letting_ ELLEAN'S _hand fall._] Is this lady going to take you up in place of Mrs. Cortelyon?

ELLEAN.

No, no. Her brother is staying with her--_was_ staying with her. Her brother----

[_Breaking off in confusion._

PAULA.

Well?

ELLEAN.

[_Almost inaudibly._] Paula----

[_She rises and walks away,_ PAULA _following her._

PAULA.

Ellean! [_Taking hold of her._] You're not in love!

[ELLEAN _looks at_ PAULA _appealingly._

PAULA.

Oh! _You_ in love! You! Oh, this is why you've come home! Of course, you can make friends with me now! You'll leave us for good soon, I suppose; so it doesn't much matter being civil to me for a little while!

ELLEAN.

Oh, Paula!

PAULA.

Why, how you have deceived us--all of us! We've taken you for a cold-blooded little saint. The fools you've made of us! Saint Ellean! Saint Ellean!

ELLEAN.

Ah, I might have known you'd only mock me!

PAULA.

[_Her tone changing._] Eh?

ELLEAN.

I--I can't talk to you. [_Sitting on the settee._] You do nothing else but mock and sneer, nothing else.

PAULA.

Ellean dear! Ellean! I didn't mean it. I'm so horribly jealous, it's a sort of curse on me. [_Kneeling beside_ ELLEAN _and embracing her._] My tongue runs away with me. I'm going to alter, I swear I am. I've made some good resolutions, and, as G.o.d's above me, I'll keep them! If you are in love, if you do ever marry, that's no reason why we shouldn't be fond of each other. Come, you've kissed me of your own accord--you can't take it back. Now we're friends again, aren't we? Ellean dear! I want to know everything, everything. Ellean dear, Ellean!