_Matt._ I think you ought to hear what Mrs. Sturgess has to say----

_Renie._ [_Through her tears._] What would be the use? With such a nature as his he could never begin to understand the loyal and exalted devotion which Captain Wentworth feels for me! No, all my life I have been misunderstood, misjudged, condemned! Let it be so till the end!

Dolly, come and help me pack!

[_Exit_. MATT _goes up to table and takes up proofs of_ PROFESSOR'S _book and looks through them._

_Dolly._ You're really too severe with poor Renie----

_Prof._ I am not severe. I simply register the inevitable sentence of the husband upon the wife who misconducts herself!

_Dolly._ Misconducts herself! She has merely had a little harmless flirtation----

_Prof._ In my wife a flirtation of this character [_pointing to letter in his hand_] const.i.tutes grave misconduct.

_Dolly._ But that's perfectly ridiculous! Why it might happen to any woman! Dad, explain to him----

_Matt._ Professor, you're taking altogether a wrong view of this. Now this case you were pointing out to me in your own book [_pointing to proofs_]--Number forty-nine, Mrs. Copway. Remarkably handsome woman too!--[_reading_] "The injustice and cruelty of condemning this poor lady must be apparent to all." My dear Professor, before publishing this book you'll have to modify your theory.

_Prof._ I cannot modify my theory. I have spent ten years in collecting facts which prove it.

_Matt._ Then, pardon me, you must really look over Mrs. Sturgess's little indiscretion.

_Prof._ That is equally impossible----

_Matt._ But you say that her action in receiving my nephew's letter was entirely due to the activity of certain atoms in the gray matter of her brain.

_Prof._ Undoubtedly that is so.

_Dolly._ Very well then, if her gray matter keeps on working wrong, what's the use of blaming her? You say yourself there's no such thing as free will----

_Prof._ Precisely, but I have always allowed that in the present low moral and intellectual condition of the herd of mankind, free will is a plausible working hypothesis.

_Dolly._ But it doesn't work! Free will won't work at all! Look at my own case! Do you suppose I should go on all my life having bills if I could help myself? [_Catching_ MATT'S _eye, who looks at her gravely and holds up his finger._] Never mind my bills! Do make him see how wrong and absurd it is to punish poor Renie when there's no such thing as free will!

_Matt._ Dolly's right! She's only saying what you have so admirably laid down here. My dear Professor, you cannot possibly publish this book!

_Prof._ But it has been announced! I must publish it.

_Matt._ You cannot. Read that. [_Giving the_ PROFESSOR _the book and pointing out pa.s.sage._] Surely after that you cannot condemn Mrs.

Sturgess.

_Prof._ [_Taking book, glancing at the pa.s.sage._] Really, it's most annoying when one's own wife upsets----

_Matt._ Oh! they're always making hay of our theories one way or the other.

_Prof._ Of course, if one presses the matter home to first principles----

_Dolly._ Yes! Yes! Well, why not act on your own first principles! You ought to be very sorry for poor Renie, considering all she has suffered.

_Prof._ Suffered?

_Dolly._ Yes, poor dear! You don't know what an awful struggle she has gone through between this unfortunate flirtation and her admiration for you.

_Prof._ Her admiration for me!

_Dolly._ Yes! She always speaks of you as her great protagonist of science.

_Prof._ [_Mollified._] Does she? Does she?

_Dolly._ Yes. If I were you I should go upstairs, and be very sweet to her, and above all don't reproach her. We women can endure anything except reproaches----

_Prof._ [_Looking at his proofs._] I must publish my book. And after all, as you say, it is useless to blame them for acting according to the----

_Matt._ The dictates of their gray matter when, bless them, they can't help themselves. My dear Professor, instead of condemning your wife you ought to be condoling with her, and doing all you can to get her gray matter into a healthy condition.

_Prof._ I will hear what she has to say.

_Dolly._ No. Go straight to her and forgive her, and then I'm sure her gray matter will soon be all right. And what a triumph that will be for you!

_Prof._ It does offer a way out of the difficulty. In any case I must publish my book. [_Exit._

_Dolly._ Dad, I won't have her here next Christmas.

_Matt._ No, my dear, I wouldn't.

_Dolly._ That wretched Lucas!

_Matt._ What is to be done with him?

_Dolly._ Pack him off! Pack him off at once!

[LUCAS _cautiously looks in from upper conservatory door._

_Lucas._ I say, how's the old bird seem to take it?

_Dolly._ Old bird!

_Lucas._ He isn't going to make a shindy over a trifle like this?

_Dolly._ Trifle! He's threatening to divorce her and expose you!

_Lucas._ You don't say so. I'm awfully sorry!

_Dolly._ Sorry!

_Lucas._ I am, indeed! And any reparation I can make----

_Dolly._ Reparation?!