18
CRAIG’S WIFE
- (She smiles knowingly) And I suppose I’m too practical-minded to accept that as a sufficient guarantee of their permanence. So I must secure their permanence for myself.
Ethel
- How?
Mrs. Craig
- By securing into my own hands the control of the man upon which they are founded.
Ethel
- How are you ever going to do a thing like that, Aunt Harriet?
Mrs. Craig
- Haven’t you ever made Mr. Fredericks do something you wanted him to do?
Ethel
- Yes, but I always told him that I wanted him to do it.
Mrs. Craig (half-sitting on the arm of the big chair)
- But there are certain things that, men can’t be told, Ethel; they don’t understand them; particularly romantic men; and Mr. Craig is inveterately idealistic.
Ethel
- But, supposing he were to find out sometime?
Mrs. Craig
- Find out what?
Ethel
- What you’ve just been telling me—that you wanted to control him.
Mrs. Craig
- One never comprehends, dear, what it is not in one’s nature to comprehend. And even if it were possible, what about it? It’s such an absolutely unprovable
