A WOMAN OF
ACT IV.
good though she is, fled from the room as though I were a tainted thing. She was right. I am a tainted thing. But my wrongs are my own, and I will bear them alone. I must bear them alone. What have women who have not sinned to do with me, or I with them? We do not understand each other.
[Enter HESTER behind.]
GERALD
I implore you to do what I ask you.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT
What son has ever asked of his mother to make so hideous a sacrifice? None.
GERALD
What mother has ever refused to marry the father of her own child? None.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT
Let me be the first, then. I will not do it.
GERALD
Mother, you believe in religion, and you brought me up to believe in it also. Well, surely your religion, the religion that you
164
