We may express those sweet pauses in
precious dots, which some clever person can afterwards string
together and make a pearl necklace of them.]
SYBIL. I should not ... let you say it, ... but ... you ... say it so
beautifully.
JOHN. You must have guessed.
SYBIL. I dreamed ... I feared ... but you were ... Scotch, and I
didn't know what to think.
JOHN. Do you know what first attracted me to you, Sybil? It was your
insolence. I thought, 'I'll break her insolence for her.'
SYBIL. And I thought... 'I'll break his str...ength!'
JOHN. And now your cooing voice plays round me; the softness of you,
Sybil, in your pretty clothes makes me think of young birds. [The
impediment is now insurmountable; she has to swim for it, she swims
toward him.] It is you who inspire my work.
[He thrills to find that she can be touched without breaking.]
SYBIL. I am so glad... so proud...
JOHN. And others know it, Sybil, as well as I. Only yesterday the
Comtesse said to me, 'No man could get on so fast unaided. Cherchez
la femme, Mr. Shand.'
SYBIL. Auntie said that?
JOHN. I said 'Find her yourself, Comtesse.'
SYBIL. And she?
JOHN. She said 'I have found her,' and I said in my blunt way, 'You
mean Lady Sybil,' and she went away laughing.
SYBIL. Laughing?
JOHN. I seem to amuse the woman.
[Sybil grows sad.]
SYBIL. If Mrs. Shand--It is so cruel to her.
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