Page:The Return of the Soldier (Van Druten).djvu/55

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ACT II

woman he doesn’t know. At least you’ve been spared that, Kitty.

Kitty (bitterly) : Thank you. That gives me enormous consolation. Are you by any chance pitying her?

Jenny : Yes . . . I’m afraid I am. I can so picture their meeting, and his eyes, when he sees . . . and then her face. It’s cruel, Kitty. Cruel to him, too. It’s going to rob him even of his dreams . . . his last dream.

Kitty (stonily) : And me?

Jenny : Kitty, what can I say?

Kitty : Last night . . . is that what the rest of my life’s to be? Chris’s tact and politeness . . . those silences . . . all this blankness between us? And Chris a stranger, with the body I knew and a mind I’ve never known. (With a sudden ray of hope.) Jenny . . . if it’s going to be as you say . . . that when he sees her he’ll be . . . revolted . . . then do you think she’ll come?

Jenny : Yes. She’ll come.

Kitty : But won’t she realise . . . what it will mean? Will she dare to face him . . . knowing that? I shouldn’t.

Jenny : Not if you loved him?

Kitty : What do you mean?

Jenny : She loves him.

Kitty : No!

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