CRAIG’S WIFE
17
- authority—over the man I married. And that doesn’t necessarily imply any dishonesty of attitude toward that man, either. I have a full appreciation of Mr. Craig—he’s a very good man; but he’s a husband—a lord and master—my master. And I married to be independent.
Ethel
- Independent of your husband too, do you mean?
Mrs. Craig
- Independent of everybody. I lived with a stepmother, Ethel, for nearly twelve years, and with your mother after she was married for over five; I know what it is to be on some one else’s floor. And I married to be on my own—in every sense of the word. I haven’t entirely achieved the condition yet—but I know it can be done.
- [She turns and glances up the stairs and out through the portières, to assure herself that no one is listening.
Ethel
- I don’t understand what you mean, exactly, Aunt Harriet.
Mrs. Craig (turning to Ethel again)
- I mean that I’m simply exacting my share of a bargain. Mr. Craig wanted a wife and a home; and he has them, And he can be perfectly sure of them, because the wife that he got happens to be one of the kind that regards her husband and home as more or less ultimate conditions. And my share of the bargain was the security and protection that those conditions imply. And I have them. But, unlike Mr. Craig, I can’t be absolutely sure of them; because I know that, to a very great extent, they are at the mercy of the mood of a man.
