)
GERVASE (gently). Princess! (She hears; her hand closes and tightens;
but she says nothing.) Princess!
(With an effort she controls herself, turns round and speaks coldly)
MELISANDE. Please don't call me by that ridiculous name.
GERVASE. Melisande!
MELISANDE. Nor by that one.
GERVASE. Miss Knowle.
MELISANDE. Yes? What do you want, Mr. Mallory?
GERVASE. I want to marry you.
MELISANDE (taken by surprise). Oh! . . . How dare you!
GERVASE. But I told you this morning.
MELISANDE. I think you had better leave this morning out of it.
GERVASE. But if I leave this morning out of it, then I have only just
met you.
MELISANDE. That is what I would prefer.
GERVASE. Oh! . . . Then if I have only just met you, perhaps I oughtn't
to have said straight off that I want to marry you.
MELISANDE. It is unusual.
GERVASE. Yes. But not unusual to _want_ to marry you.
MELISANDE. I am not interested in your wants.
GERVASE. Oh! (Gently) I'm sorry that we've got to forget about this
morning. (Going closer to her) Is it so easy to forget, Melisande?
MELISANDE. Very easy for you, I should think.
GERVASE. But not for you?
MELISANDE (bitterly). You dress up and amuse yourself, and then laugh
and go back to your ordinary life again--you don't want to remember
_that_, do you, every time you do it?
GERVASE.
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